Over the summer one of the things I worked extensively on was not crossing my inside arm towards the outside (keeping a hand on each side of the horse) when asking for the canter or basically in general. Towards the end of the summer I basically fixed my problem.However I went away to school and now it is back with a vengeance. I did ride in school but not very often and it was mostly unsupervised hacking.
Any help is appreciated! I can feel myself doing it and can fix it when I feel it but I really want to get this problem fixed
Thank You!
Bad habit on my part too, and Ms Trainer hates it. When I do it, it is usually accompanied by flattening the inside hand, so if I keep “thumbs up and even a little out” in the back of my mind, it helps keeps that arm in place. She also reminds me that I tend to do it when I think my leg won’t work.
[QUOTE=Lizmo;8457033]
Over the summer one of the things I worked extensively on was not crossing my inside arm towards the outside (keeping a hand on each side of the horse) when asking for the canter or basically in general. Towards the end of the summer I basically fixed my problem.However I went away to school and now it is back with a vengeance. I did ride in school but not very often and it was mostly unsupervised hacking.
Any help is appreciated! I can feel myself doing it and can fix it when I feel it but I really want to get this problem fixed
Thank You![/QUOTE]
thats easy enough to do… get a crop or whip to you
and get up on neddy and then in walk, and trot once mastered the walk lol
place your hands in the right position on the reins then add the crop so its sits across both thumbs… now ride without dropping it…
see keep those thumbs in equals elbows in… thumbs out or of elbows out ok done deal
put a martingale on your horse. inside hand stays in contact with the martingale
Focus on fixing the effectiveness of your inside LEG, and the hand will fix itself 
I would bet your hand tries to move toward the wrong side of the neck when you feel your horse start to fall to the inside. It’s your inside leg that should keep this from happening. So, is your inside leg too passive? Too weak? Is your leg fine, but your horse isn’t responsive? Once your inside leg is doing its job, your inside hand will have no reason to move. Good luck!
Most people pull their inside hand to the outside because they have the sensation that their horse is leaning to the inside. Why is this? Because most riders lean to the inside and get inside rein-itis 
If you sit evenly on your seat bones, this tendency will disappear. No one thinks they lean, but 95% of riders do. So focus on feeling weight in your outside seatbone they MIGHT become evenly weighted…then your hands won’t show the symptom of your lean.
Also, if you need your inside hand to the outside to keep your horse on the rail, you actually need to move your hips slightly to the outside. If you think you don’t lean inside and it’s just your hand doing this weird trick to you, periodically give your inside hand straight forwards a couple inches towards your horse’s inside ear as a test. If you can’t move your inside hand forward it means you’re leaning
Riders who’s extremities (hands, arms, legs, heels) do undesirable things are actually a symptom of the core (seatbones & torso) not being absolutely correct.
As no,stirrups said. It is your leg on that side that is at fault. Anytime you find your hand where it should not be, it is telling you that your leg is not either being answered, or used effectively.
Now if your overusing an opening rein, it’s the outside leg being ineffective, or you haven’t turned your shoulders sufficiently towards where you are going.
I’ve gotten better but still tend to overuse my inside rein when under pressure. Part of it absolutely was a mare that questioned the aids. When I explained to my trainer that I was going to “plan B” when the aids didn’t work, he said Plan B is Plan A but harder.
And I started riding a more willing horse.
