Your riding faults - own up :-)

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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I'll start -

I niggle with my legs

I tense if I'm asked to do too many things at once

I tense my bottom :p

I flatten my right hand

I'm trying very hard to correct my faults with help from a experience friend and instructor but it's hard, have to constantly remind myself xx so what about you?
 
i look down sometimes (well not down, but at their ears)

my right hand tips out

heels creep up if im using my legs strongly (pretty much got rid of this)

mainly cosmetic things, but its important when im showing :)
 
Keep forgetting to keep thumbs on top

Looking down especially over trotting poles or jumps :o

Wandering legs resulting in heels coming up


There are probably loads more but those are the 3 that my RI comments on the most :p
 
I drop the contact on my outside hand ALL the time! Its very annoying and I can't seem to stop it. I also draw my heels up when using my legs strongly (comes from being a pony-squisher lol)
 
I have far too many faults and hopefully a block of lessons will help me break the habits but my main ones are:

I look down, I nag with my legs so much she has bald patches on her sides, my heels come up, I collapse one hip, I slouch my shoulders - I'm a mess really!
 
I tip slightly forwards, i look down slightly, my wrists fix apparently and my biggest bad habot is that i forget my diagonals!! It is getting better but there's so much going on in my head i simply forget... then get yelled at. lol
 
Being in the saddle at all:D

I ride with my reins too long and little or no contact.

I stay on purely by balance.
 
I have the worst piano hands in the world, my horse is just so gorgeous I can't stop looking down at her instead of where we're going, I make weird faces without realizing it.
 
I have FF boobs (I'm size 10), so I don't open my shoulders enough in fear of looking similar to katie price.... NO ONE likes to see huge bazungas bobbing about when doing dressage. I'm trying to correct this

I tense my lower back a bit (comes from having dodgey hips...), so sometimes if I am not concentrating on relaxing my butt comes out from underneath me.

My one foot used to stick out loads, but it doesn't anymore (I have dodgey knees too).

I'm far too unfit to ride my powerhouse of a horse, and I need to go to the gym :P

Oh and I seem to look at the floor/inside leg when doing circles....

Knowing your mistakes is halfway to resolving them though!!!
 
Hmm .. I have quite a lot haha ..

1 - I nag with my legs,

2 - I tip forwards when asking for canter,

3 - I forget to put my thumbs on top,

4 - I loose my contact when coming down from a transition,

5 - I always look down when jumping/going over trotting poles,

6 - Ohhh sitting up straight .. I seem to love to slouch! But it gives me back ache if I sit up straight for too long haha.

I cant think of any others but im sure that there are more lol .. opsiee :(
 
Schooling on the flat
1. I always look at his ears rather than where we're going, but I still sit up so it's sort of OK.
2. When I'm doing flying changes, my inside leg sometimes swings a little.

Show jumping
1. Over larger fences my lower leg slips slightly forwards on landing sometimes (but instructor says that this is better than it going back and isn't anything to worry about at the moment)
2. My heels are too far down quite a lot of the time.

My dressage trainer (well, I've had two lessons with her ever) could list heaps, but I don't even realise that I'm doing most of them - like when leg yielding (badly), she just pointed out that I was dropping my shoulder and restricting the movement and once I corrected it he went much better. Aargh. It's sort of annoying that I can struggle with something for a while and have no clue what I'm doing wrong then someone else can see it immediately :rolleyes: I suppose that's what she's paid for though :P
 
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I stick my toes out.
It was hilarious when on the lunge my instructor told my to point my toes forward....as soon as I did, my elbows stuck out. Must have some sort of weird interconnectedness!
I grip up with my legs in canter so my stirrups end up ratting round my feet.
 
Crikey, all sorts!! I used to tip forward a lot but yoga sorted that out ;) my right hand wanders, i forget about thumbs on top, my right leg won't stay put, hang on I'm right handed, you'd think right'd be stronger and i'd be faulting on the left?! ah well:confused:
 
I look down, my right hand has a life of it's own and sometimes, I perch forwards a bit, although it's getting better. And then when I finally manage to keep my right hand still, I concentrate so hard that I stiffen up through my body!

SophieLouBee - I hope to God you've got a good sports bra! x
 
Shift my weight onto the right side of my pelvis when doing lateral work of any kind; due to hip joint issues....

I have piano hands!!! But so does Totos new rider Matthias Rath....so I ride like MR??!!! :D

I find Bruces ears fascinating....
 
I always look down - whether its to check im on the right transition or the right leg - i look down or my head will be down but my eyes forward!

my hands tend to be too low and they turn flat :(

Also my position tends to go forward way to much (over jump) when jumping - this is really improving now though!!
:o :D
 
Piano hands... but I'm a professional musician so I think I'm excused that and will write it off as an occupational hazard :D

If I'm not concentrating I grip with my legs in canter - need to work on sitting deeper in canter.

Also due to my occupation, my left shoulder is a good 1.5/2 inches higher than my right one, so I'm really having to work to compensate for that inbalance in lateral work.

Have a horse who doesn't have a left bend AT ALL (as of yet anyway!) and I'm crap at telling what canter lead he strikes off on... really need to improve my 'riding by feel'.

I have the concentration span of a particularly concentrationally-challenged gnat.
 
I don't keep my shoulders back all the time.

If I'm cantering for long periods of time I tend to start thinking, then lose my natural sway with the horse and tense up. It's annoying when things have felt perfect up until then!

Mistiming taking the jump position over fences - again, it usually happens when I've started thinking about it. 90% of the time it's grand, but those times when I snap out of automatic mode, I can be a little ahead of the movement.
 
My feet, heels down but rest looks like I am having a ballet lesson!

I am terrible for riding on a long rein, not a lot of contact. I can also be a bit of a kick on type, ok for Fany not so good for Captain who is not trained like that and takes off like a bat out of hell!

FDC
 
I drop my hands.
My lower leg is unstable unless I REALLY concentrate on it - which makes everything else go to hell!
I stare at the back of the horse's head.
I tip my head in going round corners.
I tend to let my reins get too long.
Sometimes my heels come up.
 
If I think something is difficult I tend to give up before I've tried (jumping especially!)
I ride defensively when jumping rather than thinking forward and so me and the horse end up in sticky situations. Also I tend to freeze.
Flappy legs. Grr.
 
I'm wonky :D I have a dodgy left hip following a crushing fall when I was about 8 or 9. This translates to weaker signals on the left rein - particularly evident in canter transitions and establishing the correct lead.

I fold too much when jumping and have a tendency to look down. I am currently trying really hard to combat this and it is improving slowly.

I turn my toes out when jumping. Only just noticed this from some recent SJ photos and this will now frustrate me immensely until I actually see photographic evidence that I have stopped doing it.

I do not wish to go on or I shall be eternally depressed with my inadequacies :D ;)
 
Can I just ask, what are Piano hands? never heard that before :confused:

I use one leg more than the other, my left, I think I niggle with it or at least use it slightly further back than my other.

Fix my wrists, not when hacking but I think I do with I'm schooling.

Stick my elbows out at times and don't have enough bend in them.

Don't use the insides of of my legs, I used my heals to push on, which is wha cause problem no. 1 I think, because I was told to open my legs/hips (knees for jumping) rather than hugging the saddle and it seems to have changed the way I ride.

I don't have regular lessons so things slip without me noticing and before you know it your doing it all the time, really do need to have regualar lessons to keep on top of things and nip those bad habbits in the bud.

Basically I'm ***** :D
 
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