hi it's josie and today's video is to help Lisa Springer out who sent me an email asking me if i
could show her how she could train herself to keep her hand still in posting or rising trot
so thank you lisa i hope this one helps you and by the end of today's video you will have two
really simple exercises that you can do that can give you the feel of how to keep your hands still
while you're posting lisa said she had the problem when she posted her hands came up and down with
her our hands are supposed to stay still and still is usually relative to the horse's mouth so in the
trot the horse's mouth is in one spot in walk it goes forwards and in canter it sort of goes
around so our hands are relative always meant to be still relative to the horse's mouth so when we
sit in sit trot we can sit and our hands will stay still but in rise trot we come up so if we don't
do something our hands are going to come up with us so how do we keep our hands still in rise trot
it all comes back to your elbow so you need to have a nice elastic elbow and that elbow needs
to open and close so as you come out of the saddle it opens as you go back to the saddle it closes so
if you're sitting in a correct seat part of that seat requires you to have a straight line from
your elbow to the horse's mouth and that's okay while you're sitting in the saddle but let's see
what happens when you rise up out of the saddle if you haven't done something with your elbow
what's happened to the line from my left elbow to the left side of the bit in spider's mouth it's
come up here and then it's gone down when i sit down i get my straight line back when i come up
it changes so to make sure we keep that nice straight line my elbows need to
open as i come up and close as i come down this angle here watch this angle here
up down up down so my hands are staying still relative to his mouth how on earth do you teach
yourself to do that this is what i promise you hand on my heart i did to teach myself
so one of the first exercises that i did to teach myself how to keep my elbows open
was to use the straps now i don't have many of these left anymore because i cut them all off
because i find them annoying but the strap on the front of my saddle cloth but these straps that are
meant to go underneath the saddle flap and around your girth to hold your saddle flat your saddle
cloth in place these here these velcro straps i made myself a loop out of them and then when
i would ride i would loop my little finger that put that loop that's there over my little finger
and i would hold my reins now the trick to doing this is that you must keep the tension
on that there if it's doing this while you're rising and um sitting back in the saddle it means
that you are not keeping allowing your elbow to open and close so you need to get the length a bit
right sorry that was a bit long for me so where i know i want my hand so then when you've got that
you keep that forward tension so you're sort of holding your hand forward now this is not because
you're going to develop a bit of tension in your forearm doing this but this is a training thing
for you it's not how i want you to have your hand forward and tight it's to teach you the feeling of
what's going on in your elbow so if you hold that out forward and you come up and down and up and
down your elbow has to open and close if i've got the tension on that if you don't have these straps
and you've got horses you will have binder twine everybody has binder twine it's the most
annoying thing in the horse yard and also the most useful because it's used for everything
when we need a quick fix but this is a quick fix if you don't have any of these on your saddle
cloth so get yourself a piece of binder twine pop it through the D in the front of your saddle
get your hand whoop sorry about where you think you would want it so you've got a
loop through there a loop of binder twine mark that bit tie a knot off on your binder twine
get yourself some scissors and cut the excess off scissors on horseback probably not a good idea
so perhaps i'll get rid of them put your piece of binder twine through your D
put the tail end through the loop
and pull it up so it's there now you can use your loop on your little finger please do not put your
hand through them that is very dangerous you need to be able to know that if something was to go a
little bit haywire and you took off uh your horse took off or something that you can just let go and
you're not going to get your hand through it so do not put your hand through the loop put
your little finger on there hold your reins the same as that loop and keep the tension on
now that's a bit long for me so i would have to tie another knot in it which i will just do here
which will shorten it down and that's better there so now i and i need to keep the tension on that as
well as i rise and fall and if all else fails and you don't have either of them honestly just grab
some of your horse's mane and rise and sit and you will feel your elbows open and close so let's see
how that looks i've got my little fingers looped through there please remember do not put them
around your hands it is too dangerous as it is like this you could actually dislocate your little
finger if you came off so make sure the loops are big enough that your finger slips out easily
and then you need to put some tension on it some forward tension and get your horse to trot and
then your elbows will need to open and close the trick is to keep that nice and taut not like that
so your strap needs to stay nice and taut
so remember you can change the rein and if you're just doing this and you're beginning don't have
any contact on your horse just concentrate on keeping your hands out where they need to be
doesn't matter where he is we're doing some exercises to work on you
but once you've got the hang of it you can keep a light tension on that
pick up your contact and ask your horse to go forward to the bit
the other exercise you can do to help you get the feeling
of how your elbow should open and close and i did do this one too is to ride around at trot and feel
like you were washing on an old washboard except as you came out of the saddle your hands go down
when you sit down they come up don't do this one with contact on your horse's mouth and
obviously you only do these exercises if you feel comfortable letting your horse trot around on a no
contact rein but i'll show you what this one looks like so as i come out of the saddle my hands go
down up down up down up down up down up down up and it feels a little bit strange in the beginning
but it sort of feel well to me it helped me loosen my elbows up so they didn't sit rigid like this
and it's a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head as well it's
not that easy but it doesn't matter where they go thanks spider then you can shorten your reins up
get a little bit of contact and think about that soft feeling you had in your elbows
as you were coming up and down out of the saddle
if you lose it let the reins go long and do the washboard again
so your hands go down when you come up and they come up when you go down shorten the rein
ask for a nice contact and think about those soft elbows and a little bonus tip if your
hands are feeling a little bit like they might be uneven in height or even one forward and one back
for a little while just ride with your thumbs touching each other i hope those tips help you
go out and have a go at them don't worry if they're not perfect nobody started perfect
nobody finishes perfect just have fun with them have fun with your horse and thanks for watching