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Julie Goodnight Horsemanship Training
Ask Julie Goodnight: Question: How should my upper body be as I ride?Answer: Much focus is given to the rider's seat and leg position, as it should be, for these are critical areas that effect equitation. However, the upper body (head, neck, chest, shoulders and arms) should not be forgotten and constant diligence must be given to these body parts as well, to develop effective riding skills.Remembering the all-important balanced riding position of ear-shoulder-hip-heel alignment, you might say that half of your balance comes from upper body position. And for the horse, nothing is more important than correct arm and hand position, which in turn leads to soft and clear communication from the rider's hands to the horse's mouth. In this article, we will consider each of these upper body parts, their proper position and effective use. Starting at the top and working our way down, we must first consider head and neck position. The most common equitation mistakes in this area are eyes looking down and the rider's chin jutting forward with the ear stretching in front of her shoulder in a position I fondly refer to as "the Cro-Magnon look." Your eyes are an important means of communication with your horse, not to mention a critical tool for balance (look down and you'll go down, look forward and you'll go forward). Your horse is naturally programmed to look and go where the boss mare (alpha individual of the herd) looks and goes. This is an important survival tool and ingrained herd behavior. If you have developed the kind of relationship that you should with your horse, he should consider you to be his leader and will be tuned into your eyes and where you look, so it is important to keep that line of communication open. As for balance, our heads are pretty large and heavy so any fraction of an inch out of the balance position (you are balanced when your ears are over your shoulders) will throw your balance off considerably. If you struggle with ear alignment, think of keeping your nose behind your belt buckle or touching the back of your neck to your shirt collar. Shoulders are another common area for equitation faults, but often the root of the problem of rounded shoulders is over-looked. An old-fashioned style of teaching is to ask riders to "put their shoulders back" in an effort to keep the rider more upright and fix poor posture. I find that the rider with rounded shoulders does not really have a shoulder problem at all but is instead collapsing in the rib cage. The solution does not lie in stiffening the shoulders and back, but rather in lifting the sternum (breast bone) and lifting the rib cage off the spine. I f rounded shoulders and poor upper body posture are a problem for you, try lifting your sternum toward the sky or inflating your lungs fully and just breathing off the top of your lungs. Remember, poor posture in the saddle probably started with poor posture on the ground, so work on these issues when you are not riding too. Arm and hand position can be all over the map instead of in the neat and tidy "box" of proper position. Upper arms should stay close to your body with your shoulders hanging straight down and the line from your neck to your arms should be long and relaxed. Elbows need to stay bent and will open and close to act as shock absorbers as your horse moves, allowing you to maintain a steady amount of contact with the horse's mouth. Any pulling action on the reins should come from your elbows, pulling your hands toward your hips, not pulling down or up on the reins. Your upper arms and elbows should always be connected to your ribcage and your arms should move with your ribcage and body, not independently.There should always be an imaginary straight line from your elbow to the horse's mouth. Try to visualize this line as you ride and realize that your hand position will change as the horse's head changes in elevation. A common problem in beginner riders is hands held too high, and a common fault of more experienced riders to keep their hands too low. Imagine a six-inch square box in front of the pommel of your saddle and try to keep your hands always "in the box." Another common problem seen in hand position is broken wrists or flat "piano hands." The straight line from elbow to mouth can be broken in many ways through the wrists. Wrists should always remain straight with the hands angled slightly inward, just as if you were reaching out to shake someone's hand. Hands must not be too close together or too far apart because this too can break your straight-line from elbow to horse's mouth. Straight lines are an important component of proper riding position, whether it is the straight line of ear-shoulder-hip-heel alignment, a straight head and neck, a straight spine (flat back) or the line from your elbow to the horse's mouth. A straight line is always the shortest distance between two points and the strongest, most balanced and most effective line of communication with your horse. --Julie Goodnight Trainer and Clinician Find more free articles to read and refer to in Julie’s Training Library: http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and watch Horse Master on RFD-TV every Wednesday at 5:30p EST —Direct TV channel 345, Dish Network channel 231 and on many cable outlets. Then visit http:// www.horsemaster.tv and http://www.juliegoodnight.com for her 2010 clinic schedule, articles related to each episode, the gear used in each show, and for training DVDs and publications."Performance Through Partnership" By Dale Rudin What is Collection? Collection is a term that’s bandied about in the horse world. It’s also one of the most misunderstood. It’s said that a horse "must travel in a collected frame" in order to perform well. To achieve optimum performance at an advanced level, this is quite true. However, what does that really mean? When a horse collects his body, he maximizes the engagement and drive of his the hind end. He becomes a more powerful and agile rear-wheel drive vehicle instead of the less functional front-wheel drive version. It allows the horse to lengthen his stride and swing his legs more freely from his shoulders and hips. A collected horse lifts and rounds his back and elevates his shoulders. This lifting of the frame may create up to an inch or more of elevation and can be seen from the ground and felt from the saddle. If you’re having trouble picturing how a horse can become "taller," it’s the same as a person who is slouching stands up straight. What collection isn’t is a horse that’s being artificially gathered together by a tight or restrictive rein, or in any way forced into a frame. This creates tension in the jaw, throatlatch, and poll, and causes compression down the entire length of the horse’s body. The back stiffens and drops. This has a negative effect on his movement and gaits. The horse is also now out of balance and has to compensate by using the wrong muscles to move himself forward. Being able to recognize collection is the first step to understanding how to ride it. It will look different depending on a horse’s use and breed. Stock horses, like Quarter Horses and Paints, will have a nearly level topline. A gaited horse will have more lift in the shoulders and more action in front. As a dressage horse develops collection, he’ll carry his neck higher and his gaits will have greater extension and suspension. The profile of a collected horse’s face it should be on or slightly in front a vertical line that’s drawn from his forehead to the ground. No matter the breed, a properly collected horse should never have his face behind that vertical line. Collection, when taught and ridden properly, allows a horse to use his body in the most athletic way…and gives the rider the best possible ride. "Performance Through Partnership" www.dale-rudin-horse-training.com PALM PARTNERSHIP™ TRAINING Building a Partnership with Your Horse "Developing Rider Form and Balance, Part 1" By Lynn Palm
A horse without a rider is naturally capable of changing gait, speed, and direction while staying in balance. However, when you add the weight of a rider to a horse’s back, it affects his natural capabilities. Because of this, it is imperative that we learn to be balanced riders to uphold our side of the partnership. In order to achieve balance, a rider must learn proper riding form and proper function of proper riding form. Proper form is how the rider positions his/her body to follow her horse’s movement at all times without interfering with any of the horse’s movements or reactions. Proper form allows the rider to: Achieve a state of balance that allows the rider to feel relaxed and in command of her body which in turn allows the rider to think, Absorb shock created by the horse’s movement, and Separate and use the parts of the body to communicate at will with the horse. Separating and understanding the proper positioning and function of each part of the rider’s body in order to communicate with the horse is essential because communication is everything in riding! Starting at the Top The rider’s eyes and eye contact are two of the most important elements or riding. Your eyes should look straight ahead at least 10 to12 feet beyond the horse. This helps keep the rider’s head steady and in vertical alignment with his/her squared shoulders (even with each other and down), her straight back, her hips and heels. A straight back will enable the rider to better absorb the horse’s movement; and, in turn, the horse will move more freely and responsively because the rider is moving with him. A rider who looks down causes her back to round and shoulders to tilt forward. When the shoulders tilt forward from looking down, it puts the rider on her crotch and not her seat, and, therefore, the rider’s balance is on the horse’s forehand and not in the horse’s center of gravity where it should be. To understand how this feels, try the following while you are sitting in a chair reading this article. Look up and ahead. Feel how it changes your back and shoulder positions, balance, and flexibility. Next, look down and feel how that changes your body position. One of the hardest things to teach a rider is not to look down! We all want to look at our horse while maneuvering him. However, you have to look in front of the horse and use correct upper body position to stay in balance with him. Looking up and ahead also opens up the rider’s peripheral vision to 180 degrees, letting her "see" from the front of her horse to his sides. By using peripheral vision, a rider develops a feeling for what she is doing and for the horse’s responses. An Exercise to Improve Position It is worth repeating that our goal is to become riders who help and refine our horse’s balance but who do not interfere with it. The only way we can do this is by being balanced on the horse’s back at all times. This means maintaining the proper rider form that will allow us to absorb the shock created by the horse’s movement so that we can follow his forward momentum easily while staying balanced. We are going to start with a simple and fun exercise that you can do with your horse to evaluate your form and to help improve it. You will need a consistent, well-schooled horse that is tacked up with saddle, bridle, and leg protection, and you will need three to four ground poles. Practice this exercise in a large, enclosed area such as a paddock, corral, or arena. We are using poles for this exercise because a horse’s gait becomes bouncier when he lifts his legs to go over the poles. The poles will make him exaggerate his motion, and you must, therefore, stay balanced! If your position is flawed, this exercise will reveal it! Poles-on-the-Ground Exercise Start with one pole on the ground. Take your feet out of the stirrups and ask the horse for a slow jog/trot over the pole. Continue to jog/trot in a straight line for several strides after going over the pole, and then make a large circle and repeat going over the pole. Add more poles, and set them in a straight line with a minimum distance of three feet between each pole for a jog or a minimum of three-and-a-half feet for a trot. The more poles you use and the closer they are together, the harder the exercise becomes. Review this mental checklist to evaluate the critical elements of your position and balance each time you go over the pole(s): Eyes—looking ahead Shoulders—square, relaxed, and slightly behind the hips Arms—held relaxed, elbows flexible, in a straight line to the horse’s mouth Hands—relaxed, holding the reins properly, and in front of the pommel Seat—sitting deeply in the saddle Back—straight Hips—inclined a little bit forward to allow flexion Upper Leg—long on the sides of the horse with knees pointed toward the ground Lower Leg—directly underneath the rider Feet—ball of the foot in the middle of the stirrup, more weight in the heel than the toe, toe should be slightly turned out The vertebrae of the spine function like a shock absorber for the rider. The muscles of the rider’s rump function like a cushion. Together they absorb the vertical motion created by the horse’s gaits and keep the rider from bouncing. The ability to absorb the shock of the horse’s motion is achieved if the rider sits slightly behind the vertical while keeping the shoulders in line with the hips and the back straight. This allows the rider to sit deeply in the saddle. The back must be kept straight for the spine to work anatomically correctly. If the rider’s shock absorbers are not working properly, the rider will bounce, lose her balance, and put the horse off balance too! The shoulders are what should be adjusted if this occurs. In addition to properly using her riding shock absorbers to achieve perfect balance, the rider must also follow the horse’s momentum with her seat—her pelvis and hip joint. The seat is capable of moving forward and backward at will. When a horse trots, the rider’s pelvis should rotate in rhythm with his gait. When the horse increases speed and lengthens stride, the rider’s pelvis rotates forward more and for a longer period. When the horse slows down, the pelvis does not have to tilt as much. At the canter, the rider follows the motion using her seat in a rocking motion. Hand position also plays an important role in the proper balance of the upper body and the rider in general. The hands should be in front of the saddle, not over the top of the pommel (or swells in a western saddle) or behind the pommel. They should be in front of the saddle at the beginning of the withers and close to the neck so that the lower arm is held at a 45 degree angle. The reins should be held in the middle of the fingers, and the hands are half way between vertical and horizontal with the thumbs (as always) at the top of the hand position. Two Common Rider Form Problems The poles-on-the-ground exercise often reveals the following two common rider form problems: The Rider who Leans Forward—The rider who leans too far forward with her seat pushed too far back cannot stay balanced as her horse steps over the poles. Because her shoulders are in front of her hips, she does not sit deeply in the saddle so her seat cannot work properly to follow the horse’s movement. She bounces out of the saddle and her legs move too far back. This incorrect position does not allow her to stay balanced as her horse steps over the poles. The result—loss of contact with the saddle and loss of balance, bouncing, and a horse whose balance is disturbed. 2. The Rider who Looks Down—The rider who looks down and rounds her back typically pushes her legs forward to brace herself in the saddle while going over the poles. The result is the same as above—she loses her balance! Her lack of balance prevents her horse from performing the exercise easily. He may even speed up to get away from the punishment of her bouncing on his back, and this will make her bounce even more! Many riders fall prey to this vicious. Look up and ahead, and use your peripheral vision to see the poles. Without proper form, no real balance is possible! My E-Book, Head to Toe Horsemanship and my visual series, Exercises for Equestrians, are great tools to assist you in learning proper rider form. Both are available, along with other fine training products and information about our courses, by visiting www.lynnpalm.com or by call 800-503-2824.
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