Jumping Critique - First show!

Hi all,

I started riding about 7 months ago, and went to my first adult inter-school hunter show on Sunday! Critique my form over the jump please? Any and all feedback is welcome. Hopefully, the picture is clear enough that you can critique it!

Thanks!
Adrianne

I'm no english rider, but something about your position just looks awkward to me. Again, I don't ride english and am in no way an expert. Just my personal opinion.

Try putting your knee on the saddle more and avoid gripping their side with your heels. Bend and open at the hip instead of tipping your body forward, that will help with your leg. It is hard to tell but your stirrups could probably go down a hole as well. Hope I helped (:

Work on sinking your heels down and stretching your legs down when approaching the fence and keeping them like that over the fence. Also, be careful not to pinch with your knees. Both of these tips will help prevent you from over-jumping. Your goal is to be back over your saddle... like hovering over the middle of it, instead of throwing yourself over the front of it.

Once that is fixed, you will look much better and more relaxed. Your release looks okay for that size of the jump and the fact you were over-jumping. Once you stop over-jumping, you will need to re-evaluate your release, as your body position will be a little different. Also, your stirrups look a little short (?). Lenghtening them a hole or so will help allow you to fix your leg and not tip forward over the fence.

Congrats on your first show! How did you do?

I placed 5th out of 12 for that class. Thanks for the feedback!

Your stirrups look so short! Work on keeping your heels down and your leg right at the girth or a little behind. Your release looks great to me for this height. Keep up the good work! (:

You need to keep your heels down and give him a full release. :)

Your leg looks pretty good but (always a but there huh? :) ) as others noted you need to sink into your heel. The heel problem is coming from your upper body and as also indicated, you are jumping ahead and are over the pommel of the saddle which is very common when learning to jump.

You need to just close your hip angle and "push" the horse away with your hands..this will help keep you over the center of the saddle. It will also help with your release, which from this angle, looks like you just dropped your hands onto the withers?

I am normally one to say shorten your irons but in this case they may actually be a little TOO short :). For normal riding (flat work) you want to take your foot out of the iron, drop your leg and let your foot relax. The iron should hit right at the ankle bone. For jumping, shorten that length by one hole and once you get to the 3 foot mark, shorten by two :)

Your back is flat and eyes are up, which is critical :)..always remember that your body tends to follow your eyes.

You are doing very well for only 7 months :)

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! You've given me some good things to work on when I ride again this weekend.

Tlkng1, thanks for the tip about "pushing" the horse away. I'll definitely try that in my next lesson. And I'll check my stirrup length.

Adrianne