I wasn’t suggesting the “not jumping” issue as punishment…but for safety!! I think it is dangerous to NOT have a good hold on the reins when jumping. Not every horse is a saint!!
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I don’t know what a toonie is but I fail to understand why your rider needs inanimate objects to provide her with the motivation to follow your instruction.
She should be motivated because she is taking a lessob and you said this is what she needs to do to imrpove
If a million dollars were on the table as long as she didn’t give you any reason to say “fingers” I bet she would be reminding herself to ride with a GD death grip like her life depended on it.
I don’t know about anybody else but if a coach tells me “lean further back” three times then I start trying to touch my horse’s tail with the back of my helmet.
Now, as helpful aids for your slow learner here I might try wrapping some vet wrap in the right spot (maybe 6" worth) bc it is both a visual and textural clue, and a thicker sticky rein is easier to keep a hold of than a thin little ribbon, but ultimately, she is going to have to learn how to remind HERSELF to check in on her own bad habits and develop strategies to proactively address when her muscle memory is lying to her.
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Also, tell her to put her hands further up the neck when jumping. Watch her physically move both arms further up the neck.
A lot of times people slip the reins in lieu of a real release. Happens to the best of us.
Three strides before the fence make her SAY OUT LOUD “fists closed arms forward”. Some students don’t have the ability to hold a desired modification in their head at the same time as ride. Everything flies out the window. I taught a lesson once where I did back flips hollering “HANDS FORWARD!! RELEEEAAASE” and the student just rode around in a daze. Later she watched video and was like, “Oh wow I totally wasn’t doing what you were saying.”
So make them SAY IT OUT LOUD so they have to figure out how to pay attention to whatever adjustment and ride at the same time.
She managed to jump two entire courses without dropping her reins in her lesson this week. I started by having her hack and warm up jump with the driving hands. This annoyed her enough to barter to get to hold her reins normally. Her punishment if she let go of her reins was that she would owe me a lap of posting without stirrups for each occasion.
Her conclusion was that she was just being lazy: actually following her horse was more work.
Having her say it out loud will be my next go to though: that is a good idea.
A toonie is a two dollar coin (loonie is the one dollar coin).
