I recently heard this critique while auditing a big eq clinic, it’s a new one for me, what does it mean? Any examples would be great!
What did the riders do?
Were they being asked to ride with wider than normal hands? This can be useful to keep a wiggly horse straight
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Feels like clinician was asking rider to open their hands wider than typical. As @Scribbler above said - often used to straighten a horse towards a fence.
Used a lot for trot fences, skinnies, and fences in Big Eq that are like walls without traditional standards. I hear it a lot when I am riding with Eventers as a lot of XC fences are narrow / have more uniform tables / walls.
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Why would wide hands keep a horse straighter?
A popular working equitation coach (western foundation) loves to coach “pizza slice” reins; she says it frees up the shoulder…seems counter productive to me in a sport where you need them to learn to neck rein. Bosal riders use it to keep the prickly horse hair reins of the horse’s neck so the react stronger to the rein aids when they are applied. It also makes rocking the bosal easier.
I used wide hands to encourage a longer neck and step both when showing hunters under saddle, and doing lengthening in dressage. It encourages a stretch, I think because they are trying to find contact with the reins (on both sides), but I am not sure, I would love to understand why this method does work
I was riding horses for a few decades before I found out I had MS.
During these decades the horses I rode often would not seek out contact until I spread my hands apart enough so that there was a straight line from my elbows to the bits in all directions, so looking down at my arms from my elbow to the bit a straight line as well as the straight line from my elbow to the bit that was visible from the ground.
What I got from the horses was that they wanted to be able to SEE my hands before they would trust them. After I proved myself to the horses they were willing to let me get my hands closer together, until my MS messed up my nerves even more, then the horses wanted me to go back to making a triangle with my reins.
This drives my riding teacher crazy sometimes, but her lesson horses still demand that at least when I ride them the first few times I spread my hands apart enough so that is no break between a straight line from my elbows to the bit in all directions.
When they can see my hands the horses will relax and reach for the bit. After they learn to trust my hands seeing them is not as important and they will reach for the bit from my leg aids, until the next time my MS messes up my nerves.
Then it is back to spreading my hands apart for a while.
I knew I had read this somewhere - this is from the book “With Purpose: The Balmoral Standard” by Traci and Carlton Brooks
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Thanks for the input everyone! Forgot about this thread but hey, a month late is better than never! I agree with everyone chirping in, it makes the most sense that the phrase was likely referring to the widening of the rider’s hands. I asked because I didn’t persay “see” any change in the riding, but eq clinics are always tiny tweaks to help the big picture! I do recall the rider was riding a 6 y/o, so there’s a good chance he was a wiggley fella. I’m glad it’s a little bit obscure and I’m not just super oblivious LOL
