today I'm gonna do a position review from some photographs that somebody sent
in to me. So, let's get started. Hi there my name is Laura and welcome to another
video. If it's your first time here thank you so much for being here really
appreciate it! and if you'd like to get some ideas on
how to improve your riding and training, like to win more ribbons at your next
horse show are generally like other horse you related stuff then remember to
subscribe hit the bell icon so you don't miss anything.
so we've got some lovely photos somebody sent in and we're going to do a position
review so let's get right to the computer and get started so we have
three lovely photos here. Here's the photo number one you see she's on a
Pinto horse.Looks like she's in a horse show because she's got a number on the
back. We have another photo here the final photo three, she's on a different
horse it looks like she's trotting and again in a horse show. It's so fun to see
everybody when they're at their horse show really great that you're all going into
these training shows so you get experience going into horse shows. It's really
important that you start out and get into the horse show ring get your horse
used to it get yourself used to being under a little bit of stress in the
horse show it's it's a little bit different environment than going around
in your lesson or your own training program so going to horse shows it's a
really great way to get yourself under that stressful situation of a horse show
GREAT JOB. First thing I noticed was wow you're really looking up I really like
the way that you're looking up and looking up is so important because it
gets your whole body in the correct position not only can you see what's
going on if you're going over jumps but the next jump is but also it helps to
keep your body aligned. You look at each one of these photographs and you can see
that yeah, you know what? She's looking up in each and every photograph. So that's a
great habit that you haveNext thing we noticed it's a lower leg position lower
leg position with your heels down you can see in this photograph that, you know
what? She does have her heels down that's the overall first impression head up-
eyes up looking where you're going weight come down into your heels but if you look at
a position generally, overall, you can see that we'd like to see a straight line
ear - shoulder - hip - heel and this is not being done you can see that in this
photograph that there is a straight line ear shoulder hip but our heel is out in
front of her usually when the heel so in front of you like that we call that a
chair seat and before you can correct the chair seat you have to make sure
that one the saddle fits you properly and to that the saddle fits the horse
properly sometimes saddles are a little bit down near the back or the cantle of
the saddle and that puts you automatically in a chair position so
check to make sure that the saddle fits you properly and it fits your horse
properly. The seat, the middle of the saddle, should be the lowest part not the
back or the near the cantle of the saddle. To help with the chair seat after
you've decided whether or not the saddle fits properly, you can put your seat
closer to the front of the saddle and that's what we'd like to see here is
that your seat should be more to the front of the saddle
rather than near the back or the cantle of the saddle. Right now you can see in
this photo that your knee caps the bones are pointing forward and we'd like to
see your knee and your front of your thigh stretching down more so that your
kneecap or the front of your knee is pointing more downward rather than
forward first thing I would just suggest is to push your heels down more and not
push your heels down & forward. Most people when they think of pushing their
heels down they push their heels down and forward to the horses elbows. Think
of pushing your heels down and stretching your whole thigh down. Allow your
knee to come down more and think of stretching the top of your thigh and
pointing your kneecap, or knee bone, down to the ground will help get your lower
leg underneath you more. So, I drew a little line on this photograph here
where you can see where I'd like to see your kneecap and if you look at this the
green line there it was from your hip to your knee to your ankle and
stretches your leg down and think of pushing your kneecap down and stretching
the weight down into your heels rather than forcing- you're gripping with your
knees and your thighs on the top of the horse the red lines here is a straight
line from the top of your thigh and extending out and you can see where
your kneecap would be pointing straight ahead and then the green line is the
extension of your thigh is if you were in the correct position with your leg
down and around the horse and you can see that the green lines pointing more
down towards the ground rather than straight out. What I did was I took this
picture and I just isolated you from the top of the horse so you could see if you
looked like you were in balance even though the horse wasn't underneath you
so think of taking the horse out from underneath you would you land in balance
on the ground let's take a look
so if you saw this person standing do you think that they would be able to
keep standing like that and what does this person have to do to remain in
balance even though she's not on a horse so you put your back on that horse take
you off the horse put you on the horse again you see that the horse is keeping
you from falling down and if you think about that when you're riding think that
you know someone took that horse up from underneath you would you be able to be
in balance with yourself on the ground in this pic... in this what do you think
yes or no? I think no! I think that she would fall directly onto her bum so to
help with that think of stretching your leg down keeping your body upright your
body appears to be in pretty good balance it's just that your leg is stuck
out in front of you you have a chair position going on there so you need to
keep yourself in balance with the horse this photograph shows that yeah your
back is straight and flat but it's almost hyper-extended and concave you'd
like to see it's straighter and when you concave your back that way it puts your
hips out of balance so that your hips are but going back against the horse but
we'd like to see is like to see that your hips being in line with the horse
you are twisting your upper body so if you take a good look at this photograph
it looks like your right shoulder is back further than your left shoulder
slightly so when you're riding keep your shoulders square with the horses
shoulder so you can stay in balance with your horse as well looks like you have a
lovely soft arm and like the way your arm hangs down from your shoulder to
your elbow and then your elbows bent softly with a straight line elbow hand
horse's mouth that's very nice and soft looks like your horse has a pack more on
excellent checking the other photographs that you seen it looks like your arm is
consistently soft hanging naturally down from your shoulders to your elbows and
then bending naturally at your elbows towards the horse's mouth with a soft
hand and here's a little closer look at your hand position your hands are trying
to be soft by keeping your hand your fingers open around the reins even
though your fingers are secured around the reins that can't your hands can be
soft even though they are secured around the reins keep your fingers close so you
can have the steady even elastic contact with the horse's mouth or in this case
the hackmore so where are some exercises that you can
do to help with your riding position do you have any favorite exercises that you
like to do to help with your riding position what's your favorite exercise
put it in the comments below make sure that your saddle fits you properly and
your saddle fits the horse properly looks like you're forcing yourself to
the back of the saddle good exercise to prevent that from happening is to
ride without stirrups Jersey it's a very insecure position and often times riders
will fall back into the cell because they lose their balance or they even
hold onto the horse's mouth to keep their balance from falling backwards so
keeping your leg underneath you is very important to keep yourself stable and
keep yourself in balance exercises you can do number one is riding your two
points and really stretch your legs down pointing your kneecaps towards the
ground this kind of opens up your hip angle and lets the weight go down and
around the horse another good exercise riding without stirrups and doing some
exercises at the walk and at the halt and at the trot
if you'd like to have your own position review done send me an email
ThistleRidge at hotmail.com my name is Laura and if you like to have some ideas
on how to improve your riding and training win more ribbons at your next
horsee show or generally like other horsey related stuff then watch these
videos there's lots more to come. Bye now ... Now, go use this stuff, go hug your horse
go use this stuff see ya