hi there my name is Laura, welcome to another video. Today we are going to take
a look at the position of Susan who sent in some lovely pictures. We're gonna do a
position review with some photograph that Susan is set in so let's get
started. Hi there and welcome to another video if you would like to improve your
riding and training, win more ribbons at your next horse show, or generally like
other horsey related stuff, remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon so you
don't miss any new videos that are coming out.Thank You Susan for sending
in these photographs and I'd really like to remind everybody that these are just
a snapshot of the position that we're seeing and they've sent in to get a
little bit of critique on it so let's get going here thank you so much for
sending in these photographs I really appreciate it and keep in mind that this
is just a snapshot of where you are with your riding at this moment where the
camera, where the camera photographed you so this is just what we
can see unfortunately in this photograph that you can see that the jump standard
is blocking your leg. Here's another great photograph thank you so much for sending
these in and this one you can really see your leg position and let's just go over
a few things about your position that we'd like to talk about. Number one thing
we'd like to talk about is your eyes so let's take a look at your eyes one thing
that the judge looks for when you're coming into a hunter class or
equitation class is your eyes. And your eyes and head are really important to
keep your riding in balance if you have your head down you don't know where
you're going you're focusing on the ground rather than focusing
forward on where you're going next and by focusing forward, looking forward,
keeping your head up, watching where you're going
that will help transmit to the horse what it is that you want to do whether
you look left that changes your body weight changes
your position just that enough that the horse can understand what it is that you
want to do if you're looking down you're not focusing on where you're going and
the horse doesn't know what's happening really like the way you're looking up in
this photograph looking for your next jump also when you look up it helps keep
your riding position in balance it keeps your head bouncing on the rest of your
body even when I'm sitting here talking with you about keeping your head up I'm
keeping my head up and keeping my back straighterr and that's what happens
when you keep your head up the rest of your body falls into balance and keeps
in balance with the horse. You can see here that she's got a straight back and
one reason she does have a straight back is because she has her straight back in
balance with the horse let's take a look at your legs heels down is one of the
first things that we as riders get taught to do keeping the weight down in
your heels we'd like to see this rider keep her heels down just a little bit
more and in order for her to do that she's got to let the weight come away
from her down into her stirrup and down past her stirrup into her heel but you
can see she's gripping with her knees and her weight is not coming down into
her heels the weight is mostly coming into her stirrup weights coming into her
stirrup because she's pinching with her knees and rather than pinching with her
knees and letting the leg swing we'd like to have an equal even pressure
throughout the late thighs knees calves all the way around the horse so the
weight can come down past your knees into your calves and heels to help
secure you into that saddle and ute so that you can use your legs properly and
be independent between your seat and your legs love this rider's hand
position secure on the horse's neck there's no way this riders going to get
left behind and grab onto the horse's mouth at the top of the fence she's got
a secure position and she's got her hands securely on the neck so that she
can follow with the horse's mouth we would like to see the hands secure on
the horse's neck we would however like to see a bit more release and a little
bit looser rein so the horse can reach through its head and
and top-line and clear that jump in a rounder bascule right now this horse's
head is be slightly behind the vertical and at this point in the jump we'd like
to see the horse's nose a little bit more in front of the vertical so that he
can reach and clear that jump imagine if this jump were a little wider
we'd like for him to be able to stretch through and reach for the ground right
now he's kind of curling over his top line rather than stretching out and
reaching so to help that allow with your hands a little bit more and you know
what we don't really know what she's dealing with maybe this horse is gonna
land and run away maybe she has to land and turn sharply we not sure what's
happening but for this snapshot in time what we're
working on this rider needs to have a little bit more release so that the
horse can jump a little bit nicer when you're new to pointer jumping position
you'd like to see a straight line shoulder knee toe and this rider does
have a straight line shoulder in itto but you can see that this straight line
is slightly in front of the vertical we would like to see this more on the
vertical more in this position here you can see where your shoulders are I'm
just gonna draw it on here it's best I can
this is where she is we'd like to have that her upper body a little bit more
for and more upright so if this is her shoulder here in that position to bring
her more imbalance with the horse you can see by opening up her shoulders she
could still stay with the horse but it's not too far ahead of them seeing this
picture as well she's got a nice secure position I can't really see what's
happening with her legs her heel looks like it's well underneath her hip but
her shoulders are out in front of her a little bit too much if we do the
straight line shoulder knee toe you can see again that the straight line is well
in front of the vertical what we would like to have is more in this direction
with shoulder this way what she's doing here
is with her body quite close to the horizontal we'd like to have her open up
her hip angle just a bit more not too much more but to stay with the horse she
looks like she's a bit ahead of the horse and again it just might be the
timing of the picture that we got her in this position it's just slightly hidden
my name is Laura and if you'd like to improve your riding and training and win
more ribbons in the next horse show then you are in the right place remember to
subscribe and hit the bell icon if you'd like to have your own position review
done please send me an email thistle bridge at hotmail.com
so some exercises that we can do to help this rider improve her riding work on
the fight to improve your solid lower leg position there's some exercises here
that you can also do one of my favorite exercises is is to ride over trot rails
in two point positions take your head put it on the small of your back so that
you could feel your back relaxing and following the motion of the horse if
this helps to keep the weight down into your heel and allows you to helps you to
get a secure leg around the horse rather than pitching with your knee and being
mechanical about it really love your position love that you're going into
horse shows and these pictures are great if you have your own pictures you'd like
to have reviewed please send me an email thistle Ridge at hotmail.com thanks now
bye