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.
Western 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.
