hands problems,reins.

Anyone have any advice to break this bad habit I have of moving my hands with me when I do a posting trot? Its the only time I do it but at the walk and canter idont?

Hey there!

At the walk and the canter your horse uses his head quite a bit to balance himself, so it's going to be moving rythmically up and down. At the trot, he can keep his head in one spot while moving his legs in their respective pairs.

For some reason, you are saying that it's harder for you to keep your hands still during the gait when your horse's head moves the least. Perhaps, during the trot and canter you are more actively following the head with your hand, but during the trot your hand has nothing to follow, so it ends up following YOU as you are posting.
Does that sound like something you are doing? I mean, as you post is your hand affected by your up and down movemetn so that it , too, is going up and down?

One thing that I have tried is using a piece of string or leather attached to the D ring of your saddle. About 10 inches long. You put the string in one hand, postition your hand vertically where it should be and set the string at a length where there is no longer any slack when your hand is at the height it should be. Start trotting, posting and don't pull too hard on the string, nor let slack into the string. It will help keep your hand in the correct position. The hand without a string can just follow the hand with a string. This will help you learn the feeling that you must have in your ELBOWS . It is your elbows that will bend and open, bend and open with each stride so that your hand can stay in exactly the same place relative to the saddle/horse.

Practice posting without holdig the reins at all, like on a lunge line, will help you learn how to post without using the reins AT ALL to help keep your balance.

Could it be because you stiffen up at the post make shure your shoulders and not up but nice and relaxe and your elbows in :) idk throwing out ideas.

Thanks guys! It doesnt happen all the time. Its like only every so often I've been having my trainer just tell me when my hands r moving and shouldnt be and I've been starting at the walk where my hands should be and pushing myself to keep them

Ya I use to do that sometimes you just always got to keep thinking about it just like when poeple first start riding they just got to keep thinking about keeping there heels down untill it becomes natural :P

I used to do the same thing- a lunge line is what really helped me.

I used to have that problem, and I still do at times during the canter, but what helped me was to sort of think about resting my hands on the wither, or even higher. If my hands were there, then they weren't everywhere else. Eventually your hands will start to stay quiet on their own. Hope that helps?

When you post up -
Open your elbows and think of putting your hands on the horses withers,
As you sit - close the elbows.

All helpful thankyou guys! We'll see how it works this friday ill post a video!

It sounds silly, and it may not work for you but ... try posting while holding a cup of water in your hands and try not to spill any.