So, as an adult rider that has not ridden as a child, I have had a steep learning curve. I have learned more bad stuff in the 8 years or so I have been around horses. But I have also learned some amazing things as well.
One of my biggest pet peeves is how people hold the reins. I am so tired of hearing my instructor say “close your fists around the reins”. Why is it that people like to “puppy paw” or, as I call it, “paddle” the reins?
If you are holding the reins correctly, wrists should be in line with lower arms, and thumbs holding reins between pointer and thumb. All of your other fingers should be closed, but softly, in order to influence the reins with a squeeze when needed.
I see people who have been riding for years riding horses with their hands open, and backs of their hands up instead of out, and wrists bent. It drives me crazy.
What makes people do this??
Why - I don’t know but once you develop the habit it is super hard to change! Believe me, we would if we could and we don’t do it to annoy you! I’ve been working to fix this for years with limited success.
I certainly do not think anyone is during it to me on purpose. But to see other riders, supposedly advanced riders constantly doing it, people training horses doing it, etc., I have to wonder why? If the closed hands on the reins thing works so well, why isn’t everyone doing THAT instead??
Well, I would say that the best riders do. But they will tell you that they are all constantly working on improving their position and effectiveness (is that even a word?) Reiner Klimke hated it that his head jutted forward. Worked on it his whole life…
Because there are many times a trainer or advanced rider needs to open the hands and fingers to some extent to give or relax the reins. Puppy paws however are never correct because they interrupt the integrity of the hand to elbow.
However a rider cannot usefully open the fingers to give rein if that rider cannot also keep a desired shorter rein length as needed. As long as your reins mysteriously become longer and longer through the ride or when problem solving, the correct instruction is to keep your hands closed. It’s only when you are able to do that as second nature that it then becomes appropriate to ride with open fingers at certain points.
Many many beginner riding “rules” end up being modified or qualified or no longer applicable for advanced riders
A lot of riders spent a large part of their early riding time with no or incorrect instruction. Once bad positions become habit it is much harder to correct than starting out correctly! Most of the “puppy paws” people I have known incorrectly believe that this position makes them light or more forgiving on the horse’s mouth.
I have been trying to hold onto my reins for years… I KNOW that the reins slip through my fingers. I have tried different reins. If I had a dollar for every time I heard “shorten your reins”, well, I would be incredibly rich. At least I am sitting more evenly (recently). It has taken the last three to four years to stop collapsing in my right rib cage and slipping to the left. Bad habits are not only difficult to correct but they self perpetuate other things that the horse might be doing incorrectly. Straightening my horse helped me sit more evenly and not having her so heavy helped me hold onto the reins a little better.
The why of it… habit. Does something else work better, yep. I will keep working on it. My favorite comment from a judge at a schooling show last spring was that “ you can’t ride any collected movements on a long rein”. Yep. Knowing and DOING are not always the same thing.
What makes people start doing it? Probably because it’s the normal wrist position for a lot of other activities that become ingrained before riding, like riding a bike. And then it gets reinforced by the position used by typing on a keyboard.
Why do people continue to do it? Because a habit like that, especially one constantly reinforced in other areas of your life, is difficult to correct.
It’s not a habit I usually have, though it happens to me occasionally. My bad habit is lifting my hands in relation to my elbows (or as my trainer calls it “forearm riding”).
Well, to lighten things up – this reminded me of a woman I knew since I was a teenage - which was a very long time ago! She got into paints and one of her mares produced a colt she named “Puppy Paws” which was really a cute name for a paint IMO.
I have never heard of the term puppy paws.
As an instructor we say something that you are doing that you don’t know you are doing 2,000 times. For the next however thousand times you are aware of it, but don’t do it until the instructor says something.
Then you start doing it before we say it. SUCCESS.
Then we tell you to do something else that you are doing without knowing you are doing and you go back to doing the original thing without knowing you are doing it as well. So now 2 things to tell you several thousand times and so on and so forth. FOREVER!
Ah, yes, the whole " I am being kind to my horse" thing. I have heard that and everything I have read and been taught (so far) has stated that that is not true.
One thing I do want to know is this: How many riders are penalized for it in the ring? Is it REALLY that big of a deal, then?
Well I Googled puppy paws and horse riding and got nothing.
I am guessing we are talking about loose fingers. If that is the case then the crunch comes when the horse trips. The reins can be pulled out of the hands and the horse falls. Or the rider picks the horse up and they keep going.
Which starts the war of words of is it possible to pick something up when you are on it or if you only can if you are separate from it and strong enough.
Which ring? Only Equitation is based on the whole rider.
Jumping has no EQ component. Dressage only has an eq component if you interfere with your horse. I’m.not 100% sure how it works in Hunters.
However you better have functional riding skills for jumping and dressage.
Ok just realized this is in the dressage forum. No, there are no penalties for position errors per se in dressage.
While some riders are lucky enough to have the financial means to be in full training, I would say that the vast majority of dressage riders are on their own most of the time. Consequently, we receive feedback on a position flaw for every 1 out of 10 rides at best. For some of us we may only be getting a few lessons a year making that ratio more like 1 out of 50 rides. It is really hard to overcome muscle memory getting feedback that infrequently. Mirrors, Pixem, a helpful friend, etc. can all help close that gap but it is still hard.
I’ve never met someone who said “I’m intentionally riding with a position flaw and don’t care”.
It would only come into play in the collectives. USEF T-4th Rider’s Position and seat and Rider’s Correct and Effective use of the aids (2 separate boxes, coefficient 1) FEI same thing, 1 box coefficient 2.
Unless it’s a real pet peeve or it creates an issue with the contact it’s probably not going to be specifically mentioned. The judge only has a few mins at most to give scores for all the collectives and comments. They try to pick the most important thing–the overarching theme of the test. Even so, they would identify the problem, not the cause. If the problem is inconsistent contact, they might mention that but it’s up to you and your trainer to fix the problem.
It was addressed above, but the “puppy paws” is a bit of a cycle of fingers open, reins get too long, rider bends wrists to take up contact etc. Habits are hard to break.
Many dressage coaches spend the lesson concentrating on how the student can school the horse and do not give much equitation advice. Especially once the rider has reached a certain level of competency and has their own horse.
My dressage coach is a stickler for equitation and position but I ve learned that’s unusual.
Relaxing or “giving” the rein needs nothing more than moving one or both hands forward an inch or more as in ‘ubertsreichen’. The hands need not be in lockstep. So there is no need to open fingers with properly held reins.
That’s why we have the all important elbows.
I’m not trying to be inflammatory, it is a genuine question: how is it possible to school a horse correctly if it is not being ridden correctly? How can dressage be all about the horse and not about the rider?
My definition for Puppy Paws: The rider holds the hands high with the backs facing more upwards. The wrist is “broken” and the fingers often lax. The result looks like a begging dog.
While there are good biomechanical reasons behind most position requirements, they are not absolutes. Some need to vary due to personal or horse constraints, but this should be a conscious choice, not from habit or a lack of control. And we see variation even among top, accomplished riders. Charlotte DJ tends to ride with her elbows straighter and more in front of her than is usually considered “correct”. Works for her!
I guess this is what I am getting at. The crux of the issue isn’t just about the hands, it’s the failure to require people to correct issues before allowing them to move forward. I know that debate has been held here before, so I won’t bet a dead horse. I guess I just have seen so many here talk about subjects related to how Dressage has gotten where it is and I see such a mess sometimes, it makes me wonder what happened to standards?
I get it, human nature…if one instructor doesn’t let me move up because I suck, someone else will. It really is up to the judge to change that. Sadly, I think there aren’t enough who are. And I am not jumping all over judges, believe me, I respect the two I know. Both of them are adamant about the proper position of hand, leg, and seat, amongst other things… I would love to see how they are marking people on tests.
I guess this might tie in a little with the thread about equitation in Dressage. I feel like we do need it. Instead of movements at levels, how about we start making sure the rider can actually do their job, first?
@MsM:
[QUOTE]My definition for Puppy Paws: The rider holds the hands high with the backs facing more upwards. The wrist is “broken” and the fingers often lax. The result looks like a begging dog.
While there are good biomechanical reasons behind most position requirements, they are not absolutes. Some need to vary due to personal or horse constraints, but this should be a conscious choice, not from habit or a lack of control. And we see variation even among top, accomplished riders. Charlotte DJ tends to ride with her elbows straighter and more in front of her than is usually considered “correct”. Works for her!/QUOTE]
This is exactly what I mean by puppy paws, thanks!
At any rate, I know there was a thread about equitation in Dressage. I think we need to have an equitation component. If Dressage is all about training the horse, shouldn’t the rider have a certain competency level before being about to train a horse? That would include, in large part, a proper equitation component.
