One friend I ride with all the time jokes that whenever you ride my horse, you get a “complimentary chiropractic adjustment with every ride.” :eek: :lol:
That horse never jumps streams or ditches, she always just steps over, or walks down into it and up the other side. I don’t like it when horses leap over stuff they can step over, so I’ve always been happy she’s a natural stepper and not jumper. But I have no idea what she was thinking that day.
[QUOTE=Shadow14;3951444]
You are not reading what I said?? I said it is rediculous for someone to advise me to back up or turn sideways on a hill like this. Once committed it is all the way, no turning back, no backing, no turning.
As for your friend throwing her arms up and leaning back that too is rediculous and the worst thing you can do for those back legs.
On a steep slope the front are braced out in front of you while the hinds because of the slope are much higher then the front and those bend on an angle almost parallelling the ground giving them very little traction. Throw weight on them just increases their chance of sliding and passing the braced front. A horse can not do a controlled slide front and back. He needs well planted fronts to maintain control. Again like a car in a hard break. You do NOT lock up the 4 wheels. Control is not about lock up.[/QUOTE]
First as I said, everyone has ways of doing it and whilst you may be more ruggedly handsome and experimental than some of us, that does not discount our opinions or our experiances.
Period, and that goes for all of us, not just him.
Personally my only concerns are “this is the only safe way” its not… there are more than one way to go down a hill. its been done time and time again.
And secondly this post here is the fact that you are totally contradicting yourself.
You say, you don’t want to weight the hind end so it slides. But you do want to weight the front end so it doesn’t slide.
You cannot add weight willy nilly and chose when said feet will slide. Its dynamics. Angles + weight + coeffictient of friction will cause a slide.
In some cases the MORE weight you have the less likely you are to slide and in other cases the more weight you have the MORE likely you are to slide.
And that is NOT dependent on leaning forward or back ward, its dependent on terrain, shoes, horse rider and slope of the hill.
Saying lean forward or back… ahem… AGAIN i say… is NOT the only answer. You must access your horse, your personally self, fat skinny or such and how your hill is.
Forward or back is not the answer. The answer is not being stupid and learning the fine art of balance.
Does Katarina’s attack on me not bother anyone?? Is this the way this forum works? Can we start listing insults and post them as a reply??
Katarina herself doesn’t bother me because that is just her but doesn’t anyone care that she can attack like this???
Is this what the post leads tooo?? Is this a sign of what is forum is really like?? Is it worth it to be a part of a group like this???
If you consider it a “personal attack”, then you click on the “alert” icon on the upper right hand of the post and report it to the mods. Let them take it from there.
Shadow, you should report it if you honestly think it is not a fair assessment of how you function on this board. Insulting women, anyone younger than you, and more broadly ANYONE who does ANYTHING counter to your way. You start threads so people can agree with you, or get called stupid/ovarily-challenged/less experienced/ignorant, etc etc etc.
How many times in this thread alone, have you either followed a question with ??? to drive home the point of how stupid it is that you ‘have’ to ask that question, and secondly, how ‘rediculous’ (sic) someone’s actions or suggestions are. You would call either of those tactful conversation techniques?
I’m calling you out for what you are: a pushy know it all. Clean up your act and learn to listen and allow others to have input counter to yours, and we’re fine here.
I was always taught to lean back on downhills, the steeper the more-er.
But when I was on a very rugged trail (steeper than any I had ever ridden) with an old cowboy one time, he told me not to lean back, but to (not his words) remain perpendicular to the imaginary horizontal. In other words, to keep your body straight relative to the earth’s gravity. Which is what happens when you ski, too - the steeper the hill the more you squat, but you don’t lean back (although it can feel like you are) or forward of your center of gravity, or you will wipe out feet or head first.
…O
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(No horse in that lame stick art - just showing the person’s body vs the slant of the hill. ETA: stick art even lamer once I posted this reply. Don’t know enough to fix it…sigh)
[edit]
Try posting some of your theories on the other forums. Tell all the eventers to lean forward. Tell the dressage riders that severe spurs are king. Convince the H/J people you have a clue. The Katrina will seem like your BFF:)
On the other hand, Norval, I do worry that one day your wife will be posting here to tell us of your untimely, horse related sudden death. Hope that never happens.
Twofatponies, I was taught the same. Not to lean forward or back, (going up or down hills) but remain perpendicular with the trees… sitting straight and low in your seat down hills, and straight and light in your seat uphills.
Tell all the eventers to lean forward.
I was just going to say that he’d better get over to the eventing forum and tell all of them the right way to ride!
Rolex is coming up–there’s still time to edumacate folks like Kim Severson! :lol:
http://www.darwood.ca/cgi-script/csNews/image_upload/CEN_2edb.Rolex05-KimSeverson-KM0H0297.jpg
…well hello everyone. 
We’ve removed the OT personal commentary in an effort to keep the thread focused on the original topic. If there’s an issue with someone’s posting habits, please contact me when it rears its head.
That being said, this IS a discussion forum. If someone chooses to give their advice, those comments are fodder for discussion.
That doesn’t mean you have to agree with each other, but it does mean that other people can provide their perspective and experiences, and an interactive conversation ensues where the differences in opinion or misperceptions are analyzed and…discussed. 
So, back to those slippery slopes…
Thanks!
Mod 1
you can see how some of us were taught to go down hill. I don’t typically go down hills this steep but I try and stay in this position going down my hills. The picture is from Waldemar Seunig’s book, Horsemanship, first published in 1956. Somewhere (and I really can’t find where) I have a picture of Linda Tellington going down a sand dune in this manner.
PS This is not for jumping - whole different ball game there. This is simply for going down a steep hill, and not at speed.
[QUOTE=twofatponies;3952040]
I was always taught to lean back on downhills, the steeper the more-er.
But when I was on a very rugged trail (steeper than any I had ever ridden) with an old cowboy one time, he told me not to lean back, but to (not his words) remain perpendicular to the imaginary horizontal. In other words, to keep your body straight relative to the earth’s gravity. Which is what happens when you ski, too - the steeper the hill the more you squat, but you don’t lean back (although it can feel like you are) or forward of your center of gravity, or you will wipe out feet or head first.
…O
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…|./
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(No horse in that lame stick art - just showing the person’s body vs the slant of the hill. ETA: stick art even lamer once I posted this reply. Don’t know enough to fix it…sigh)[/QUOTE]
Kinda what I was told-in different words . Just my experience, there is a sweet spot -lean too back and it feels like you/the horse are slipping away and have no control . But I guess never thought of it in the above terms-makes sense. But I don’t know, I have never leaned forward going down a steep hill-so don’t know how that would feel.
This is taken directly from “From Corral to Championship” Page 175.
I will skip some of it because it is too much typing but the picture on page 174 is a cross country horse comming down a steep slid and the rider is in a full forward seat.
The discription on page 175.
Approach the slide with firm control through the legs and rein.
Assume the forward seat just as in riding cross country. Keep a firm grip on the horse’s sides with legs-not forgetting the body’s forward inclination. This forward position frees the horse’s loins and lets his muscles have full play. You can brace yourself by leaning one hand at the base of the neck
Additionally at the bottom if the rider is well forward the horse will receive no great shock because his shoulder muscles and better equiped to absorb a shock than the bones in his hindquarters.
Again this is “FRom Corral to Champsionship” Page 174 and 175
By Maj. Gen. Perry B Griffith, (Ret.)
Charger Productions, Incorparated
Capistrano Beach, California
[QUOTE=Leather;3952496]
I was just going to say that he’d better get over to the eventing forum and tell all of them the right way to ride!
Rolex is coming up–there’s still time to edumacate folks like Kim Severson! :lol:
Funny but I just looked at my cross country book and they show how to do steep slides and it is a forward seat and even leaning on the base of the neck with a warning to maintain a forward seat.
Imagine that:)
[QUOTE=Bank of Dad;3952386]
On the other hand, Norval, I do worry that one day your wife will be posting here to tell us of your untimely, horse related sudden death. Hope that never happens.[/QUOTE]
I worry about this too. Last year my horse did a complete head over heals wipe out. We were just jogging down the side of the highway and his hind foot caught his front and he did a complete summersault and as he went over I pushed off to the side pushing him from going right over me. He hit hard on his chest and face.
A few months later we hit a hidden hole just under the snow and the horse again went down extremely hard on me pinning me under him far far from anywhere or anyone. After putting my face in the snow to keep from passing out I remounted and headed for home. I usually have at least one wipeout per year. Some day it will catch up to me and I will not walk away.
I have very high life insurance:lol:
[QUOTE=equinelaw;3952308]
[edit]
Try posting some of your theories on the other forums. Tell all the eventers to lean forward. Tell the dressage riders that severe spurs are king. Convince the H/J people you have a clue. The Katrina will seem like your BFF:)[/QUOTE]
The eventers already know to lean forward on the down slopes. That is in their manuals. As for severe spurs I wear a simple nub dessage spur myself.
Why does it bother you that I once ran a post on the arabs using severe spurs??? Why does it bother you that I wear dressage spurs with a single blunt prong??? Maybe you should tell the dessage people that spurs are a no no… I also ride in a simple snaffle bit but recommended for some people with less experience to use a more severe bit???
[QUOTE=pj;3951524]
Maybe I didn’t paint a good picture of what happened. IF…SHE…HAD…BEEN…LEANING…FORWARD…AS…YOU…SUGGEST…THE…HORSE…WOULD…HAVE…TUMBLED…HEAD…OVER…HEELS. He stumbled or the rocks slid out from under his feet He was going down and would have flipped. He had already dropped that head for a fall when she snatched him up. All this was split second and very scarey to see Probably wasn’t good for his legs OR his mouth but better than them coming tumbling down the hill.
:lol: You are going to cause me to have to start taking blood pressure pills.[/QUOTE]
This is not a normal situation. This horse tripped. Did not loose it’s footing because of the steepness of the grade but because it simple tripped. Leaning forward is a normal eventers position, not back and if the horse trips the rider will whip out but leaning back just in case the horse trips is putting the rider in a more exteme situation.
You could be just walking along and the horse trips and goes down and it has nothing to do with your riding position.
Shit happens:lol::lol:
My computer is turned off and I am using my wife’s lab top but if anyone wants a picture of how the book recommends going down a steep grade I can scan it tomorrow when my computer is up and running.
24 is just starting and I can’t miss that.:lol:
[QUOTE=GallopingGrape;3952484]
Twofatponies, I was taught the same. Not to lean forward or back, (going up or down hills) but remain perpendicular with the trees… sitting straight and low in your seat down hills, and straight and light in your seat uphills.[/QUOTE]
Trees!! That’s it! I knew there was a simple way of describing it! 
I hadn’t thought about it before, but (and this is to the discussion at large) is there a difference in technique depending on your speed? ie how you would ride a slope on an eventing course (or maybe even during an endurance race?) vs how you would ride it if you were out for a pleasure ride?
Perhaps there aren’t often equivalent downhills. The OP started out talking about really steep gullies, not the sort of thing you find on an eventing course, that I’ve ever seen.
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