Hi there today, I'm gonna go over a position review from photographs that someone sent in to me so let's get started
you can see from this photograph here that
Lyndsay has her heels up and the toes are lower than your heels
Hi there, my name is Laura
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I'd really appreciate it. So
I've been getting a lot of requests for position reviews. So these photographs were sent in by Lyndsay Hartley
Thank you so much Lindsay for sending in these photographs
I really like the photographs you sent in there from the side and if you want to stand in photographs on the side
so I can see your profile position the first photograph kind of looks like you found the
Sasquatch or Sasquatch or Yeti or something? Not very flattering photograph
first of all
What we're going to do, there's going to be two chapters. The chapter one is we're going to look at your position and
Give you a position review and then give me some exercises that you can do to improve your position then chapter two
we're going to look at the horse and
comment on the horse and the way the horse jumps and then give you some
Exercises you can do with your horse to improve your horse's form over fences
Keep in mind that this these photographs these pictures that were taken are just a snapshot
Time and I'm only giving you comments to help improve your writing
And remember to stay watching because there's some really good exercises at the end to improve your own writing into print improve your horse's form
over fences
So, let's take a look at the photographs
So first of all, really really like the way you have your eyes up looking forward
That's one of the first things judge looks for when you're in the horse show
Is that your eyes are up?
If you're looking down, it makes your shoulders round and you can see here by this photograph
You got your eyes up and your back is really nice and flat as well
Really important to keep your eyes up so you can see where you're going and see if there's anybody else in your way
See you an expense or riding extra saj movement
So it's really important to make sure that you're looking up
The next thing that we're noticing is your heels and you see here that your heels are up
Well, that's not very good
We like to keep make sure you keep the weight down into your heels and heels press down
And in order to do that
you need to
1. make sure that you fit in your saddle and your saddle fits your horse the first glance it looks like it's okay you've got
A nice long leg and 2. that your stirrups are adjusted properly
How do you know if your stirrups are adjusted properly. The top at the stirrup tread should hit the bottom of your ankle bone.
That's the easiest way to do if you want a little short or a little longer
Well, that's okay, too
But rule of thumb is top of the stirrup tread hits the bottom of your ankle one thing I did notice about this
Your stirrups is that they almost look a little narrow for your boots
So make sure there's a quarter inch
clearance
between your foot and the bar of the stirrup on each side of your foot this make sure that your foot isn't jammed in the
Stirrup and will get caught and that which can freely come out of the stirrup. I began to trouble. It's just a safety thing
so on both of your pictures
you can see that your heels are up and
the green line shows where we'd like to see your heels with the foot your foot down at an angle and
The red line shows where your foot is
So in the this picture here, you can see that
you're
Standing right up in your stirrups with all the weight onto your stirrup
It's really important that you keep the weight down in your heels. And this goes to another video about how to keep your heels down
Keep the weight past
Your stirrup and into your heels and that'll help keep yourself locked in and on the horse
so
That's the two main things that your eyes and your heels watch your eyes op the heels down if you got those two things knocked
Off you're pretty good. So your eyes are up. That's good that helps keep your back flat
Want to make sure you keep the weight down into your heels
So past the stirrup and into your heels how you gonna do that?
You have to wait to the second part of this to get some exercises on how to improve that
what looks like to me when I look at this photograph here is that you are
pinching with your knee and all the weight is coming from your body into your knees rather than
down and around the horse
So I would recommend I would recommend you get some riding lessons that focus on your basic riding position
Maybe get some lunge lessons where you can do some exercises on top of the horse so you can develop your base of support
Base of support and your thighs and your calves around the horse
so if you look at your general balanced
Position when you're in your jumping position going over jumps you'd like to have a straight line
Shoulder knee toe and you're pretty good in that position
You're not interfering with abortion or getting left behind and that's really good as well
We would like to see your... Your upper body is in good position
We'd like to see your heel down and forward and then pitching a little bit better balance
Your reins and release like to see your hands pushed right onto the horse's neck
Not a floating release what you have there is a floating release and you look quite tense in your arms
So pushing your hands on your horse's neck to help support your body will help maintain your upper body
Stability and form an anchor for your upper body and also allow the horse to reach down and forward a little bit more
It looks like you're restricting him a little bit. His mouth looks a little tight. And if you look at the
at the
Horse's mouth the bit is slip
And it looks like he's pulling on the reins a little bit so yeah to keep care... be careful about that
Make sure you put your hands on to the top of the horse's neck to help support your upper body
So you don't interfere you're really not getting left behind but you're not helping him at all either
So keep your hands pushed on to the horse's neck
Let's just take a look at the other
Pictures see what that looks like
This is the one where he's jumping in the other direction same sort of ... sort of picture
Nice straight line elbow hand horse's mouth. You can see but it you're just not helping him
You're restricting him and want to see the reins just a little bit looser and you more with the horse
okay, so I've taken the picture of
Lindsay and I took her right off the horse just to see how good and balanced
She was could you remember we said that you know, it looks like she's in pretty good balance. So here's what I did
here's a picture of her going over the jump and
it looks like she's pinching with her knees which is gonna make your twist a little bit, but you can see
well if I take her right off that horse and
Separate just her but she does look in fairly. Good balance
so let's go to the third picture that she sent and it's the
horse jumping in the opposite direction and
she's newly up on her toes hunched over top of the horse and
You can see and then again, I've taken her off that
Dolf the horse and I do this just so I can see if she's in pretty good balance
So you can see that she is
In balance if you take the marsh away from her that she's not going to just flip over on her hand
she's but she is standing up on her toes and not very
Secure because she is balancing on her toes just that you wouldn't be very security were balancing on her toes
now we're gonna go on to the
horse part of this is going to be in a separate video because this is getting on a little long but stay tuned for the
Exercises that we're going to do to help improve your riding
most people think they can get on a horse and just kind of ride but you know
I've been riding for a long time now and they still have to work at it and use at different
Exercises and get help to make sure that you are sitting on your horse properly sitting
with the horse properly using your age properly and staying in balance because
every time the horse takes a step the horse moves and you have to stay in balance with the horse and that's why it's so
important to get a
Regular program for you and your horse so that you can stay in balance with your horse. No matter if you're doing dressage hunter/jumper
Endurance reining western pleasure trail, whatever it is that you're doing
You still have to get help and you still have to be in balance with your horse
So don't be afraid to go out there and get some lessons
So for this particular rider number one thing that she needs to work on is getting her heels down
Really good exercise for getting your heels down is your two point position two point position two point position
Two point position you get it two point position over poles two point position over
circles
two-point position
Is really good exercise. If you do that two-point positioning correctly, you're going to be practicing incorrectly
So make sure you're doing it properly have some eyes on the ground that can spot
When you're like is coming down and when the weight is coming down and around the horse not onto the stirrup
Right. Now this rider is got to wait on the stirrup
So if you if you took her strips away
It would be really problematic for her weight has to go past the stirrup into your ankle and around the horse
Not jam down. It's got to be a relaxed soft supple
ankle knee hip to absorb the shock of your horse and
Keep yourself on top of that horse another great exercise that I really love to do other exercises are right here, by the way
other exercises are in this video right here that I do a lot with my students and it'll help you to
Now the great exercise is riding without stirrups
Get a great horse a soft horse a horse that's not going to run away and worry that you're getting tense
So a school horse type of horse
Where you can be soft and supple and relaxed and learn how your body feels so you can follow the horse properly
This rider looks kind of tense
So it's just better working on being softer and suppler lunge exercises are awesome when other exercises are there for this Rider?
What are other exercises are there for these?
Upper body exercises she is very tense with the shoulders and hands
She needs to do some exercises on the lunge line to get herself loosened up figuring out where our body is
It's over shoulders and upper bodies separate from her seat separate from her lower leg
So you have an independent seat and lower leg?
So that your left leg can be on the girth your right leg can be behind the girth your left hand is bending your out
Rest side range supporting all those things are going on at the same time
you have to be independent this rider looks like she's quite tense through her shoulders and arms and
That's going to go down the rain into the horse and also throughout her other her body
She looks kind of mechanical and rather than feeling what's happening with the horse. She's just
she's just
doing it because
because she's no she's got to be out of the saddle and non-interfering and she's not interfering with the horse, but
it
Looks mechanical to me
So we like to see her staying a correct riding position practiced her to point and get out there and ride
My name is Lauren
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Thanks now. Bye. Oh
And don't forget about the part
The next video is going to be about the horse what we think about the horse and how to improve the horse's form over fences
Okay
Thanks. See ya