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

Used to ride heavy handed which was my worst habit but I've overcome it!

Anyway, what I do know of is..
* relying on my hands too much and not my seat
* don't use enough leg
* I get really tense/stiff in the cold so my horse doesn't move as well

Hmm, can't think of more right now but I assure you there IS more!

Wow. When I read other people's posts, it helps me to remember some of mine that I may have forgotten!

I also tend to look at my horse's neck and head while riding...

When going down a gait I don't use myself properly so my horse sort of just dies into that lower gait...

And I used to get frustrated when I couldn't get my horse or myself to do something right, but I have been cured of that now. I actually have more patience now with horses than with people...

LOL. Im glad some people are finding this useful. It gets it all off your chest.

I overthink jumps with fillers under neath if they are scary!!! I can jump a huge jump which is rustic, but put me in front of a 2" brick wall filler an im pooing myself!!! S because my horse has a habit of coming in to fillers crazy strong and then dropping her shoulder and ducking out reaaaally fast at the very, very last moment. I've hit the deck a couple of times and its so frustrating! I've started working on sitting her right back on her hocks and collecting the canter so im more in control and she can't steam-train into it, but its so hard! Also, I tend to not focus enough on striding around a XC course which I know is bad, but I have too much fun! Oh, and I need to work on riding a half halt with my stomach and core without holding my breath!

I bump. Meaning I bump the reins to round my horse but I was taught that way and its really hard to stop. Drives my coach nuts!

And I brace a little with my legs probley because my horse has to much bloody energy!

Oh, where to begin!

Probably with my hands. I am terrible about keeping my hands in the right position when I'm riding. And my stirrups are painfully long...which I know should be fixed.

And when I'm barrel racing I have a bad habit of accidentally hanging on his mouth on the turn. I never think straight when I'm running.

Working on the errors :)

So I am the queen of looking down at my horse ...

Also my piano hands get me when I am not thinking ...

I've been thinking about what my answer to this question should be. If I had to pick one thing, it would actually be listening to all the wrong people over the years. I cannot count how many lessons I've taken where the instructor told me to do something that I either thought or knew that just wasn't right. I've always been stubborn, but never became really assertive until recently. I had the fortunate chance of coming across a rider a few years ago who taught me about riding a horse back to front with proper contact. At the time, I was really ticked off about all the years I spent riding around with loose reins on a horse that was just plodding along. Since then I have been an absolute knowledge junkie. I read every book I can find, try it all out, and see what works for me and my horse. I still take lessons, but I sure as heck speak up now if I hear something that doesn't feel right.

LOL. Fortunately I've had good instructors in the past, and now I have an excellent one. I can imagine how much that must have sucked for you Puck...but it is good now that you are standing up for yourself now when you feel something isn't right. That's one thing a person must learn in life.

Jeesh, what to say? I know that i've been hard on mouths before (not on purpose!), and have had a habit of leaning back at times when loping, but the worst habit I have is probably just lacking the right knowledge to work with the/my horse to get 'im to do what *I* want him to do. I'm on a learning curve still, but it's hard when it's winter and with a lack of things like a round pen... *sigh*

Piano hands
Looking down
Leaning foward (in canter)

So my lessons are like: "Thumbs up!" "Look where you are going!!", Sit back, sit back, sit back!!"