# RIDING CRITIQUE *hides* me and Jeddah



## StarfireSparrow (Jan 19, 2009)

Other than your hands being in your lap most of the time, which is more of a pet peeve than anything "wrong," the only thing I would have you change is to roll your knee into the saddle more to bring your toes pointed forward instead of having your heal in his side all the time. Also, look where you are going. Your horse's ears are not going to fall off if you are not looking at them.  From these pics, I don't see anything else I would do differently. Your seat position looks good, your back is straight, not slouching. Maybe drop your stirrups a hole, but that is going to be a comfort thing and only if you are ready for it.


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## Hillviewfarm (Jan 29, 2009)

I have to agree 100% with MysterySparrow. You look great and you horse is beautiful!


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## Jubilee Rose (May 28, 2008)

Ditto on you looking amazing! Good job! You have a beautiful horse.

One thing I did notice was that your horse seems a bit stiff through the neck and back in the first couple pics. Maybe loosen contact just a tad while applying a bit more leg pressure to get your horse moving into contact through its hindquarters. She has really nice leg extension, by the way!  

Hands together, thumbs to the top, eyes up. I like the last picture best because you both look a lot more relaxed. 

I agree your stirrups could be slightly longer, this might actually help with your position at the canter. With longer stirrups, your leg will be a bit more forward, because they seem to be sliding back. 

Keep up the great work!! (Would love to see updated pics as well).


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## Summer08 (Dec 5, 2008)

I agree with everyone else. Your concern might me making you both a little stiff? and that would lead to the looking down. The heel is the only thing that really stood out to me. That head, shoulder, knee, heel line is just off a little on the heel, and thats easy to fix if you have someone watching you in practice and just telling you to move it repeatedly for a few days. Or ride bareback a bit. Otherwise, you both look great. Always remember, its a huge treat to get to ride a horse, take a deep breath and relax when you get one and try to make it fun, nothing else matters but the ride. Everything else will make itself right


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## KGImages (Jan 10, 2009)

I agree with Jubilee Rose. 

You look a bit tense yourself. You hands aspecially. Your horse might be stiff because of this. Also keep your head up, You may affect your riding without knowing it.
A few points to work on:


The first pic is good. But, your horse may look relaxed, somewhere there you can also see that she is a bit stiff and looks like she's hanging slighty. Your horse is stepping neatly under, but not enough. Ride plenty of transitions. Some horses still don't want to step neatly under with their hindlegs once doing transitions, so, A little tip: Make a transition to canter. Once relaxed and listening, then ride in leg yield along the long side. Your horse should face the wall of the ring, and work at a gentle angleto the fence with a slight bend to the outside. On the left rein, the right hand should take a flexion while the right leg moves your horse along the fence. The outside hand can provide a half halt to balance your horse. Then, swap to travers on the next long side - maintain the angle in your horses body, but use the left hand and the left leg to create the new bend towards the centre of the arena, and thr right leg slightly behind the girth to keep the quarters moving over. Repeat on the other rein. But, remember to keep your weight on the leading leg.
Is this handy for you?
I don't know if your at this kind of stuff yet. But even for a level 1 rider it's quite handy.

Hope it helps..

xx Kathleen


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## ShowJumpLife (Jan 17, 2009)

Overall the picture is lovley, you are sitting up lovley and tall and your hands look verry still and ballanced.
At first glance it looks like your legs are slipping back but the more I look at the photos the more I feel that what is actually happening is that you are tipping forwards from your pelvis JUST slightly which is brining your upper body forwards and hence your lower leg back.
I Think what you need to do is do a little bit of work without stirrups and think about sitting right back on your seat bones and sitting on your horses back, what you are doing at the moment looks to be just floating above the saddle a bit, this is great for when you are asking your horse to relax and soften while schooling but is looked down apon in dressage.
So some work without stirrups sitting up lovely and tall like you are now, sit deep into the saddle and try to relax and open your pelvis, wrap your legs around your horses sides like spagetti and only use your calf muscles and upper thigh to ask the horse to move forwards.
It might be a good idea just to do some excersices to loosen your pelvis up because I think once you do that you will be able to sit on your seat bones which will bring your leg underneath you and longer, and will just sharpern up that image soo much.

Good luck with your dressage you have a lovley horse there


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## XxXequinegrlXxX (May 24, 2008)

sink into your heels , move your leg forward... and don't forget to look up!!!!!! I have the same problem .. i am always looking down .
Other than that your look like a great rider and your horse is gorgeous!! =]


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## jeddah31 (Jun 11, 2008)

Thanks heaps guys. 

I haven't had a chance to ride because of the heat lately but will hop on very soon and let you know how it's all going. 

That would make sense that she's stiff coming through from me, to be honest I hadn't thought of that. I am due for another no stirrups session so will also do that. 

Thanks(totally forgot who said it though) for that canter exercise, I will try that. Our travers can get a bit messy, she's been stiff off my leg lately so I've been doing loads of leg yeild in walk atm just to re-establish it all. 

I cn't believe I dropped my hands down! I swear I very rarely have my hands in my lap but for some reason in the test they were-i think i was concentrating too much on Jed, and kinda left myself out of it. 

Will put up more pics after i've worked on a few things 

thanks again


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## HorsesAreForever (Nov 9, 2007)

I havent read the other posts so sorry if I repeat. I love the last picture btw! But the first few it looks like you legs are to far make which is shifting you weight forward onto your crotch instead of more on your balence point. Toes forward heels down. Look up!  Your horse is GORGEOUS!! and you guys make a great team good luck in your future shows!!


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

You guys look fantastic! I am jealous at the amount of grass you have. You guys look great! Can't wait to see more pics!


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## IheartPheobe (Feb 15, 2009)

Stop looking down!! You don't want to go to the ground, do ya? ^-^
Sit up a little more and pick up your hands.


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

The only thing that jumps out at me is that, the bottom picture where you both look the best and most relaxed, you have a straight line of elbow to bit. In the other pics, that line is broken. Might be a simple fix for some of the stiffness. Otherwise, beautiful horse.


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