Do you have trouble looking where you are going? Does your neck get tense when your ride or become stiff afterward? Do you have difficulty sitting the trot? The solution may be all in your head. Here’s a quick tip for finding a good comfortable head position.
English riding
Murdoch Minute No. 17 Shorten your reins without pulling on your horse’s mouth
Do you ever find yourself scrambling to shorten your reins? Does your horse throw his head up as a result? Do you pitch forward when you shorten the reins? Or maybe the only way you know how to shorten them is what I call the ‘creepy crawly’ method. Here is a three-step process to shortening your reins quickly, efficiently and without pulling on your horse’s mouth.
Better Hand Postition
Do you wish you had better hands? Is your instructor always telling you to make your hands quiet? Does your horse get resistant when you ask for a turn? Here’s a quick tip to improve your hand position and contact with the horse’s mouth for both western and English riding.
Elbows By Side
Do you have trouble stopping your horse? Do you brace against your stirrups while pulling back on the reins? Does your horse fall forward when you move off? You may be doing too much with your arms and not enough with your seat. Stabilizing your elbows by your sides may be the answer.
Elbows Sticking Out
Do you have trouble keeping your elbows by your sides? Does your instructor keep yelling at you to keep your elbows in? Perhaps you have only one wayward elbow that you can’t seem to control. The answer may be in giving you a tactile sense of where your elbows belong and letting you feel the benefit of having your elbows in the right place.
