Outside hand crossing the neck on a corner

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DD265

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It's only my left hand that really seems to be the problem, but when I'm riding a corner to the right my left hand crosses over his wither in a counter-productive manner.

Even being aware of it I am struggling and it just keeps coming over. Any tips for stopping it?
 
No, he falls in. I've found that inside leg resting slightly behind the girth (not applied) and outside leg on the girth helps with that.
 
i had the same and my instructer put a strap across the front of the saddle (d ring to d ring) and told me to put one finger through it on the side where i had the problem. it made me very aware that i was trying to cross over and it stopped me. you must only put one finger and keep the rest of your hand flexible and sympathetic to the horses mouth and not keep your hand completely rigid...hope you can understand what i mean, it really helped me..
 
My guess would be that because your horse is falling in through the shoulder you are trying to counteract it excessively with your hand? Try using more inside leg. Hope that helps :)
 
Not an unusual problem when a horse is falling in. Often the rider is reluctant to create the correct amount of inside bend in case it makes the problem worse and uses the outside hand to try and block (which makes issue worse). Think leg yield before each turn on the right rein which will push the horse the way you want it to be and create the inside bend.
 
I had a bit of a problem with this, and instructor had me pick up a little piece of mane (it was long enough) with the rein. This served the same intended function as the stick or strap mentioned by others, of making me aware when my hand started misbehaving.

Also, maybe try approaching the corner in shoulder-fore.
 
Following with interest, horse spooks at scary corner and I seem to do the same thing with crossing the neck. I have tried opening my inside hand to leg yield but horse took that as an opportunity to come even further away from the track and ignored my leg entirely.
 
9tails said:
Following with interest, horse spooks at scary corner and I seem to do the same thing with crossing the neck. I have tried opening my inside hand to leg yield but horse took that as an opportunity to come even further away from the track and ignored my leg entirely.
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I have this currently on a particular corner of the menage, pig is having some fun in the sandpit a few foot away. Although the horse can't see the pig due to a big hedge unfortunately he can hear the damn thing, it keeps oinking non stop!

Its good for the horse to get used to this but very frustrating when your horse is falling in through the shoulder so much that his body resembles the letter 'C' on the left rein. :) :)
 
It's a straightness / shoulder control issue.
Very much the old inside leg to outside hand scenario.
Shoulder in will help this
 
Thanks all.

I don't know the difference between shoulder in and shoulder fore (off to google) but he does a nice shoulder in so it's an exercise we'll try. If I can work out what triggers my hand coming across I'll hopefully be able to correct it - by the time I've noticed it's too late!
 
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