Hope this video helps. Stay Positive! Everyone makes mistakes :) Here is a video I did on how you can use your seat more then the reins when riding for those looking for some clarification: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zJaca2QQtfE.html Let me know if you have any questions or videos you would like to see in the future!
I don't understand what you did correctly regarding stopping and turning, if not using the reins. These are both things I was taught to do when I was young. What is the rider doing exactly to signal to her horse to stop or turn? It looks like they've got a psychic connection.
When I learned to ride, first lesson, my instructor just said, "Anything you want to do, do the opposite, and you'll be fine." Best damn advice I ever got.
@No Malice normally the first thing you do is go forward when you are out of balance or your legs go backward and like that so just do the opposite instead of going forward go back when you are out of balance and the legs instead of going backward go forward lol sorry if my English is mad
@Jasmineyonee ` i also fell from a horse 2 times in one year when i was 6.its better that ur older so u have better strenght to keep urself on da horse.but its also better to start younger
I remember the first time I was riding bareback and leaned way too much forward. I tried to feel safe, but it was impossible to even trot like that. Learning to sit back and relax is one of the most important things I have learned when riding horses. It feels so much more secure 😊
Even though I haven't been a beginner for many years I sometimes come back to beginner type videos to see if there's anything I didn't learn that I might've of missed along the way.
So refreshing yo have someone go thru the things we all need to know but without the loud aggressive tone and nature. Thank you for your videos will definitely watch more. 😄
Here's a piece of advice dear. Just relax, keep you in the horse safe, and have fun😊😊😊 good luck!!!!!! Try and do your best that's all you can do. No pressure for you or the horse because the horse will know if you're nervous and then he'll get nervous. Again, just enjoy yourself okay?!?, M
That helped me a lot. I am a beginner horse rider and very passionate about tent-pegging and other equestrian sports. I just realized I was making a couple of mistakes that you have discussed in this video. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Since I have recently started taking horseback riding classes, I simply love your videos! They are super useful and I am binge-watching now :) Keep them coming!
JSHorsemanship oo please do. I’ve been wanting to get a horse forever but I want to know more first. Do you have a top 10 first time horse owner mistake video? If so that would be a great thing too
I love how well you said all this, you sound like such an amazing teacher just by the way you inform us. Usually I feel like an idiot if I mess up simple things but the way you word it makes me want to fix it lol
Never say never! After 19 years of desperately wanting a horse, I’m finally going to start regular lessons and buy a horse of my own in a few months. If you love it enough, you’ll wait for it.
I’m going to start coaching in 2021. I’m very excited, but I love watching your videos to help me explain and educate my students. :) Been riding for 26 years. :)
Really well presented. I'm a lifelong experienced rider but watched this with my daughter who is a beginner. You covered some of the things she's been corrected on by her instructor and it gave some extra context to hear it from someone else.
I always heard, “Stop sitting up so straight, relax those heels a bit, stretch your leg, and stop taking your knee off!” Lol.. apparently my posture was a bit too good as it caused me to become tight in the shoulders, also my heels are very flexible and would bend too far and make me work harder 😂
i've been riding for 3 years and this video is explaining to me why I've fell off so many times by listening to my instructor. she always tells me to use my reins to stop and turn. i will use what i have learnt and hopefully do better! :) thank you
Just started riding again in the summer and I’m making so many of these mistakes 😭 The straight arms because I don’t want to pull at my horse, the tight legs and bracing, the posture … I am starting to relax though and it’s lovely to see the horse responding better even though the input is so much lighter.
Technically I do have a horse. He's three months old though. Im hoping to be a decent enough rider so that when he's old enough and had some training we can improve together
It is so easy to understand your explanations! I love your simple and clear instructions. I'm definitely a beginner so this is very helpful for me. The one thing I feel is lacking is using seat/balance to direct the horse, which I've been trying to work on lately. I'm sure that could take lots of practice to really develop. Thanks for the video!
I started riding at the age of 5 and I stopped it three years later (don’t ask me why, it was probably the dumbest decision I have ever made). Now, I’m 15 and I’ve always wanted to start it again and the time finally came!! My parents finally allowed it and I started it again. I have two riding lessons in a week and it’s soooo hard! My biggest mistake is that my heels are literally never down, I just can’t get used to it XD (but I’m practicing hard!)
A good exercise is to stand on the bottom step on your stairs and let your heels hang down over the edge while keeping your toes and balls of feet on the step so that you get a nice stretch!
Thanks for this effort, my 7 yr old granddaughter is just starting to ride one of our 3 horses. 25 yr old Arab/quarter cross. I’ve been working with her in the paddock at our farm until the summer heat got too much for us. We are planning to start back soon and we just finished watching your video together. Great refresher for me, it’s been 50 years since I was taught this same stuff but 1/2 of it has been forgotten. Very well done, Charlotte and I thank you!
Good stuff! I bookmarked this video months ago because I've never had an off-ranch lesson or given much thought to my riding position and habits despite riding cow horses off and on for over 50 years. While I'll never exhibit a horse or compete in a discipline, it was fun to explore this and make observations - not just about my riding style, but what I see among other ranch riders and western competitors. We're not actually "worlds apart," but very different for sure. As I look around at reiners, ropers and cutters, foot position is usually all over the place during the ride, but almost always with the heel against the stirrup. (Western stirrups tend to be more of a platform than a bar and built for this.) Posture depends on what is happening, but at the walk I generally slouch a bit because it's more comfortable for me. Those few differences aside, I really enjoyed looking across the fence and following along. Up voted!
I start riding in 2 weeks. I’m going to start out by doing a week of horse camp then I’m starting lessons. I’ve been watching videos on how to tack up and what are common mistakes.
I'm so glad I watched this, I've ridden a horse only 1 or 2 times in my life, and I'm not gonna lie, I've done some of these so I'll try my best to remember these when I start lessons
I’ve been riding for 2 years and a few weeks! If you have braced legs just think “ears, elbow, hips, heels” it should make an imaginary line from each part, also if you point your thumbs inside just think you’re holding 2 ice cream cones!! (You don’t want to tip your ice cream!)🙃
These tips are super helpful!! I’ve been riding for two years and only do like three of these. I do grip with my legs but that’s because I’ve been taught before to grip with my legs, I don’t do it often but every once in a while I’ll do it if I know I’ll lose balance, I also do it when training stirrupless. I also sometimes have my arms out straight mostly, not like in the video, I have some bend, I’m pretty sure it’s actually the correct way, it just doesn’t feel like I’m bending them much, people tell me I have them bent the correct amount, it just doesn’t feel like it. And also the stopping one I have not learned to do, some of the horses I’ve taught to stop when I tell them to, except it’s hard because most of the horses I ride are green or have never been trained
New subscriber. Haven't started riding yet but my daughter does and I would love to I'm 43 years old and just going through your beginner tutorials to get a feel for it and hopefully get all the bad habits and mistakes and everything registered in my brain before I actually mount a horse for the first time in my life and hopefully get off to a good start. Thanks for sharing your knowledge it's very informative and I'm sure it will help me out as I've learned a lot from just 2 videos. On to the next
So helpful and clearly presented :~) Another very common one that badly affects balance is the hollow arching of the back. Even with the hips, shoulders, head in a vertical line the pelvis will be tipped forward with the same problems as leaning forward, plus creating stiffness and tension.
I know this was posted in 2019 and no one will like ever see this but in my lessons my instructor is always telling me to put my heels down. Before we lunge i always have to stand up and get my heels down. By the end of the lesson my feet are in so much pain. And then gives me homework to 'walk on my heels' but it isn't helping. What do I do?
'heels down' really is just an expression!! You aren't necessarily supposed to jam your heels down, it's a soft angle that will come naturally and you'll end up doing it without noticing. I know as a beginner riding short makes you feel safer but take the time to ask your trainer or you can do it yourself, make your stirrups a tad longer so you really have to concentrate on getting your feet in the right position and not grip on with your calves. I usually use the bone on my ankle as reference for a good length of stirrup. But at the end of the day do what makes you comfortable. Try going up and down on your toes at the edge of the stairs to build up your calf muscles and learn to use your heels like springs. Don't push too hard to the point of pain at the beginning. Strength comes with time
Ok so the best thing to do is just relax your ankle make sure the stirrup looks kinda like this \ looking down at your left foot and like this / looking down at your right. That is very exaggerated angle but you get the point just don't have it like this --. That will free up your heel a little bit. The main thing is to not force your toes up but let your heel drop down. Also stretch before you get on. Get on a step and let your heels drop. That is the feeling your supposed to have but less exaggerated when on a horse. It will get better with time!! I hope this helps! Happy riding!
One thing that helps me is if you have stairs or some type of platform, hold on to the handrail or something and then put only put the front of your foot on the edge of the step,it will help train your legs to put your heels down
I have the same problem. I have short tendons. Sometimes people are more flexible than others. While it's fairly important to put your heals down, if you cram them down so hard that you stand, you'll never be balanced in the saddle. While I struggle to keep my heels down sometimes, I've learned how to allow them to stretch naturally. When we jam our heels down, we create tension and can't relax that tendon for stretching. Try standing on a stair, holding on to something for balance, lifting one leg, and allowing the ankle that is on the stair to drop down. Let your heel fall naturally. Don't force it, if you do you could pull something (believe me, I did!) Try to achieve at least 60% of your natural flexibility you reached on the stairs when you sit down and have your feet in stirrups. When you lunge in two-point to stretch, it's a good exercise so you learn to put weight in your heels. If you brace, your weight is actually in your knees which is not good...they do the shock absorbing, not the balancing! Picture the stirrups as stairs and you are just "Warming them up." The point of standing in stirrups before lessons is to stretch before you ride, not to break your feet in half, so just relax and let it happen naturally :) While flexibility is always helpful for a rider, forcing it will always cause issues. If you can't get your heels down as far as your trainer wants, talk to him/her and let them know what is comfortable and natural to you and what causes you to brace, as a bracing position with heels down to the ground is much less balanced than a relaxed position with your feet straight. As long as you allow your center of gravity to be in your heels you'll be okay.
The pulling on the reins on I did while jumping a course cause I wasn’t told differently and I had a bad fall and I hurt my angle nearly getting dragged
Oof I had that before, but a stupider reason. I kicked my pony into walk when I was younger, and she bolted, threw me off, and I got dragged about a meter and ended up landing on a fence jump, leaving my leg and ankle black and blue all over 😂. I remember my horse got spooked during a jump and bucked me off into a hedge 😂😂
In all 12 years of riding I’ve thought that I was supposed to hold myself to the horse by gripping with my legs. I never quite understood how else I’m supposed to keep my legs still if I can’t hold them to a point.
I’m not a beginner but I have been helping out at the small camp at my barn and when the kids ride I pretty much see all of these. But if they ride enough they will learn !
I almost did all of these! And also before I watched this I though that the mistakes u mentioned are actually the correct way to ride. Thank you so much for posting this video!
Exactly, and I don’t really understand the explanation of how to do it her way. I was always taught to use the reins. I know you can slow or even stop from a walk by using thigh muscles but I really don’t understand the rest of it.
Thank you for the video, great tips! Are we NOT suppose to grip, even when we do Up and Down while trot and canter? And also would appreciate of more details on how to turn without using much of reins
Hi😊 great questions! When it comes to turning your horse using less reins it is all about teaching the horse to respond to your seat. Start by turning using your seat, then Leg and lastly reins. Over time your horse will learn to respond to this and as a result you will only need to use your seat. When it comes to doing a transition to a faster gate like the canter, I recommend supporting with your leg. When doing this the goal is for it to be long and draped around the horse as opposed to gripping. This allows you to have a more secure seat in the saddle and frees up your legs to communicate to the horse. 🐎
I always ride with shorter stirrups cos it's easier to get my heels down... So if I don't grip while doing sitting trot and canter I fall off!?🤔 Do I need to re think my entire life?😂
this actually does help me, when i’m a decent rider not a beginner, i had question about stopping while not pulling on the reins and you answered them!
So I have never ridden a horse before and my aunt wants to take me to get horse riding lessons so um pretty scared because I don't wanna get yelled at so yep this is the perfect video for me haha
I don’t pull the reins to the side I need to go, I pull back to my stomach, my trainer is the best trainer I could have and this is what she does and what I do.
Having my second lesson ever in five months, and I needed this refresher to do things correctly! Extremely informative and especially judging by the comments below! Thank you
I just want to say ( and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong ) that a few of these things aren't bad, just bad when over done. Like yes, you hold on with your knees a bit but when you hold on to tight, it brings you up as you said I'm the video. Also yes, you tug back a bit when asking your horse to stop but you don't use any more strength than making your ponytail tighter. These were just the things I was taught and I've only ridden saddle seat in my life so I could be very wrong but just wanted to say something.
I started riding last month and I am really good at keeping my heels down but when we trot or canter I have some trouble... trot I’m getting better but canter I have a hard time. I think it’s cuz I’m scared I will fall but... any suggestions?
It takes lots of time and practice to feel secure in your trot and Canter work🐎 Keep working on lots of simple transitions to improve your timing and feeling 😊 You can also check out this video I did on how to sit the canter 👉ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-H_NnHgzEFzk.html
Hi I'm good at cantering and I've only done about 12 lessons! don't worry one bit its really smooth like your on a rocking chair its easier then trotting! You have nothing to worry about just trust the horse your instructor (if you have one) And most importantly yourself! I hope this helped!
I've been riding for almost four years now and I am just learning in my lessons to use fewer rein aids and more leg and seat aids. I didn't really understand why my instructor was teaching me them, so thank you for the information!
Also don’t puff out your chest and hollow out your back. And think comparable parts. It helps like if you want your horse to raise its back engage your core and fill out your back like your asking you horse to do. It’s surprisingly helpful and it reinforces the idea that you are an extension of the horse and helps you improve your teamwork
Hi Maria😊 Everyone has a different teaching style🐴 I fine that using my seat before my reins gives me a better longterm result and allows my horse to balance better💕
I think what ur teacher is trying to say is to have some contact with the reins and squeeze to stop, that's usually what beginners are taught but using ur seat is a lot better and u will probably be taught that later as it is better so u don't bring ur elbows back so far or lean forward so much but as JSHorsemanship said, every teacher has a different teaching method so yeh xx
Maria B yesss exactly, so they can still feel a backwards motion on the reins, but its not being pulled, its just a subtle signal. think of it as your just letting them know you want to slow down, instead of slowing them down yourself by pulling them
Great video. I have been often told that I am thinking too much when learning to ride. Your explanations in this video are great. Most trainers just tell you what to do but no explanation as to why. Thank you for the information.
Thank you so much! I am a beginner and tend to just do horseback riding when travelling somewhere and I absolutely love it but I can tell I lack proper posture and just need to be educated on how to ride properly. I really appreciate you taking the time to make this video, I can relate to more than half of those mistakes and even the ones I don’t do, it was nice that you explained why not to do that. Very informative and straight to the point. Thanks again!
Love this video. Thanks so much for the clear communication. I watched your video on getting the bit into my challenging Prinze’s mouth. Once it’s there he’s great. Horses are amazing.
Today has really made me realize how far I’ve come in my 6 years of riding. This video puts things into perspective because I made most of these mistakes as a beginner. The other thing is my car got stuck within walking distance to the barn. My riding coach trusted me to conduct my own lesson while she helped get my car out of the snow. 3 years ago I would’ve struggled doing things myself. However, today I’ve only made a few small mistakes. My unfortunate event gave us all the opportunity to make something positive of it. I also realized my talent of getting my vehicle stuck in 5 feet of snow while only going 10 km/h.
i’ve been riding for two years and my loan pony doesn’t listen at all to stop unless i pull on the reins does anyone have any tips for her to listen as she’s very strong and doesn’t listen
Hi Sofia 😊 Great question. One thing that may help is working her in hand before riding. Doing this can help get her more supple, relaxed and responsive. 🐴 I have a video on in-hand work you can check out here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Cs7mcGzLOCM.html I also have an upcoming video on how to stop your horse:)
