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hello everyone i'm amelia today we are talking about your elbows and your elbows are a very
important part of your rider position and also a very difficult part to master how to
use them correctly one time i was having a lesson from my husband and he told me that
i looked like i was rowing a boat because i was just pulling on my horse so bottom line is you
don't want to look like you're rowing a boat when you're riding your horse but your elbows do need
to move a little bit to follow the motion of your horse particularly at the walk and at the canner
so we're going to focus on those two gates in this video be sure to give me a thumbs up subscribe
and i post a new video every single wednesday so i really hope that these videos help you
because that's what it's all all about for me okay so starting out at the walk the first thing
is that you when you first get on your horse and you start walking you want to always focus on the
rhythm so the walk is a four beat rhythm so if i count the footfalls it's one two three four one
two three four one two three four one two three four and you want your horse to be walking with
activity and purpose so you don't want your horse to be like like super slow like this like just
like you're going to a funeral like barely moving each foot you really want i always say that you
want your horse to be walking like a runway model like where they're swinging their hips
and really moving through their body and through their top line you want your horse to be walking
like they walk on the way home from a trail ride or on the way back to the barn
after a ride now as i'm walking if i just let her have her head you see how as she's walking
here there's a little bit of a nod to her head and you see how her mane just goes a little bit
up and down just while she's walking free here so when i take up the reins in order to keep the
activity and the flow of her walk i need to allow a little bit this motion to continue in her body
so as i take up the reins here i'm using a little bit of leg just to encourage her to keep walking
because i want to keep the exact same tempo and rhythm i'm keep taking a little contact
with her mouth but i'm following so you see how every time a front foot goes forward my hands go
forward forward forward forward forward forward forward forward so within this following motion
like let's say that she's a little bit too above the bit like she's a little bit too high in her
neck first i get a steady contact i'm following the motion now i'm just gonna use my fingers a
little bit like a little bit left left right left right to get her to come just a little bit rounder
but i'm still following the motion so every time a front leg goes forward my hands are going forward
forward forward forward forward i can bend her a little bit to the right but i'm still always
following that motion through my elbows and also through my whole body so through my hips
now let me show you if i'm following here and all of a sudden i lock my elbows you see what
happens she immediately stops because i've just locked up on her good girl so that's why it's
really important the other thing that happens if your horse doesn't stop but you stop following
the motion is you get a bit of this going where you pull give pull get pull give pull give pull
give so you see how basically because i'm not following the motion of her head the reins are
kind of coming tight and slack and tight and slack and tight and slack and tight and slack so this is
not nice for your horse because remember that you have a piece of metal across their tongue and that
is a sensitive area so it's really important that you find this following motion at the walk and
then within this motion that you suffer to get your horse a little bit rounder this is like a
really hard thing to do finding this following motion through your elbows i have a hard time
particularly with my left arm and my left elbow even though i'm left-handed so let me know in the
comments i'm curious which of your elbows is more difficult for you to find this following motion
for me it's way more natural in my right arm and i struggle a bit in the left so let's go canner
so now in the canner just like we did in the walk the first thing that i'm focusing on is the rhythm
the canner is a three beat rhythm so it's outside hind leg inside hind leg and outside front leg is
b2 inside front leg is beat three so it's one two three one two three one two three one two
three one two three one two three the horse's back goes up level and then down in the counter stride
which means that your seat follows a swishing motion from back to front i have a lot of other
canner videos that you can watch but let's focus on our elbows so as her back is going up and down
her neck is nodding and you can tell this by if you look at her mane see how her mane goes up up
up up up up up that means that as she's cantering here every time her mane goes up my elbows are
bending a little bit and when her mane goes down my elbows are straightening so it's bend bend bend
bend bend bend bend bend ben ben so my elbows are a little bit pumping along with the motion
of her canter now you don't want to do too much so you don't want to be going like this because
you see how i no longer have a steady contact with her mouth so that is not correct you also
i'll show you when i go in front of the camera again if you lock your elbows and stop following
again you see what happens you're a good girl so it's really important that you have this
following motion in your elbows so that you can maintain a steady contact in the canter
i guarantee you that if you're having trouble getting your horse on the bit in the canter
or keeping a steady contact it's because
your elbows are not following the motion
of the cancer so i'll show you the same thing on the left lead is i'm feeling the rhythm and i'm
thinking about with my elbows bend straight bend straight bend straight i'm going to switch my whip
it's a little hard i feel like whichever hand is holding the whip in it it's a little harder
to really follow with your elbows so sometimes it's good if you can to ride without a whip good
girl just so you can get a little bit more of this feeling good girl that was good you're a good girl
good girl
good girl so your elbows are really an important part of getting your horse connected getting
your horse on the bit um and it's hard like it's really hard to be thinking about keeping
your elbows following absorbing that motion while you're thinking about everything else
that you're supposed to be doing when you're riding but i hope this gave you some ideas for
how to find that following motion and let me know in the comments if it was helpful if you
have any other questions or video requests i love hearing from you guys and i also have a free mini
course on rider position so be sure to check that out and we'll see you in the next video
you