Help! My arm has a mind of its own!.

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Bex_X

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Iv never had this problem before but my hand drifts to the other side of the saddle

hard to explain .. hmm ..
please let me explain by this diagram (hahah)
so the --- is the front of my saddle
the ! is my outside rein
the \ is my inside rein see how its drifting over ?
i cant seem to stop it or notice it my instructer is not sure where this has come from and i just cannot stop!
can anyone help or give me some tips just when you lose one bad habit i get a new one!


\ !
\ !
\ !
--\ --!
 
I actually think I understand your diagram (not sure what that says about me!), mainly because I tend to have a similar problem. From what I gather, your outside hand is drifting across the horse's neck? In other words, instead of having a hand each side of the neck, they both end up more-or-less on the same side..?

I find I do this on a horse that has a strong tendency to look to the outside (of a circle), whilst at the same time falling in a bit. In my case, it is usually the inside hand that is the problem though. I think I do it because I am trying to push him out to counter the falling-in - obviously I am using my leg as well, but the hand tends to drift sort of in sympathy with the leg IYSWIM? This is a RS horse that I only ride once a week in a group lesson at present btw so the problem is quite hard to rectify in this situation - having recently had a private lesson on him where I worked on lots of circles, spiraling etc, he worked much better - less distraction from other horses and more intensive work/concentration.

I find I have to really concentrate on separating my hands to stop it - I sometimes have to think of holding them TOO wide, which results in them actually being a proper distance apart. It tends to be a vicious circle - horse slopping along, my hand goes across, horse gets even worse....and so on.

Might not be of any help, but you're not alone!
 
haha well, I can't interpret your diagram, I'm afraid, but hopefully I've got the right end of the stick so I'll waffle on and see if it hits the right note?! ;)

I've had this problem with my mare in the past. We were both weaker through the right sides of our bodies (she'd drop her right back muscle away and lean heavily into the left rein, using that as a prop to support her and prevent her from having to shorten up the right side of her body and use her muscles properly, which resulted in her shoulders bulging to the right; my right thigh/core was much weaker than my left, so as the right side of my body wasn't able to hold her straight my right hand tended to drift slyly across to her wither in an attempt to correct the shoulders if I took my attention away from keeping my body even and strong on both sides).
I'd suggest taking the focus away from the hands, as what we do with our hands is so often a sign of something that we're NOT doing with our bodies. Is your weight even, and in the centre of your horse? Do you have an equal amount of weight into each seatbone, or is one carrying more than the other? When you breath, do both sides of your lungs inflate equally? Do you tend to collapse at the waist/hip on one side or the other, or are you 'stacked up' all the way up your body (think of your body like a rubix cube, where you have to keep all the blocks in perfect alignment). Lunge lessons are brilliant for working on things like this.

Hope that's helpful in some shape or form! :p


ETS: When I say 'forget the hand', I mean check out what else you're doing! Try not to let it drift over, obviously, but it will most likely be happening as the result of something else going on in your/the horse's body.
 
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the hand that is being crossed across the wither needs to be opened up and away towards the inside. think about turning your palm towards the sky while moving your hand away from the neck
while also putting on your inside leg - stop your horse falling in

this is most likey happening due to your horse falling in through its shoulder and you are trying to keep it out by crossing your reins

it will feel very weird to move your hand away......like its the opposite of what you should do! but keep that inside leg on!!!
 
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