hands

[nickyb]

any advise how to keep really still hands, i don't have bad hands by any stretch of the imagination but my horse is very fussy in the mouth and seems to need my hands to be stiller than i can keep them. don't get me wrong we do very well, he events at novice with good scores and competes at elementry also with good scores but this is one of the things i need to get even better. he's only just come back into work after his holiday so whilst i have been doing endless mileage walking round the roads i have been trying to concentrate on my hands, i have been riding with my hands touching the saddle so i know that they are still, however can't ride like this forever! any ideas????

 

[kerilli]

make sure you aren't riding with 'covering hands' i.e. letting your thumbs come down and in, as this means your radius and ulna bones in forearm cross, which stiffens your elbows. keep thumbs on top, and imagine you're carrying a tray of full wine glasses. for rein contact, your main fingertips should touch your palms, little finger more mobile than that, obviously. imagine you're holding a little bird in each hand, securely enough that it can't fly away, but not tightly enough to squash it! other than that, make sure you keep the joint in your clavicle open,which stops your shoulders from tensing... a lot of hand problems come from shoulder stiffness imho. relax and drop your shoulders down and back, let your front open and feel your breathing.
at walk, your hands shouldn't be still, obviously... they should be following the motion of the horse's head backwards and forwards.
tbh it's all linked, and the stillness of the hands is a result of achieving the "zero position" - totally stable and passive and elegant, which "in no way either hinders or influences the horse unless deliberately called upon by the rider" (Herbermann)
good, huh?

the man was a genius.

 

[amandathepanda]

What my dressage trainer does as one of my boys can be funny in his mouth is get me to hold the loop that goes around the girth straps on my dressage saddle as well as the reins. As Kerilli says, good hands are part of having a secure, perfectly balanced position and relaxed shoulders, but in the meantime while you are working on this holding something to make you more aware of your hands will help. Alternatively looping a finger through a balance strap can help

 

[nickyb]

thank you that was really helpfull, i do suffer with one stiff shoulder so i guess i've got to really keep that in mind and work really hard to keep relaxed. funnily enough the rein he always grabs is the right or should i say i block!!!!
the whole riding thing is a mind boggle sometimes!

 

[franki]

Place a short stick through your thumbs as you hold the reins. This will put your hands where they should be and help keep them still. A more advanced version of this, but probably safer on a lunge lesson, put a stick through your elbows across your back - if you know what I mean. It's an exercise Pippa Funnell recommends. Helps to keep shoulders up and back and show you where they should be