All of us have faults and bad habits in our riding. Is is easy to get sloppy and lazy in the daily riding and let bad habits creep in. These are some of the most common rider faults that I see in my teaching and with my students. Comment below and let me know what other common rider faults you see or are guilty of doing!
1. Nagging – many amateur horses are a bit on the lazy side – in a way this is good because these horse generally are more safe but it is easy to get sucked in to nagging and kicking these horses every stride. One can get out of the habit of nagging by riding transitions and working on taking the leg off more.
2. Looking Down – our heads are very heavy and looking down effects the whole spine and alignment of the rider. It is important to keep the head up and use only the peripheral vision to glance at the horse. Looking up also helps you to feel the horse more instead of just relying on visual stimulus.
3. Flapping Knee Syndrome -the rider’s knee should rest in the saddle. The rider should not grip with the knee but the knee also should not be flapping out of the saddle.
4. Heels up, loosing stirrups – this is often caused by tight ankle joints or horses that are behind the leg. The ankle joints must be moveable and able to absorb the shock.
5. Indirect Rein Aid – A lot of riders incorrectly use an indirect rein aid (neck rein) to turn the horse instead of using their leg and a direct rein aid.
These are just a few faults that we ALL do as riders! Since we don’t have any shows coming up in the near future, let’s focus on getting rid of these faults.
Happy Riding!
Amelia
