Videos of your riding

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auntienutnut

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I was on a training session yesterday and a friend took some footage.

I was relatively happy with how the training session went until I see the videos.

I didnt realise how awful my riding looks and how small the jumps looked, Im sure they shrink through a camera lense lol

Does anyone else feel this way, when they look at videos, photos ?

I wonder if its because I have been watching to many good riders on tv as late, Im never going to look that good even in my dreams
 
auntienutnut said:
I was on a training session yesterday and a friend took some footage.

I was relatively happy with how the training session went until I see the videos.

I didnt realise how awful my riding looks and how small the jumps looked, Im sure they shrink through a camera lense lol

Does anyone else feel this way, when they look at videos, photos ?

I wonder if its because I have been watching to many good riders on tv as late, Im never going to look that good even in my dreams
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All the time. And added to that I hate how my voice sounds too although worryingly apparently I do actually sound like that. I should take more vids, I think they can be really useful for training but you do need to get past the feeling that you look bad, and focus on thinking about the riding and position, what's good and what needs improving, then it's not so grimace-inducing!
 
Bernster said:
All the time. And added to that I hate how my voice sounds too although worryingly apparently I do actually sound like that. I should take more vids, I think they can be really useful for training but you do need to get past the feeling that you look bad, and focus on thinking about the riding and position, what's good and what needs improving, then it's not so grimace-inducing!
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Good point, I never took any notice of the good parts just the bad, will take another look
 
I have lots of vid riding numerous different horses. About 1% I am happy with, the other 99% I can spot too many opportunities for improvement :(
Do find it useful to see what is actually happening vs what I think is happening.
 
I hate myself on video, I forget how fat I am. I also see all the bad points. The trick is to look beyond that and see what your doing right, what you can work on in the short term. The best thing is to take some video and then leave it a while. Then take some more. You can then compare and see the improvements. Also I have some video of me riding my Clydesdale, doing intro B for the first time. The first time I watched it I was horrified at how unbalanced I looked and how behind the movement I was. I went back later and watched it again , this time more subjectively and could see how I improved over the length of the video , esp when I know in my head I had said, stop being an idiot. I can see that point exactly. It's a very useful tool but you have to learn not to be so hard on yourself.
 
Actually it's the opposite way round for me, I am incredibly self critical and although I look a bit rubbish when I see myself on video, it's never quite as rubbish as it felt! Obviously I look fat with stumpy legs, but hey that's not exactly breaking news!

I am particularly rubbish at feeling what my body is doing, for example at the moment a particular problem I have is that I think my hands are level when in fact my right hand is several inches higher than my left at times. Seeing it on video does seem to help me process it and progress. And on my last horse I didn't understand at one point why I was getting such low marks for my medium trot, as I felt a clear difference from the working pace. Video made it abundantly clear that what I thought I was feeling and what the judge was seeing were two completely different things!

I find it really useful to get a friend to record a lesson occasionally. Once I've got past how fat I look and how rubbish I am, it's really helpful to see how things look different when I correct something slightly and sometimes I pick up from the video something my trainer was getting at but which my head was too full to process properly at the time. And yes, nobody is going to mistake me for a pro, but looking back on old videos does remind me when I am on a particular downer with myself that I have improved in the past so I can improve more in the future, I am not a total lost cause!
 
Loath seeing myself on video. Why oh why, do i end up on the wrong diaganol?? Been riding for years, know correct diaganol to be on, but somehow when filmed, boyo will spook, trip or do something so numpty here looks an even bigger numpty. Drives me nuts.
 
It was seeing videos of me ride two different horses that confirmed my many thoughts/decisions to give up riding bog hoss. It was telling how I seemed so much happier on one than the other, from my entire riding to the look on my face.

Videos are great for showing what's actually happening.
 
Yeah I hate videos of me riding. Even when i try hard and think after riding "ok that felt good and like I wasn't moving around too much" I then watch the video and my legs are flapping so much. It is the movement of my horse causing it like when you see proper riders on their big moving horses although I look pathetic in comparison.
 
I'm really lucky, my trainer does video me a bit but only when it's going really well and she wants me to be able to see it. I'm driven by positive reinforcement so it works really well and if I see the phone come out I know I'm doing a good job.
I had a session last year with a different trainer and she videoed me because "you need to see how awful you look". That evening she facebook messaged the video to me. That video (combined with a boss at work who was hell bent on destroying my confidence) managed to make me feel so useless that I was ashamed to be see riding my horse.
So, video used well is great. Used without care and attention can be dreadful.
 
Actually I find I'm pleasantly surprised. I always think I'm over bending or wobbly but it doesn't show in videos lol
 
abbijay said:
I had a session last year with a different trainer and she videoed me because "you need to see how awful you look". That evening she facebook messaged the video to me. That video (combined with a boss at work who was hell bent on destroying my confidence) managed to make me feel so useless that I was ashamed to be see riding my horse.
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Ouch! That is super mean!
 
All depends...
If I'm riding my boy, I'm well aware how bad it looks already and even more aware when watching a video!
But with a nice easy to ride schoolmaster I'm happy, but I suppose that's cheating!
 
I really like being able to see what's good and what needs tweaking. Of course, my right lower leg is often a bit of a disaster when astride, but that's got a medical basis so I try not to worry about it too much (supposed to be having more physio soon; so hopefully that'll help).
 
I record every single lesson I have. It's an excellent way of improving your riding. I'm the opposite tho and I always think it felt worse than it looks. However I can also always see something to improve on and it also galvanises whatever we've been working on in my mind.
 
I love it! I see it as getting fantastic records of my riding memories. I've got a lot with Ned, sadly not many with the horses I've ridden in the past and no longer see due to me moving yards, them being sold or dying. I try and get lots of the dog too!
 
I find watching myself ride to be very useful, as it means I can see what I am doing more than I can in a photo.
I always feel like I lean forward a lot, video has confirmed it is not as bad I think and my leg is as bad as I think (oops)

I also like watching it as it gives me a better idea how B is going, and how he looks compared to how he feels. Does get a bit disappointing when I have felt what feels like a bounce to his canter, but really it's not much different at all to the usual shuffle.

Jumps definitely shrink, especially when the person filming is riding a horse. I was jumping some bigger jumps (for us), possibly about 1m if not higher and friend was filming on a horse. Looking at the video, they look about 80cm at most. They were definitely bigger jumps, as I actually had one of the other liveries say well done and how well he looked as she hasn't seen me jump him so big before! It's the same when the fancy photographer takes photos, I look as if I am jumping about 50cm sometimes (although I also blame B for this, for some reason his jump can make it look like fences are tiny. He is not a big horse either!)
 
I'm the opposite too. I feel a test wasn't particularly good, but when I see it on video it looks much better. It looks like I sit much stiller than I feel I do!
 
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