# Riding and Comformation Critique please :)



## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

I meant CoNformation


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## bigzee (Jul 4, 2010)

It looks like you need to work on your balance more before cantering. You are bouncing around a lot and seem to be unbalancing your horse. Your legs are far forward, and I don't ride western, but I would shorten the stirrups as well. Your lack of balance is causing you to hang on the reins, which is why he is fighting you so much. I think you and your horse are both green, and lessons and training would be a good idea to help get the basics down. To judge conformation, we need pictures where the horse is standing square. He seems like a kind horse though.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

I admit I do hang on the reins, but that day it was extra because it was only his second day outside and he was going super fast.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

Oh Yeah, I would like to mention that he did everything I asked him to do, right away, without arguing. I was trying to get him to slow down. When I was on him, it didn't feel like he was backing that much, but when I look at the video, it backed about 6 steps which was good


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## horseluver2435 (May 27, 2009)

Just wondering- is there a reason you were posting in a Western saddle? lol. 
I noticed when you were posting, you were on the wrong diagonal- you should 'rise and fall to the leg on the wall'. 
At the canter, you need to work on having a steady seat, going with the motion of the horse more. In the video, you were bouncing around when you should sort of move with the horse. Does that make sense? 
Your hands also should be steadier so you don't confuse your horse. Otherwise, he won't have any idea what you're telling him to do.
As for your horse, he seems to have nice motion- he's a cute mover and I like his canter. But I have to agree that lessons would be a good idea for you and him, if you aren't already doing so.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

horseluver2435 said:


> Just wondering- is there a reason you were posting in a Western saddle? lol.
> I noticed when you were posting, you were on the wrong diagonal- you should 'rise and fall to the leg on the wall'.
> At the canter, you need to work on having a steady seat, going with the motion of the horse more. In the video, you were bouncing around when you should sort of move with the horse. Does that make sense?
> Your hands also should be steadier so you don't confuse your horse. Otherwise, he won't have any idea what you're telling him to do.
> As for your horse, he seems to have nice motion- he's a cute mover and I like his canter. But I have to agree that lessons would be a good idea for you and him, if you aren't already doing so.


He has a bumpy trot and it helps me not get a stomach ache. A lot of people post western you would be surprised, you just don't post when your showing, and since I don't do western pleasure or anything, it doesn't matter. It makes sense, I am still working on swaying my hips with his movement. If you watch closely you can see me sometimes not bounce as much and thats when I finally started swaying my hips with the beat. Yeah my hands do bounce around a lot, and I have to remember to remind my self to have softer hands. I have to disagree with the lesson thing, I just need practice at a canter. I don't have any problems with walking or trotting. This is maybe the 3rd time I have had a chance to canter him more than a few strides, but it's getting there.


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## horseluver2435 (May 27, 2009)

I recomend lessons anyhow- it would at least help you with the cantering part. Your positon does need work, especially with softening your hands and keeping your legs and hands still. Lessons can/will help that if you can find a good place to go. Good luck.


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## ladybugsgirl (Aug 12, 2009)

You have lost your positon. Your leg is push so far in front of you and maybe that is why you are having such a hard time. I ride english but maybe you need to shorten your stirrups one hole. I would also suggest lessons.


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## ladybugsgirl (Aug 12, 2009)

I am 5 6 and I have ridden horses 15.1 he seems to carry you just fine.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

ladybugsgirl said:


> You have lost your positon. Your leg is push so far in front of you and maybe that is why you are having such a hard time. I ride english but maybe you need to shorten your stirrups one hole. I would also suggest lessons.


I noticed my legs were sticking out and up a little far, but that's where I'm comfortable. I should probably work on cantering without stirrups. I will try moving my stirrups up a notch, but I'm afraid they will be too high then.


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## AngelWithoutWings54 (May 24, 2010)

I don't ride western but I do have a few suggestions.

1. Try to keep your hands steady. It looks like you bounce your hands up and down, and that can hurt the horses mouth as well as confuse him. Try softening your hands and maybe keeping them down a bit further.

2. Your legs are very far forward. Try shortening your stirrups, and really REALLY concentrate on keeping your leg more underneath of you. Try riding without stirrups, because you have to be in a very correct position in order to stay on.

3. You seem to bounce a lot when you ride. I used to ride a very bouncy horse, so I can tell you a few ways on how to fix it. Really concentrate on sitting deep in the saddle. Imaging that your muscles just kind of melt away into the saddle. Move your hips and pelvis to the motion of the horse, and just go with it. Also try working without stirrups, because then you learn how to sit in the saddle nice and deep.

4. You look like your hanging on the reins. Try to keep your hands low and steady, and try not to brace with your arms.

Hope I helped a bit!


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

AngelWithoutWings54 said:


> I don't ride western but I do have a few suggestions.
> 
> 1. Try to keep your hands steady. It looks like you bounce your hands up and down, and that can hurt the horses mouth as well as confuse him. Try softening your hands and maybe keeping them down a bit further.
> 
> ...


It's a hackamore, but I know what you mean. Yes, I must hold my hands steadier. and I agree with everything you said, but one reason I'm hanging on the reins is because he was going really fast that day and I was trying to get him to slow down so I was basically "holding him back" because he wanted to go full speed. Thank you! I now have a to-do list.


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## AngelWithoutWings54 (May 24, 2010)

Woah, I seriously didn't even notice it was a hackamore. Haha maybe I need my eyes checked.


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## HRH Momma (Sep 12, 2010)

You have a very cute horse. He is willing and wants to please. As with the other posts I would look for an instructor to help you with your balance. Your elbows were really out there like wings. I think that is would help if you could really keep your elbow right at your sides. I also think that you really need to look at your tack. The saddle is a bit small for you and does not allow you to move with your horse with that said. Find a good instructor.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

HRH Momma said:


> You have a very cute horse. He is willing and wants to please. As with the other posts I would look for an instructor to help you with your balance. Your elbows were really out there like wings. I think that is would help if you could really keep your elbow right at your sides. I also think that you really need to look at your tack. The saddle is a bit small for you and does not allow you to move with your horse with that said. Find a good instructor.


I'm working on my elbows. That was the first thing I noticed when I saw the video. And for my saddle being small, I fit in it, I would say perfectly, but I would like to have more room. I decided to keep it for good motivation to lose weight because I love this saddle, and I already lost some  You said look at my "tack" instead of just saddle. Is there something else you noticed? Hopefully that didn't come across rude, I just like suggestions.


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## HRH Momma (Sep 12, 2010)

You are not being rude at all. I know how expensive tack in general can be, Look at saddle fit and the pads that you use. The hackamore is fine but with hackamores I have found that a person tends to become more "hand" orientated instead of using your seat to ride your horse, because you are not in your horses mouth. I know because that happened to me found myself using my hands to much. This is just a suggestion with riding with your hackamore ride like you are riding with a bit in your horses mouth. 
I commend your goals to loose weight. I know because I am doing the same working on becoming fit and healthy. Have a fun with your horse!! Lots of Carrots for that handsome horse!


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

HRH Momma said:


> You are not being rude at all. I know how expensive tack in general can be, Look at saddle fit and the pads that you use. The hackamore is fine but with hackamores I have found that a person tends to become more "hand" orientated instead of using your seat to ride your horse, because you are not in your horses mouth. I know because that happened to me found myself using my hands to much. This is just a suggestion with riding with your hackamore ride like you are riding with a bit in your horses mouth.
> I commend your goals to loose weight. I know because I am doing the same working on becoming fit and healthy. Have a fun with your horse!! Lots of Carrots for that handsome horse!


Yeah. I was thinking about putting the bit back in for 3 more rides and work on it.  Oh he gets a lot of carrots... a lot a lot  lol.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

I am 5'6 and ride a 14.3 horse.


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

I'm 5'7 my horses are 13.3 and 14.1, lol.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

ShutUpJoe said:


> I'm 5'7 my horses are 13.3 and 14.1, lol.


Lol! You must look so tall!


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## ladybugsgirl (Aug 12, 2009)

Yah that position might be comfortable for you but that is whats messing up your riding correctly. I use to ride like that cuz it was comfortable but know its taking longer to correct do to years of riding like that. I would just really suggest a trainer or lessons


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## PintoBean (Jul 10, 2010)

I won't keep hounding all the same points. I do recommend a trainer. When I started riding my legs were WAY too far forward because it was comfortable. Moving them back won't feel that great at first, but if you keep working on it then you will notice a huge improvement in your overall position. I do lot on lunge line work without reins to work on my equitation so that could help you as well.

A few compliments though your heel is really nice and down. I love your horse! He looks eager and willing, which is very nice! What disciplines are you going to do? Gaming? or Western?


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

PintoBean said:


> I won't keep hounding all the same points. I do recommend a trainer. When I started riding my legs were WAY too far forward because it was comfortable. Moving them back won't feel that great at first, but if you keep working on it then you will notice a huge improvement in your overall position. I do lot on lunge line work without reins to work on my equitation so that could help you as well.
> 
> A few compliments though your heel is really nice and down. I love your horse! He looks eager and willing, which is very nice! What disciplines are you going to do? Gaming? or Western?


Yes, I am going to make an update video focusing on my position. This video I was just messing around not really focusing, and I will focus on keeping my legs under me. Thank you. The heel thing I don't even try on, it just happens to be that way lol. I never practiced the heel down thing and I wasn't even really taught but then I found out it was right and I never realized how much my heels stay down until I saw this video. He is a fantastic horse. He is really tolerant of idiots like me  lol. Like that headstall was in his eye and I didn't even notice it until watching the video, and I felt so bad, but he didn't give me any signs either :/


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

********************UPDATE********************************

I rode Fifty today, with keeping in mind about having my legs back, rocking with the canter, and keeping my elbows steady and my hands low, and I would say it was a very successful practice round. I rocked with the beat of the canter, where my butt didn't even come off the seat, a few times I would lose the beat and fly a few strides and then I would get back into the beat again. I tried to keep my legs back but I couldn't tell because I didn't video tape or anything, and I'm not quite sure how it looked, and I continued to tell myself to keep my arms relaxed and my hands low.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

*riding critique on one heck of a video.*

I am just teasing about the video.
You already got a lot of feedback. Here's mine, ok?
yeah, you need to work on quieting the body, yours, I mean. It's like this, when the horse moves you gotta move with him. You have to give your LOWER body to the horse, so to speak. If you are blocked in your lower body, and you ARE, then the motion that would be absorbed by your hips and knees just travels up YOUR body and causes your upper body to be unbalanced and sway around and your elbows to flap. 
You seem like a good enough rider that you were able to compensate ok for that, but when the horse changed his gate, or direction, your upper body got out of sinc . That is because your lower body is locked, so it sends the motion up. Like many western riders, you have your knee almost straigth, locked and pushing forward into the stirrup and the whole leg is stuck out into the air, off the horse's side. If your knee is locked you are pushed back against the cantle and rigid. It is a kind of drag on the horse's forward movement. *Part of that is that the saddle (looks like a barrel saddle) is too small for you*s . You need to have some space behind your hiney , a gap between you and the cantle. Don't brace yourself into it. Sit upright in the middle of the saddle , at its' lowest point, let the weight go DOWN into the stirrup, not forward and think more of riding on your seatbones instead of pushing off the stirrup. 
You will need to really let your lower body go WITH the horse's motion more.
Really, he is a nice looking horse from what I saw. I am not a big hackamore fan as I think it's hard to get much lateral control, but other than being stiff you are really doing not so bad. 
Don't take offense, I think you wanted feedback to improve and that is very admirable. You will be a really nice pair, already are.


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## Fifty (Jul 1, 2010)

tinyliny said:


> I am just teasing about the video.
> You already got a lot of feedback. Here's mine, ok?
> yeah, you need to work on quieting the body, yours, I mean. It's like this, when the horse moves you gotta move with him. You have to give your LOWER body to the horse, so to speak. If you are blocked in your lower body, and you ARE, then the motion that would be absorbed by your hips and knees just travels up YOUR body and causes your upper body to be unbalanced and sway around and your elbows to flap.
> You seem like a good enough rider that you were able to compensate ok for that, but when the horse changed his gate, or direction, your upper body got out of sinc . That is because your lower body is locked, so it sends the motion up. Like many western riders, you have your knee almost straigth, locked and pushing forward into the stirrup and the whole leg is stuck out into the air, off the horse's side. If your knee is locked you are pushed back against the cantle and rigid. It is a kind of drag on the horse's forward movement. *Part of that is that the saddle (looks like a barrel saddle) is too small for you*s . You need to have some space behind your hiney , a gap between you and the cantle. Don't brace yourself into it. Sit upright in the middle of the saddle , at its' lowest point, let the weight go DOWN into the stirrup, not forward and think more of riding on your seatbones instead of pushing off the stirrup.
> ...



Yes. I worked on it. I'm guessing you didn't read any above posts because that would take forever, but I noticed the saddle was too small for me, but I am, slowly but surely, losing weight, and if you read the post right above yours, you will see my progress  Thanks for your input!


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