Hello Kathy,
thank you for the opportunity to see you and your lovely horse in action.
Please feel free to write back and let me know what you think as well. I am doing my exam this week, and most of it focuses on analysis of photo's, so i am trying to get a bit of practice in :)
Your horse is gorgeous by the way! I have never done any hacking, mostly because I don't know that I would have any idea about how to present a horse so beautifully. It must take you hours!
You are a very nice rider, I really like the way you carry your hands. They are nice and still most of the time, and particularly in the canter you move your elbows nicely.
I can't quite tell from the grainyness of the video, but perhaps check that your thumbs are the highest point at all times? some of the work when you are going away from the camera, I can see specifically your right elbow coming away from your body, which usually means you hand has rolled over with your thumb to the inside. In the Maryborough video in particular, the horses paces are actually a lot better than the Brisbane one, and she seems to have a better connection through the bridle. In the canter in the Maryborough video, have a look at her nose as you come towards the camera, see how it swings left to right? This is possibly another sign that you hand has rolled over with the thumb to the inside (outside hand I think). Try and keep your hands very even, and be aware of her ears. One of the exercises Collen has taught me is to imagine that my thumbs are torches, and they should both be pointing towards the bit, and the ears should be level at all times. If you concentrate on keeping your thumbs highest, and level, and pointing to the bit, watch the ears, make sure they are level, I think you will improve the consistency of the contact, particularly if you continue to open and close your elbows all the time. This is something you already do well.
The first thing I noticed when I looked at the photo's (apart from your horses amazing coat), then watched for it on the video, was that your stirrups are quite long! Give it a try a bit shorter and see how you feel. When you are sitting on your horse, get someone to help you, take a deep breath, look up, and breath out. Get someone to then adjust your stirrups so that they are sitting just below your ankle nobble. It looks to me that it might be one or two holes higher than what you are riding in now? It will probably feel terrible to start with, but give it a couple of rides before you decide if you like it or not :) The other part of that is that your iron should be sitting on all five balls of you feet. Can you see in the photo how they are angled quite a lot, with the outside of the iron a lot more forward than the inside? move the outside of it back under the ball of your little toe, again, it will feel funny for a little while, but persist for a few days and see what you think.
The reason I think this is very important for you, is that I think you will have a much steadier position and will find it a lot easier to get the horse to come under you, and therefore a steadier contact. If you go to www.colleenkelly.net (she is who I am studying with) and have a look at her article on stirrup length, she has some photo's on there of the top riders. You can see that they all have the same angle at the knee (120 degrees) which is actually more bent than a lot of us were taught to ride. I was the same as you, I always thought I was trying to lengthen my stirrup and my leg, but in fact, you will ride much better with a little bit of angle in your knee.
One more thing to work on, is the one we are all guilty of, which is looking down! I don't know if you read the other analysis I did for Shane? but same thing there :) we always want to look down to see if the horse's head is in the right place, even though we dont really need to. Focus on the brim of your hat, and make sure it is level with the horizon at all times, make sure the bottom of you ears are lower than the tip of you nose. It is just a bad habit, like looking at the keyboard when you type, you don't really need to, you just do.
The other things I look for are that your shoulders and hips are even, that one toe doesn't stick out more than the other, and a few other things like that. All of which you do really well, you hold your upper body nice and erect, it could possibly come back a little bit further, but I think if you work on that leg length, your upper body will come back the slight bit anyway. You can also think of bringing your should blades together a little bit, which will also bring your elbows back a little, and will help your hands stay with the thumb on top.
Don't try to do everything at once, just pick one thing, work on it for a few days, then pick another.
It is really only small changes anyway, because you are already a really lovely rider.
Good Luck, and please let me know how you go?
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