~ Let It All Out! -- Confess All Of Your Riding Errors Here

I decided to create this thread for anyone who is brave enough to confess their riding errors, whether it be a bad position, or bad habits on horse back, etc. You choose.

I don't know if there is such a thread already. If there is, forgive me and just let me know, then I will delete it.

Don't be shy! We all know we have faults...just let it out!

Where to start. My worst habit is when I ride with long stirrups I tend to let my calves grip too strong and my feet inch there way out of the stirrups. So long story shot is I end up losing one stirrup. So I always put my stirrups a few holes shorter when my trainer isn't looking and she always yells saying "WHY DO YOU HAVE THOSE JOCKEY LEGS".

Mine is HEELS!!! And hands over jumps, and lately Iv found it hard to sit to Love Story's canter

My worst habit is that for some reason I only curl my finger tips around the reins. I should have my whole finger around them. I end up not having as great of contact with the bit as I should. I tink I built up this bad habit when I was working on softness and suppleness because my horse was kind of hard-mouthed when she started training.

LOL. I also have a problem with keeping my feet in the stirrups...simply because I don't put enough weight in them.

Okay...let me get started on mine....

- when I jump, my lower legs slide back
- I hold my hands a little too low
- I work too much with my hands and not enough with my seat
- when going into a canter, I look down to see if my horse is striking off onto the correct lead
- sometimes when I'm expecting a big jump, I rise too much out of the saddle
- when trying to slow Night Heat down when jumping, I don't always give the correct release

I can't think of any more right now, but when they come to my head, I will post them. LOL

If you want, you are welcome to post any of your horse's faults as well. (face it, even though we love our horses so much and think they are perfect already, there is always some kind of fault with them) LOL

Oh yes! Another one is that I don't hold my reins securely in my hands. Instead I hold them very loosely, and that caught up with me the other day by resulting in a blister...

Another one of mine is that my feet slip deeper into the stirrups, and when I try to fix them, I end up jabbing the horses sides, resulting in a VERY fast canter haha

I have horrible position. Every time I ride I realize that if I just ride perfectly my mare will go perfectly, I don't know why its so hard =P

My problem is that I fart alot when I ride. I try to let it out when Nelson rips one, but sometimes it doesn't always work out.

I wonder why people never want to ride with me, but the pieces are now starting to fit together as to why.

Oh boy where to start:

- I have puppy dog/piano hands
- My hands tend to be too hard
- My release needs major work at times
- My lower leg needs to be under me
- I need to stop pulling back before jumps. Ginisee and Uma are angels about it and never fuss about it but Demi throws a conniption fit
- Stop jumping ahead!!!!
- Sit up, back straight!


Those are just some of them :)