Tear me apart...be cruel if you must

Okay, first time cantering in a LONG time. And first time riding this horse after he totally smashed my confidence last year. PLEASE let me know how I did...not the horse...but me haha. I had gotten a fear of cantering and did a canter today.

http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/i...nyCocoa085.flv

Your lower leg is moving around quite a bit and you seem to keep popping out of the saddle. I would guess if your lower leg got stronger, you wouldn't be popping out so much.

But I loved how when you were like making the turn it looked like he was going to break into a trot and you kept him going!

well part of it is because his canter is PAINFUL haha. He's big boned so you feel it. But yeah, it waas moving more than it should have.

Good for you for getting confidence to canter again!

well I knew I'd have to sometime haha. Also I told my friend who went riding with me that if I didn't do it by my own choice, for her to get the lunge whip and get my horse going that way haha
Thankfully I had the courage to ask myself

I can't say I wasn't nervous...the horse and I don't get along...at least the horse doesn't like me. He's bucked and reared up for me when I was just a beginner rider with little confidence, and he shattered it lower than ever. So I've always dreaded riding him. But other than threatening a rear once, he was great. I'm happy that I haven't lost all the confidence I gained when I was riding one of the horses

**Big thumbs up** I agree! Well done you for having the confidence to canter again.

I loved all the birds chirping in the background! Sounded like you had an avery (sp?)

yeah there's alot of birds there...gets annoying after a while though.

Meg....Aviary, maybe? Your post made me giggle....took me a while to figure out what you were talking about because my sound was muted on my computer. My daughter's name is Avery so it caught my attention! I love the birds' sound! It's great!

Now that I watch the video over and over again I do see that my seat is really loose and will have to work on that. It's probably due to I haven't cantered in a while, or the short stirrups (I perfer my sturrips fairly long for some reason). Will try to get a video sometime soon to compare...and possibly on Sonny

You pump a little with your upper body, which in turn makes your leg be more unstable. You need to relax into the seat and let your hips rotate independently... shoulders pump when your hips are not free enough to rotate independently.
Good luck!