My name is MargaretF and my sins are many, but the worst one is that when I see a distance I yee-hah towards it. I simply cannot keep my body still.
Very disconcerting for my horses!
My name is Hats Off. I lean to the left and overjump little jumps
Cactuskate - you are not alone. We all feel the fear (if we have brains) and struggle with it on a daily basis. Now, if I could only remember to sit down and stay back, instead of grabbing neck everytime a horse gets “fresh” Sigh, oh to be young and fearless again.
Justme2 - what a different a hand can make.
I was riding a 16hh QH and am now riding a 17hh warm-blood. Her canter is another horses gallop. I’m just getting used to her movement.
I was just the opposite with stirrups. My legs improved with shorter stirrups, although I work without stirrups on other things. I also use a “regular” length for flat work (a la GM).
I’m with you at the “pushing 3’” stage. I’m also working on jumping on uneven terrain and on grass.
Dressage Today had an article on sitting the trot that I haven’t had a chance to finish. It was this month or last month. I’ll read it tonight and see if there anything to add.
Single verticals off of a long approach are my nemesis! My horse ends up eating it or (my trainer’s words) “Supermanning” it. Thank goodness he’s not prone to buck.
My name is Nylar.
I don’t breathe during jump courses, and I grimace during hacks.
I stick my head out so that I look like a turtle.
I cannot get a flying change to save my life on my own horse, and insist on “helping” auto change horses with theirs.
LOL, this is great. I just took a lesson with my trainer for the first time this fall, and so all my faults are quite clear in my brain.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Flash44:
[B]My name is Flash44. I…
Can’t sit the trot WITH stirrups. They bounce off my feet.
.[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thank heaven there is someone else! My other problems are too numerous to name.
Congratulations, you brave souls, you have completed step 1.
Do you consider these “imperfections” as a temporary stage in the learning process or a bad habit that you can live with?
How are you planning to correct these misdeeds?
My goal is to remember which horse I am riding LOL, last horse was huge needed no leg, stay off his back, and pray I could do the distance and not leave it out. New horse smaller, needs tons of leg, sit on back, stay behind motion and pray I get down the lines in the correct number and not the add.
My Turn!
My crest release is too long for no reason (except that I’ve ridden too many babies).
I can see THE distance, but I cannot ride to a specific, preplanned one!
I cannot get myself to grip in the right places in my leg. I cannot stop my dressage rider’s toe-in, wrap around leg, which is always threatening to let me get launched into orbit over big, round jumps.
A question: Are membership dues collected here? I’m wondering if there might be a discount or some kind of co-op arrangement with TOPS.
My name is jumpsalot and I cannot troat jumps. I have had this problem since I was a kid & no amount of work- or instruction from some of the best, even, has cured me of this issue. I either jump ahead, or have to catch up on top. I can say that while playing catch up, it is done with a lovely auto release, so no catching in the mouth, just the bum in the saddle ( or else I get a chest full of withers).
HI. My name is Lori. I took many years off of jumping courses, so now my position has fallen back to…grabbing mane instead of doing a correct release. Or, one hand will release correctly and the other is, well, STILL in the mane. Tend to want to roach it sometimes!!! 
Everything else stays where it should, but those HANDS seem to want to do their own thing no matter what I am trying to get across to them. UGH! 
My name is Flying Circus.
I lead with my chin (there is, by the way, no way to fix that, short of having your trainer yell at you every second breath.).
I like to tilt forward when I see a distance I like and therefore screw up the distance by changing the rhythm.
I’m so spur dependent that I lift my heel to use my spur even when I’m not wearing them. (And the horse I rode last night HATED them!)
I can’t keep my fingers closed, elbows bent or eyes open all at the same time to save my life. Usually, the fingers suffer and I drop my crop.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DebS:
Do you consider these “imperfections” as a temporary stage in the learning process or a bad habit that you can live with?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Definitely a bad habit you can live with. For as long as I have been alive, I haven’t been a good “sitting-trotter”. Thus, I, like my bud DMK, avoid equitation classes like the plague!!!
Works in Progress.
As long as it’s working and as long as you’re making progress. Plateaus of good riding are better than ruts of bad riding.
I make progress with a big A-HA, or, oh,THAT’S what they’re talking about, and then I take a long time make it a part of my riding. (I’m stuck in the intermediate zone somewhere)
I progress faster with better instructors and I find the better jumping instructors have a background in dresssage. These instructors usually are very in tuned with training the horse.
Case in point. I couldn’t get a 6yo QH to pick up the left canter. Forget lead, he just wouldn’t canter. Yes I was leaning forward, yes he’s already on the forehand, and yes he’s lazy. so how do you fix this?
The instructor (I only took one lesson from him) had me just try it again and again and again. No luck. The next day, a dressage rider, a knowledgable older gal, said “he needs to move off your left leg better to get the weight off the inside”. So we practiced (taught him) some leg yeilds, with the help of a dressage whip, so that I could set him up properly and viola, he wasn’t leaning on my leg, was balanced better and he got the canter depart. This whole process really taught me so much more about what a horse needs to do in order to canter as opposed to just doing it over and over.
It was about using “aids” not just “cues” (i.e. outside leg back)
I also think the rider really needs to find ways to improve him/herself. Often times the instructor is concentrating on other areas. Not to say they’re the wrong areas, but they may not really see that your left side is THAT much weaker than your right. This is the soul searching, reading, auditing clinics, and the bb’s really help. The occasional lesson or clinic from an outside source might also help.
Yes, it’s a long process.
[This message has been edited by DebS (edited 11-24-2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by VTrider:
Thus, I, like my bud DMK, avoid equitation classes like the plague!!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
JUST SAY NO TO EQ CLASSES!!!
My name is DMK and I look down for a lead one stride after the jump… yes, I CAN feel which lead the horse is on, and yes, my horse can do an auto change even if I couldn’t, but I still look, all the same… (Oh, yes, I do lots of other things too, but this one ANNOYS me the MOST!)
I just plain can’t ride. LOL.
So I had the lesson from hell today (my horse is not a 2x a week horse, especially in cold weather and he does not let me forget it). My trainer was saying things like, make him push off his left hind harder, push his left shoulder out, square your corners and rotate him around his haunches, move his left hip OVER! I was almost hysterical that he even considered I could do that stuff. What was he on?
Hi, my name is ErinB, and I’m a percher. I have puppy dog hands and I need to keep my leg back during to sitting trot. Oh, and get that arch out of my back-- just ask my trainer!!
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by FlyingCircus:
I can’t keep my fingers closed, elbows bent or eyes open all at the same time to save my life. Usually, the fingers suffer and I drop my crop.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Ohhhhhh I have the WORST open fingers! TERRIBLE. I actually had a trainer teach me to ride with open fingers “so that I’d learn to have a soft hand” and I learned to put the reins at the end of my fingers with my little soft as a pillow childrens hunter that never pulled and BOY was I in trouble when I got a jumper 3 years later. LOL
<sigh> I can’t possibly list them all
When I see the distance, I relax the center of my back. Now, this could be a great thing because I am communicating ‘relax’, but I end up a noodle by the time I get to the jump, collapse on the poor things neck and G-d help us if it’s a short distance to the corner and I need to do a change.
My reins are too long.
I overdo the flatwork.
I am lazy about my own basics.
I gallop to the chip.
