An "AHA!" Moment Thread

[fivestrideline]

I’m sure this has been done before but… oh well

What’s your “aha!” moment tips/tricks/etc? I’m thinking of the little detail or change in wording that made a huge difference in your riding or management. Silly and/or obvious ones are most appreciated!

I have two recent ones:

• maintaining rein length by “pinching” the rein that comes up between thumb and forefinger. I hold my reins classically (not talking about a driving rein here), but I have always struggled with letting them slip and get too long. I used to get yelled at as a kid for constantly having to shorten my reins. Turns out, I was using my ring fingers as my main “grip”, which doesn’t really work when I lose focus and can create a pulling hand. Turns out that by keeping my thumb and forefinger as the main grip, I can be soft through the rest of my hand and arm without slipping the rein. Who knew!
• mainly using the glutes (max and med) to close the leg instead of the hip flexors, calves, and quads. Thinking of it this way lets my leg stay longer and discourages my heel from coming up. It also helps my tendency to turn the toe out too much and use the back of my leg (an old habit from subpar lessons as a kid). I saw this literally yesterday on TikTok and it was life changing . I’ve regularly been complemented on my eq, so I was hiding it well, but still!

I think it’s interesting how the little things like this may seem obvious to some but if you’ve never heard it or never been told, it’s easy for the details to slip through the cracks and be compensated for elsewhere. I’m always interested in hearing other stories and tips like this, if anyone wants to share!

[Bluey]

That some horses, more than the rare one, LIKE to be kept in their own space.
They maybe enjoy other horses around, but not sharing immediate footprints.
After decades of thinking herd enviroment was crucial to practically all horses, finally realized that was not so for many.
Once we had more individual pasture arrangements, at least part time, horses happily sighted, laid down and passed out.

Moral of this, go by what each horse tells you, don’t always believe what you think, listen to each horse.
Yes, many adapt wherever, but with careful management, we can do better for domestic horses that don’t really get to choose that much.

[chestnutmarebeware]

When I bought my first horse trailer (a two-horse bumper pull), I just could not get the hang of backing it.

The BO and my SO (a farrier) tried to teach me, but their explanations and methods just didn’t work with my brain. Steer the opposite way you want to go, hold the steering wheel at the bottom instead of the top, etc. I knew WHAT to do but just couldn’t make it work.

Finally, I was chatting with another boarder about my frustration, and she said “I just imagine pushing the trailer hitch where it needs to go to move the trailer.” BINGO. That made perfect sense—focus on maneuvering the hitch, not the trailer itself.

Problem solved.

[NaturallyHappy]

This might be brilliant for me.

[LawsofMurph]

After coming off an 8 month riding hiatus due to super broken arm, I had the most incredible AHA! the other day.

If you use your lower leg correctly the horse will go forward and your posture will be better.

[NoSuchPerson]

@Bluey

That some horses, more than the rare one, LIKE to be kept in their own space.
They maybe enjoy other horses around, but not sharing immediate footprints.
After decades of thinking herd environment was crucial to practically all horses, finally realized that was not so for many.

I have believed my whole life that all horses needed to live in a herd environment. After 2.5 years with my current horse, whose herd behavior has been variously described as being a pest, being aggressive, and being unable to settle into the pecking order, I am finally beginning to believe that individual turnout might be the best situation for him.

I’m moving soon to a new area and plan to board at a barn that has mostly individual turnout, so we will get to try out my theory.

[fivestrideline]

@LawsofMurph

After coming off an 8 month riding hiatus due to super broken arm, I had the most incredible AHA! the other day.

If you use your lower leg correctly the horse will go forward and your posture will be better.

I feel this. Sometimes I need to be reminded to BREATHE, so there’s that

[Sdel]

@fivestrideline

mainly using the glutes (max and med) to close the leg instead of the hip flexors, calves, and quads. Thinking of it this way lets my leg stay longer and discourages my heel from coming up. It also helps my tendency to turn the toe out too much and use the back of my leg (an old habit from subpar lessons as a kid). I saw this literally yesterday on TikTok and it was life changing

Me too. Tried it out this morning. My mare is more than happy to give you her opinion on your riding. She was much happier, and less work, to get those first few trots off today.

[Ajierene]

@fivestrideline

I feel this. Sometimes I need to be reminded to BREATHE, so there’s that

When I first started eventing, I would often be VERY winded after cross country. Prior to that, when I did hunter/eq jump course, I would always come out breathing heavy. One day, out on cross country, I just wanted to fall off my horse I was so exhausted and winded. I can still picture it to this day - galloping across a field to the second to last jump. My horse going eagerly forward and I just wanted to collapse.

I thought I had asthma or something…no, turns out I don’t breath when thinking hard. Dressage was ok because it was moment of thinking/not breathing then moments of breathing. Stadium jumping was OK because it’s what - 30 seconds, min max? Cross country…even at the lower levels that’s holding your breath for 5 min or more. It realized this is something I do in other areas of my life as well - negotiating heavy traffic, when I run (first 100 yards or so then I am catching my breath the rest of the time), difficult paper to write…

So now, I concentrate on breathing for the first two jumps, then I’m usually good.

Also, after a lesson - eyes up over a jump and automatically I’m sitting up better (not leaning forward right before the jump or tilting to much in 2 point), and my heels are staying down and magically I am with my horse better over the jump. So now if I am worried, I force myself to find a tall tree beyond the jump and stare at it.

[kaya842]

Can we get the link to this TikTok??

[Sdel]

I actually saw mine come across FB reels. No way I’m finding it again. So, maybe @fivestrideline can link to it.

[fivestrideline]

I’ll grab a link if it pops up again - I remember the account but couldn’t search it if I tried!

[Janet]

When I think about pushing my HEELS down I tend to brace, and push my feet forward.
It works much better if think about pushing my KNEES down.

[Ajierene]

I tell the few young students that I have to think of stretching your heels down rather than push them down - like if you are standing with your toes on the edge of stairs and just relaxing your heel down. I have found that "pushing’ or “forcing” does cause knee pinching and other issues that effect balance.

I will have to think about how pushing knees down is…I am having trouble picturing it right now.

[fivestrideline]

I’ve had luck with the “knees down” thing too. “Point your knees to the ground” works for when you’re bad about letting your leg get tight and crawl up their sides. Usually starts with tightness in the hips.

“Toes up, knees down” works too.

[strangewings]

The first time I truly had my position correct in motion, I felt like if the horse was literally taken out from under me, I would land on my feet. Something I had been told I should be looking for in alignment in the mirror since my first lesson, oh 20 years prior. I did not realize in all that time that “correct” would literally feel like what I had been told it should look like.

That and a few other similar things I picked up around the same time (incl. OP’s examples) completely changed my baseline for “correct riding is simple, but not easy”.

[Rackonteur]

Good luck! Keep us posted.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Mine was around 1984 I had bought a copy of “The Way to Perfect Horsemanship” by Udo Burger. I read it on a surface level until Udo Burger EXPLAINED the theory of how a rider times their aids, timing them to the actions of the hind legs.

All of a sudden this all became clear to me. I put it into practice and I got IMMEDIATE improvement from my four horses when I rode them. What used to be HARD became incredibly easy. My horses started halting/slowing down in response to my first aid instead of me having to repeat the aid over and over again. The horses extended their strides when I asked them to in an “of course” manner instead of their usual “make up your mind lady, what exactly DO you want” response.

EVERY horse I have ridden since then, both my own and other people’s lesson horses, have responded accurately and promptly to my well timed aids. Reading that book turned me from a so-so acceptable rider to a rider who gets asked by riding teachers HOW I got such a good response from their normally resistant horses.

That book changed my riding life. Then a drunk driver drove head on into my car. For around three years I did not ride much at all because it hurt too darn much. When I finally got back into riding regularly by taking lessons on lesson horses timing my aids well worked very well, saving me a lot of pain and feelings of hopelessness and exasperation.

I found out that timing my aids correctly was easy. Everything on horseback became so much easier after I read that book. It is not a big mystery like a lot of writers about equitation make it out to be, it is not hard like a lot of writers about equitation make it out to be, it is sooooo simple and the horses are so much happier with me riding them now in spite of my MS because I know how to time my aids in such a way that it helps instead of hinders the horse.

[kaya842]

Posting through my hands instead of up and down.

Upper arms should stay “attached” to your trunk. This made me sit up so much straighter and keeps my hands up somehow too?

[Texarkana]

Working with horses is more about regulating your own energy than anything you are outwardly doing.