My position

Shoei said:
Thanks for all the advice so far.

Re his saddle. The saddler is booked to come monday as I think it may need adjusting. She should have cone last week but was postponed due to floods. I'm hoping that will make him a bit less sticky.

I have dug out my old tripod so I can video myself.

Keep them coming 😁
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Yes, but does the saddle fit you? You may find the stirrup bars are set wrong for you, and that will affect your position. Get the saddler to see you ride the horse.
 
cundlegreen said:
Yes, but does the saddle fit you? You may find the stirrup bars are set wrong for you, and that will affect your position. Get the saddler to see you ride the horse.
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It is amazing the number of saddles with incorrectly placed stirrup bars, so that it is impossible for the rider to sit well.
 
My horse is out of action so I've been having lessons on school horses with a RWYM coach. They have mirrors. Amazing how you think you're sitting straight until you look in a mirror...

I've also found that on most horses I can get a fairly reasonable position, but there is one in particular that seems to throw me around. I think if that was the only horse I was riding I'd be concerned but I just think as a combination we don't work.

I know when my own saddle was out of balance I was really ineffective too. It was getting on another horse that made me realise the problem wasn't 100% me
 
My position was ripped to shreds and pieced back together in a single lesson with someone that has been in showing for a very long time. It was brutal, but did the trick.

I had to completely re-learn how to balance, but it really improved my riding. I later had a lesson with a former eventer who tweaked it a little so that I could be more effective.
 
nikkimariet said:
It’s hard if you haven’t got someone on the ground...
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And it doesn't have to be a riding teacher, just someone who is really looking. My partner has helped me a few times, particularly after a long break with horses and riding, when my confidence level was at zero.

He could see, for example, that one of my legs was 'shorter' than the other. I said, "Yeah... I've always had that problem," (IOW, don't worry about that). But I stretched my 'shorter' leg thinking I couldn't possibly get it where it needed to be and the next moment Robert said, "It's a little too long now." That gave me confidence that I could fix that problem.
 
A ride with your mind coach, who also uses franklin balls really helped my position. The Franklin balls are amazing, couldn't believe how much they helped me release bits.
Still a work in progress, but huge improvements
 
7 years ago I decided to overhaul my riding. I was an effective rider but knew that I could improve and with a young horse on the way I wanted to be as good as possible for him.

At that point I’d been riding 30+ years, had my own horses and continued lessons through the years

I knew I wanted to go down the ‘Classical’ route as I felt this also focuses on how the rider affects the horse. I have an instructor local to my who teaches Centred Riding and it has been a real game changer. We focus on me for the majority of my lessons, once I’m ‘right’ the horse automatically improves.

My instructor also has a mechanical horse which I find a wonderful tool, I can focus solely on me, if I’m wonky, I know it’s me who is wonky not the horse. It allows my muscles to become accustomed to what is correct, therefore it’s easier to go there when on my horse.

All in all, it’s a journey to be enjoyed…….although I do need to remind myself of that at times as I beat myself up regularly for being useless!!
 
I really want to have some lessons with those Franklin balls, sadly at the moment my most useful horse is not in proper work but I will def be investigating when she's back on form. I'm more forgiving of my rider faults on the project horse :p
 
w1bbler said:
A ride with your mind coach, who also uses franklin balls really helped my position. The Franklin balls are amazing, couldn't believe how much they helped me release bits.
Still a work in progress, but huge improvements
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Franklin balls have helped me no end, my position is so much better now and working on my aids now on a mechanical horse combining them both. The difference in the way of going in my horse too is great.
 
I'm sure you're not as bad as you think you are - remember we all look awful to ourselves (unless we are CDJ!). You will be extra judgmental and extra picky when watching yourself.... if it was a video of someone else riding, would you say they were terrible? Has your instructor mentioned it? If not, I bet you're not really that bad and just being extra negative on yourself.

Though, I read somewhere about always trying to point the sole of your foot in the direction you're travelling (for example, when riding at a fence, you want to feel like the sole of your foot is 'looking' at the fence).... this exaggerated imagination and thought process, will make sure your heels are down and that your leg is secure. Same with hands... lift them right up, make it exaggerated until holding them correctly feels normal - you will feel ridiculous but when filmed, you'll look totally fine! And make a point to look up and around, at trees, birds, clouds anything that gets your head up - looking down is often the cause of many position issues xx
 
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