What's your #1 bad riding habit?

My hands. They won't go where I want them to go. I either hold on too much or just give away my contact. My left fixes and makes me feel like he's constantly hanging on my hand, my right just gives the contact away. I have a problem with my shoulder/back on that side.

I have many other issues too but I think that's the main one!
 
RUBBISH ... DO IT AGAIN ....Is the only thing my instructor says to me at the moment (joking ish) Love him though :)

I'm told my horse does EVERYTHING I ask him to do so when im doing a 20 meter circle and he goes the wrong way ... apparently its because I've asked him too .... you getting the gist of my riding ability :D
 
I day dream, its so terrible! trotting around with my head in the clouds, then will get shouted at and come back to earth for about 5 minutes. Then I'm gone again to fluffy fairy land where everything is lovely and nice and there are birds singing then a scream again brings me back. This cycle goes on and on and I even get annoyed at myself, need someone shouting at me constantly!!
 
Grumpy Herbert said:
Oh yes, I most certainly do!!! :) The day I don't, or don't giggle/laugh will be the day I know it's time to give up!
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Replaced it very quickly rather than screaming "oh sh!!!!!!t" .. Its much more fun and people actually think you know what your doing and that your actually doing it on purpose, lol :)
 
SaffronWelshDragon said:
Haha - it's fluffy buttocks for me! Max does have a way with words :D
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Yes. She also said she sometimes wants to knock me on the head and say hellooo...anybody in there?". I'm not a very proactive rider and just kind of sit there. Working on that though and am getting better.

Max does say things in a funny way but I do remember what she says!
 
I do a really weird thing with my hands, where my thumbs end up pointing forwards rather than being on top. Not shopping trolley hands as my fingers are still facing each other but my hands roll foward so my little finger is closest to me and my knuckles are pointing at the floor. If I try to re-create it when I'm not on a horse it hurts, so I don't know how I do it when I'm riding. I also always end up with my left rein longer than my right.

I hunch over terribly, especially in trot, to the point I've invented my own gadget. I tie a piece of elastic to my hair bobble, thread it under my top to the belt loop of my jods and tie it just tight enough that I can feel it pulling if I slouch but not if my back is nice and straight. It's helped loads!

I tend to pull my leg back and up from the knee when I want to use it further back (e.g. leg yielding) rather than from my hip. It's improving with regular nagging from my instructor but as my share horse in particular is very wide I find it quite difficult to move my hips on him, they're at maximum capacity as it is!
 
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Lack of grip on the reins! I think it's a combination of riding a horse who leaned and pulled like a train (ripping gloves and hands to pieces) for years, and also one who hated any contact whatsoever - so I tend to ride with a very light contact, but sometimes take the lightness to the extreme and end up with reins that are too long and not really doing an awful lot as they gradually slide through my hands - not washing line length and I never drop them completely, but I do have to keep an eye on my hands constantly. The plus side being that I have never jabbed anything in the mouth as if a jump goes wrong the reins just slip through my hands..!
 
Wow, I commented I was a lazy rider before and the more comments I read this makes me realise I am a slob on horseback! Far too blasé!

I must have practically every bad habit going!

I need a serious kick up the backside and yelled at by an Instructor who is also a Sniper holding a rifle......
 
While I have more than my fair share of position faults which are not helped by my wonky shoulders from breaking my collar bone, by far my worst riding habit is grinding my teeth or biting my lip while I'm concentrating! At some point I'm going to fall and bite straight through my lip but I never even notice I'm doing it until it's pointed out to me...
 
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