Nakota is gorgeous!! You two look great together 
Thank you for sharing!
It really helped me as a kid when I switched (because of too many falls and my horse being WAY too green, and the h/j trainer not having much patience with that) to a trainer who was a certified Centered Riding instructor, both with my own position and with my horse learning to use himself better.
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I wanted to post a little follow up, Thank you all for your advice, I have been trying to incorporate and would love feedback on progress. I have not been able to ride my girl as much as I would like due to a myriad of random ailments (hers, not mine), but we are getting some walking in to keep building up some muscle.
I think she looks a lot better than she did late August! I feel more connected with her through my seat and leg, but I need to work more on bending my elbow. One issue is I can’t seem to find a good seat in this saddle. It is a cheap Wintec Ultralight close contact. She is only 750# so I wanted an ultra light adjustable saddle until her weight levels out and she is a bit stronger. I tried without stirrups, since I could tell I was bracing against them and I was hoping it would highlight my issue. I think I am leaning more forward with my pelvis. I feel like I should reach under my thigh and pull it forward to get in the correct position.
I am riding her in this saddle with my instructor on Saturday, and would love any tips to incorporate
*A little background: I am a 30 y.o. re-rider, riding less than a year as an adult, and my goal is to safely own horses and ride for pleasure. I suffer from anxiety and riding REALLY helps. As tense as my shoulders and arms are in the videos, that is the most relaxed I ever am :eek: Bella is a 17 y.o. BLM mustang I’ve had for about 3 months. She is a saint, a sassy saint 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFf4rWR6XpU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52mOs-iQy8o
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Can you get more side to side movement with your hips instead of pumping back and forth with your torso? That will quiet your belly and take up the motion in the lower half of your body, and will help you feel the hind legs better.
BTW I saw the zebra pattern slinkly and for a moment I thought: wow, really cool mustang dun factor barring!
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Heels Down! Heels Down! Regardless of whether you’re using a saddle or bareback you need to stretch your legs
and HEELS down and try to straighten your feet a little toward horse’s head.
Your horse is a sweet, patient mustang. And you’re getting more flexible in your body. Good Work!
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Thank you, I totally see that now! I will try that I do have a hard time feeling the hind legs.
She is SO patient with her new apparel. She has an eye injury and needs to wear one 24/7.
Thank you, I will definitely start doing that. I feel like that was super obvious that I should have been doing, oops! I clearly have no shame, I mean who asks for feedback on walking? But the first time helped so much! So thank you
And thank you for the sweet words about Bella She is so wonderful and tries so hard to figure out what I want. We spend a lot of non riding time together, she is my first horse and I feel like there is so much to learn and love about her.
There is nothing better than having her come trotting across the pasture to greet me
You both look more relaxed with the saddle.You might already know this, but it is OK to ‘grab mane’ if you need a momentary help balancing. That might be useful to know, the next time you try bareback.
When I was taking lessons as a child,one of the ‘reward’ things for our and the horse’s work in the lesson, was to cool out the horse bareback. Instructor would just undo the girth and slide the saddle out from under us as we temporarily perched up by the withers.
I can see you are making progress, and Bella is adorable.
Much more relaxed in the saddle than bareback, but I’m still seeing a lot of stiffness overall. Scribbler mentioned the lack of lateral motion in your hips, and that is one symptom of being fairly rigid in your posture. That and the lack of length in your leg gives you a perched appearance, as if you’re balancing on your crotch instead of your seatbones.
OP, what does your instructor do with you in your lessons? Are they giving you detailed feedback on how to help orient your body, or are they being very general?
If I were working with you, I’d be having you go through ROM exercises while mounted: head/neck, shoulders, arms, torso, upper leg, lower leg, ankle…all in the interest of getting you more relaxed and more aware of where your body is in space. Awareness is key: if you can’t feel where you are, you can’t make changes. In your second video, when you come past the barn back towards the camera your left arm drifts to the right and you start to turn your upper body that way as well, even though your horse is still walking quietly on a relatively straight line: this is one example of what that tension starts to cause. Your mare is lovely (still :D) and looks much quieter in the bridle than before, but eventually when you start asking more of her, your overall tension may get in the way because she’ll have learned to tune you out.
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I am a lot more relaxed with my instructor, she spots where the tension is and will tell me what to change. I think since I am super tense 100% of the time in everyday life I dont have a “feel” for what relaxed is. But I learned to relax while doing yoga, so I am sure I will while riding too, it will just take time, so good thing Bella is so sweet and patient <3
One thing may be when I ride with her she will have me stretch on the horse (reach towards ears then towards tail) to loosen up, and stretch the back of my legs and ankles if she sees any tension. Whereas when I ride alone since I can’t feel the tension I assume I am relaxed and don’t do it. I need to just do it every time I ride.
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