All around critique (english, western, jumping)

Alrighty, I think its time for me to have a good critique! Don't be to tough on me, im a softy. ;] Say what you need to say, but try to do it in a kind way, please?

This post I will only post english flat, then next post will be jumping, then western.



















Horses that will be in the posts:
Bear - Grey TB
Heidi - Black TB with blaze
Junior - Chestnut TB with back sock
Maddie - Chestnut TB with blaze and front stockings
Mocha - Red Roan TB/QH/Paint with blaze and white spot on stomach

BUMP (:

I will post the western pictures tonight or tomorrow (:

You lean forward too much when you are doing flat work, you also need your stirrups to be at least a hole or two longer. And you should use a gp saddle when doing flatwork as the jumping one you are useing is pushing you more forward hence making the horse unbalanced. Relax your hands a little more

In the jumping you have your hands perfect in some of the pics where you give the horse room to move the head, sometime too much and in others you have the reins too tight going over the jumps,

These little things will make a huge difference, I only know them as I did this too, haha

It would be nice if you rode in an outline :), that's the only critiqueing I can do :)

You mean have the horse collected up? Yeah, that is my biggest problem, I am a real softy with my reins! ;]

I would love to ride in an AP for flat work, but I don't really have access to one. I will look into getting one, but we will see. (: I think why I lean forward is so much is maybe because I need to use my seat riser on Bear. He has monster withers and is still getting back/butt muscle, so that causes an uphill build when I am riding him on the flat. I dunno, I do agree with you though.

I have the hardest time in the world keeping my hands in the right position! I have been almost 100% self-taught this last 2-3 years, so I havent been able to have anyone yell at me about my hands really, hehe.

Do you think it would be okay for me to start out with just lengthening them just one hole and see where that puts my leg? I just feel so much for secure with short stirrups, haha!

Thanks for the critique, bubble!

Anyone else?

You should be soft with your hands, but that doesn't mean you can't round your horse up ;) Your outside rein should be firm (but not too tight) and then your inside rein should bend and flex your horse to the inside. Lookup "Lateral Flexion" and that will really help you! If your horse's back is hollow, he won't be able to build the right muscles and round his neck.

Like I said, my hands are a pain... ;] Bear is the current horse I am riding (and will be for a very, very long time), and we just now figured out how to get him to collect, HAH! Though that was western. For almost all of this winter it will just be flat work, getting ready for jumping and show season. We got him to collect western, so now we will be working on that english (: Here is him collecting up western:

On the flat work on getting your leg more underneath you bring your upper body and shoulders back along with your elbows. I understand the soft hand I fall under that to but if you bring your elbows back maintain contact and use your legs to push them under you will build balance. Try also dropping your stirrups and riding then picking them back up this will help immensely especially if you are being self taught right now. The over fences let the horse come to you they aren't very big jumps so you don't need to be leaning on your horses neck stand in two point and let the horse come to you when he jumps. You have a good foundation just practice practice and practice as we must do.