(upbeat music) - If you're just starting
off riding horses for the first time, I know
how frustrating it can be. There's a lot of ups and
downs when we're learning. Or if you're someone that
has ridden for years, but you've taken some time off and you're just getting
back in the saddle again, there's also a lot of
curves, learning curves, getting back into riding
after taking some time off. So today I'm gonna be going over 10 common beginner rider mistakes. I'm gonna be talking
about what causes them, why we want to avoid them, and how they're done correctly, so that you can practice good habits, and really improve your riding and your communication with your horse. So our first one is toes pointed down. And this is a really common,
very beginner rider mistake. And we do this, we point our toes down when we
first start learning to ride because we're trying to
hold on to the stirrup, typically we're trying
to hold onto the horse. And the reason that we don't
want to point our toes down is because it causes us to
rock forward and that puts us in a position where if the
horse were to spook or to react, we're gonna be more likely
to fall over his head. It also puts us in a position
where we're more likely to fall onto our crotch, which is more uncomfortable for riding over a long period of time. So what do we wanna do instead
of pointing our toes down? We want to point our toes up, so that we can have a nice long leg, we can see sitting back
over our seat bones, and that way if the horse
spooks or goes to jump or move, we're gonna be falling
back into our seat bones and be more secure in the saddle. The second common mistake
that riders make is putting their foot in the incorrect
position in the stirrup. So there's two common mistakes
that I've encountered as a teacher with putting your foot
in the stirrup incorrectly. The first one is the rider that is afraid that they're gonna get their
foot hung up in the stirrup. So they're riding on
their toe, just you know, with their foot barely in the stirrup. The other common mistake that I run into is a rider riding with their
foot too far in the stirrup. So they're riding on the
bridge of their foot. They're usually doing this to try to feel more secure in the saddle. They're trying to get that
foot further in the stirrup or they're doing it because
they're losing stability in their leg and their foot is sliding. So either way you want to
work on riding with your foot on the ball, you know, the ball
of your foot on the stirrup. And the reason you want the
ball of your foot on the stirrup is because that gives you the most support up through your pelvis. When we walk, we walk by rotating
over the ball of our foot, and that is a way that's
really gonna help you to have nice stable legs
and a nice quiet seat as you progress in your riding. Our third one is something
that I've seen a lot, and that is braced legs. And this is typically
coming from a common issue of the rider trying to
get their heels down more. And instead of pointing their toe up, they're pressing through their heel and that's causing their
knee to lock and brace. The reason that you don't
want to brace your knee and kind of jam your heel down like that is because it's going to cause you to one, fall back behind the motion
of the horse a little bit, which is gonna put you in
a less balanced position. It's gonna cause you to
put more of your balance and the shock of motion
into your horses low back and also into your low back, which can potentially cause pain in your horses low back as well as yours. And it puts you in a position where you're really not
as stable in the saddle because your legs are a shock absorber, and when your knee is braced
your leg can't absorb shock as well as when your knee is bent. So what you wanna do instead of bracing through your heel like that
is you wanna bend your knee and just point your toe up. Number four is gripping with our legs. This is another common issue that we run into when we're
first learning to ride or even sometimes when we're
a little bit more experienced. And we do this to try to
hold on to the motion. So when our horse is, you
know, we're on a moving force, we're thinking, how can
we stabilize ourselves? And your instinct is to
grab on to that motion. When you grip with your leg, whether it's with your
thighs or with your calves, or with both, it is gonna
push you up out of the saddle. Any kind of tension and
squeezing with your legs is gonna push your butt out of the saddle. And that's going to cause
you to be in a position where you're more likely to be ineffective with your leg aids because
you're using them to grip. And it's also putting you
in a place where you can't use your weight aids to
communicate with the horse. So when we ride, we use
our seat bones as our, one of our main forms of communication, as well as what secures us in the saddle. So when we are gripping with our legs, we are not able to use those
seat bones to communicate. What we wanna do instead is relax our legs and be able to let our
core support us more and keep our seat bones in
contact with the saddle. Number five is holding
our reins incorrectly. Why does it matter how we hold our reins? Well holding our reins
in an incorrect position, whether that's holding your, you know, your palms facing up
or your fists facing up or your elbows are falling
out, any of these positions, other than the correct position, which is thumbs facing up
and wrists slightly in, is going to have a negative
influence on your upper body. We keep our thumbs up because
it allows our shoulder blades to stay relaxed and down. And this helps to keep our upper body in better balance when we ride. And it also allows us to
have clearer communication when we're using our reins. So remember when you're
practicing with your reins to keep those thumbs up. I always imagine like I'm
holding a mug of hot chocolate in my hand. Number six is straight arms. So this is a really common issue. Not only just for beginner riders, but even some more
experienced professionals. The reason that we wanna
straighten our arms when we ride is because a lot of times we don't have very good shoulder strength. We don't have good strength
in our traps to bring, to open our collarbones, let our shoulder blades
drop and bend our elbows. So we end up riding
with our arms straight. The other reason that we can end up riding with straight arms is
because we're worried we're gonna pull on our horse
and we're trying to give the reins more by straightening our arms. But actually when you ride
with your arms straight, your elbows straight like this, it actually causes you to
have less give in your arms. It's gonna leverage you forward. It's gonna create a lot of tension up in your neck and in your shoulders. And it's gonna cause you
to be slightly off balance all the time when you ride, which is gonna throw
off your communication. So instead of having those arms forward, what you wanna do is you wanna
open up your collarbones, drop your shoulders, and have
a nice bend in your elbow. This is gonna keep your hands relaxed. It's gonna keep your
arms relaxed and flowing with the horses motion
if you do use your reins. Number seven is pulling
on the reins to stop. This is a classic beginner rider mistake. We make this mistake because
we think we have more control by pulling on the reins to
stop or to steer our horse, when actually we don't
have very much control by pulling on the reins. It pulls us forward out of the saddle, and throws our horse out of balance, and makes it actually more
difficult for the horse to stop. So we wanna stop instead
by engaging our core to our low back and stop through our seat. And here you can see how Scarlet stopped, even on a loose rein
with just off of my seat. Number eight is pulling on
the reins to turn our horse. So the reason that we don't
want to pull on the rein to turn our horse is
when we pull on the rein, we end up leaning into the direction we want to turn our horse into, which makes it more difficult for the horse to turn in that direction. It also causes us to fall forward, which puts us out of balance. So if our horse were to go to react, we're more likely to fall off. So what do we wanna do
instead of pulling our horse into the turn? Well instead of doing that, we wanna make sure we're
riding from our seat, our legs, and then our reins, that we're staying nice
and straight in our turns, and allowing our horse to easily lift us and navigate that turn smoothly. Number nine is riding in a chair seat. Why do we tend to ride our
horses in a chair seat? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First off, we might just lack the
strength to sit up straight. We might, you know, be feeling like we're just
having trouble balancing or we might be just a
little bit too relaxed and not properly educated
on sitting in good posture. So when we sit in a chair
seat with our legs forward, you know, and braced out like that, we're in a place where we're adding a lot of extra weight to the horses back, we're putting a lot of extra pressure on our spine and our low back, which over time is gonna create issues in our knees and issues in our back, and it's also creating potential back pain and issues in the horse. So we want to be sitting
in correct alignment, where our core is supporting us, so that we have a nice aerobic frame, we're absorbing the shock
of motion through our core, and this is protecting our back, and is protecting our
horses back as we ride. Number 10 is leaning forward. This is of those really common mistakes that a lot of beginner riders make. And the reason that we
tend to make this mistake is because we're nervous or we're fearful. And the other reason we could make it is maybe we lack a little core strength. But it's very common when you're nervous because when you lean forward, it makes you feel more secure. Like you're gonna stay
in the saddle better, but it actually has the opposite effect. When you lean forward, you're bringing your
seat out of the saddle. So if the horse were to spook
for any reason or get nervous, you are gonna fall over his head. When you are sitting correctly, which is with your ear,
shoulder, hip in alignment, you're engaging your core,
stretching up nice and tall. When you're sitting in
that in a correct position, it's allowing you to be
more secure in the saddle if your horse were to spook, it allows you to see out
in front of you better, and also communicate more
clearly with your seat in your legs to have
a more effective ride. If you're struggling with
any of these mistakes that I covered in this video, remember to take your time
and to break them down into simple steps and work on
them a little bit each day. It takes time to build new muscle memory, and all of us in riding, we're
always working on improving, so it's ongoing learning process. So be kind to yourself
during that learning process and make sure that you
simplify your goals, so that they're achievable. I'd love to hear if you
have any other videos you'd like to see on this
topic or other topics, you can leave a comment below. I'm gonna be doing a video every Monday, and every Thursday I'm
gonna be releasing it. If you're interested in
more content from me, you can click the subscribe button and I'll keep you updated
on what's going on next. Keep enjoying your riding. Keep growing and learning. And I'll see you in the next video. (gentle music)
