[QUOTE=KSquared;7897031]
Photos in order of starting and HOPEFULLY showing improvement
February - Our second ever ride in a training fun show
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx54/Gypsy_Song/8005_10102057666192347_1876372619_n_zps24b3436c.jpg
March - Our second fun/training show
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx54/Gypsy_Song/1970525_10151924496001557_776047099_n_zpsb280b865.jpg
April - This was a practice show a friend put on, it was supposed to prepare us for a real show
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx54/Gypsy_Song/10177398_679823095396689_7890196011101975626_n_zps68a58860.jpg
(lots of horses were worked in May and June. July I was on vacation and it rained the whole month. Its hard to get pictures of me riding as I am always behind the camera)
September - Just riding at the farm
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx54/Gypsy_Song/10438920_10152233025066557_6617904483445612315_n_zps0cfc557e.jpg
October - Riding my Arab gelding - I just got him in October and I ride him and Lilly.
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx54/Gypsy_Song/10636711_10152325751406557_8351221758880834951_o_zpscdddea02.jpg
Nothing from November other then a trail ride.[/QUOTE]
I hope this doesn’t come out wrong, just a critique of the pictures, pointing out that pictures are one second in time, the next one may paint a whole different story.
It will be long winded, there is so much to touch on first here, so set the premises I will be speaking from.
What pictures are good for is to educate our eyes, so we can see so much that is going on there and learn from that where we want to go, where we may be, what we can improve.
Riding is basically staying on top of a horse and getting the horse to do what we want it to do.
Some people are naturals at that, very talented at balance and understanding motion and horses and how to do that and can do so “from the seat of their pants”, without thinking.
Those are the people that don’t know horses have gaits or leads, but can feel a horse moving correctly and help it do so by feel.
Most humans don’t and there we have to learn the concepts of riding, what we want and how to get there.
Horsemanship has been about doing things the best way for the horse, the rider and the task at hands.
As soon as people get more involved with horses, we learn from others what we don’t know and adapt what we know to the new information.
I think you may be right now there, all of us are there at one time or another, I am there with reining now, know so much from other I have done, try to apply it to reining and, well, so much doesn’t, but other I have to learn now does.
Example, horse’s gaits don’t count in reining, that he does what he does, the reining movements, a certain, very specific way does.
Still, some basics are the same for most that ride, bar a few exceptions, basics that permit us to ride the best we can to help the horse perform for us.
Now, I will say, the first picture, you seem to be riding stiffly, with piano hands, which is not very effective for keeping true contact, which you don’t seen to have there.
The horse seems to be moving bracey and on it’s front end, not coming at all over it’s back into a soft, receiving hand.
Some like full cheek snaffles to be attached by keepers, I don’t after seeing x-rays of how hanging them so makes them stiff and keeps them from communicating as a snaffle needs to.
Good that yours are loose there.
If that picture was how your horse moves around all the time, I would say, we need to start on the longe line and teaching that horse the basics of reaching out and down, so it can start freeing it’s back and learning to work using itself better.
The second picture, your seat is much better and more effective, still piano hands on the reins, but a bit more clear, steady contact.
The horse is moving a bit better, still just cruising along, no softness there, although a bit more purposeful, not as bracey as the first picture, more true forward.
The third picture is one of those we all have that makes us cringe, seems that so much that can be wrong is wrong there.
The rider is very stiff, the horse is very stiff and resistant, as the rider seems to have asked for a half halt, maybe, the horse has hollowed it’s back, “gone duck” as we used to tease, pushing it’s front out to balance itself and the hind end is dragging somewhere behind there.
Then comes the fourth picture, where so much is right, the horse is much softer, stepping well under itself, trying to come up a bit in front, but is starting to cheat behind the bit if the rider doesn’t keep working with giving to hand and adding more leg and then holding a bit that energy in front, to again use more leg and giving, etc.
We can see that good picture starting to go because the horse is about to break at the third vertebrae, the poll is starting to curl, not any more the highest part.
That is the point that can determine if a rider is going to train a horse properly, or if it needs someone to help it get that important part of training a horse to use itself best, to collect.
If the next picture is showing the horse not keep falling onto the forehand and evading the bit by curling under, we are golden.
We don’t know what happened there, just from that one picture.
The rider there has better hand position, no flat piano hands, that keep the rider from properly using the wrists.
Upright hands with the thumbs on or near the top give more flexibility to what we can do with that line from elbow to horse’s mouth.
The last picture is a whole different horse, that may have better basic training and, there the angle is not so easy to see much, he seems to be working properly, the rider still seems stiff and with tentative contact, but in general, just seeing that picture, I would not have commented on all those other basics that seem to be questionable in the other pictures, with the other horse.
All that is a first impression, after looking more carefully, or seeing more, or better yet, seeing the rider in more than a few pictures, my opinion can very well change, is the nature of horses, working with them is not an exact science.
Also, it is true with horses, two horse people looking, at least three different opinions.
After being a riding instructor for decades, it is hard not to seem to keep picking at what is going on constantly, but that is what we were trained to do.
We learned to see what is going on and how to make it better and keep adjusting to the horse and rider as is happening, that is what was expected of being a teacher.
The way I see it, riding is something we can do best by being under instruction, to have a second set of eyes on the ground, because we really can’t see while riding all that is going on.
We can do much on our own, but having someone checking us out regularly is how we advance and correct what could be better.
The better reining trainers I know, they all go spend some days with another top trainer here and there, where both can help each other.
Working with BNTs, even they are expecting those around them to tell them what they see, is what helps getting better at it.
I thought a curb bit was a solid mouthpiece with a hump in the middle. I am restarting in all this and kinda relearning. My Mom didn’t train me very well I am learning.