And that ain't good -- for her! How does she make things happen -- and clearly she makes it happen -- with such an unusual style? The horse is a big mover, but...
Saturday, January 22, 2011
I see a little of myself in this rider
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I almost want to shorten her stirrups for her, just a hole -- I see some of my own leg-related habits there, too!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to make a horse like that look bad! I do see some "muttering" from him, possibly an opinion on the contact, but he's still a lovely mover.
And this is just a personal preference, but I like to see all three gaits go both ways of the arena -- he's obviously more talented than either of mine will ever be, but that's still something I expect from a sale/stallion video!
NTAT, I love the reference to muttering, that is exactly what it looks like!
ReplyDeleteI don't see what your talking about? She is posting the trot correctly. If we all want to be nit-picky then her heal could be under her shoulder, hip line. Her hands are free from her body and did anyone notice how HUGE this horses trot is for the making of this video. That is most likely why she is going so high in her rise. I think she is a excellent rider.
ReplyDeleteI think the hair is making it look worse but that posting trot is pretty extreme. Not horrible at the canter really (though my personal piano-hand pet peeve looks like it has creeped in on this one) but I think the flopping hair makes it look worse.
ReplyDeleteBig trot, but I thought she was going to come completely off at one point during the posting trot. At the walk she appears to have a "chair seat." I wonder how she'd do with a longer leather and more open hip angle? Of course, I wouldn't be able to stay on this horse at all.
ReplyDeleteYeah...very interesting that we only see him moving in one direction.
I honestly think she needs to lengthen her stirrups. It looks like she's posting completely off her knees (gripping very tightly) and she's sitting so far on her butt that it puts her into a chair seat. Therefore when she posts she has to grip with her knees and haul herself up. The gripping with her knees is causing her to have to reach for those stirrups, she almost looks like she'd lose them. If she stopped gripping her stirrup length might be okay. If she kept riding like she is, the stirrups actually need to go up a hole!
ReplyDeleteThat said, I used to ride like that, and I know I revert to it from time to time. None of us are perfect. Horse is gorgeous but the rider was painful. I know he's a big mover but when they slowed it down you could just see her slamming into his back during the trot. Riding a big mover can be hard.
ooops...talk about getting into a chair seat...
ReplyDeleteI agree about shortening the stirrup leathers. And I don't think the saddle is helping her position.
The horse is incredible. He's a huge mover with lots of loft. Not so sure she's having a lot to do with how he goes as it looks like she's just a passenger on a well trained--or excellently tempered horse.
Not sure what it is about her but she sure does ride....unusually. Maybe she posts too high, and looks like she is using her hands to bring herself up. That horse is one hell of a mover, and like NYAT said, hard to make a horse like that look bad!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ride like this, but this woman reminds me a lot of a lady at my barn who occasionally rides my horse, who does NOT suffer fools or bad riders. I cringe when I see her ride him, but he goes BEAUTIFULLY for her, the truth is that as much as I feel like she is banging on his back and whatnot he goes better for her than he does for me, for the trainer, for ANYONE else, and when you ride the next day it is like sitting on a cloud. Her style is not pretty but it is incredibly effective and clear to the horse, and the proof is in the pudding, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that this horse would make anyone look good. It takes good riding--unconventional or not--to have a horse go properly, which this horse is. I think she has some faults but she is effective and strong.
I'm with Sarah. Her stirrups are too short and she's sitting too far back. It becomes really obvious in the walk. It makes her posting way too high and . . . just odd. I also think she's gripping with her knees. I like critiquing riders because it helps me with my position (I have had some of her same problems). Thanks for sharing this video.
ReplyDeleteOh and the horse is gorgeous! And I never realized how used to helmets I am now. That hair was just distracting!
My biggest concern (after the lack of a helmet) is her hands; they're not independent of her body; they're all over the place, and she's bumping the living daylights out of that horse's mouth.
ReplyDeleteAnd that, right there, is where I see myself in this rider! ;-)
She looks funny because her stirrup length is too long . She has to balance off the reins because she is tipping forward on her toes to rise to the trot.
ReplyDeleteTo me it seems like perhaps she used to ride Country English pleasure with her seat so far back and the dramatic posing. He's a gorgeous horse...wonder how he'd be in a different discipline?
ReplyDeleteSo typical. You can't see something good. Perhaps the horse is super spooky, and she's staying behind him, keeping him well out in front. Brilliant video. Gorgeous horse, excellent rider.
ReplyDeleteOh my.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I've ever seen someone able to sit in a dressage saddle in such a hunt seat position, and it appears that she's posting almost entirely off her stirrups because of the height she gets and the heel coming way up with each post.
If that horse can go like that with her, imagine what he could do with a great rider.
Love those anonymous posts. I don't think the lack of alignment is nitpicky, as a recovering chair-seater myself it is fundamental to effective riding.
ReplyDeleteThese dissy *anonymous* posts are what is typical. Show some courage and put your name behind your comments!
Checkmark you nailed it -- do you suppose she's a jumper rider? That would make sense.
ReplyDeleteShe is behind the movement and the posting is way too "big."
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the stirrups brought up a hole.
She looks better in the canter, a few seconds in. One thing I always look for if the rider has long hair in a pony tail is this: does her "tail" match the horse's tail in its movement?
It doesn't at all when she's trotting, and I think actually the distracting movement of her pony tail at the trot is reflective of how strenuous her posting is - but if you watch the canter footage, after the initial few seconds her pony tail begins to match the horse's tail.
I think the guess that she probably did a lot of jumpers/hunters before this is probably on point. I did hunters in college and it's really tough to relax through your hip so your lower leg can move back into a correct dressage position after years of instructors yelling "close and tighten your hip angle!"
ReplyDeleteWhen I started moving back into dressage I remember it felt very weird and out of control to open up my body and sit back more which is probably why her post is so high and all over the place, since in hunters you stop the forward movement with your tights/hip and in dressage you have to rely on your abs way more.
She looks like a pretty good rider who needs to build up a lot more strength so she can stay put in her new position. I'm glad she's riding in a loose ring so her bouncy hands wont be too hard on his mouth, which I'm not sure can be completely blamed on her seat. It would be nice to see that spur come off though until her leg is stable and independent, in the last bit of the footage it looks like she's unintentionally bumping him every stride. That said I've definitely had issues with keeping a quiet leg, especially at the canter on big movers. I'm sure she'll look awesome after more practice with an instructor reminding her and lunge lessons or no stirrups work could help accelerate the process. Chair seats are a hard habit to get out of, I've definitely been there.
Give her a break!
ReplyDeleteThis rider is coping with a 3-year-old stallion's biggest, boldest trot and canter. I can just imagine her thinking "This saddle is throwing my seat back and my leg forward (and I wish my helmet was back from the dry-cleaners)." The saddle is clearly not doing her any favors and may be pinching the horse's front-end, although he powers through it except for their occasional hand/mouth conversation. Young horse's are much rougher rides than trained horses, even well-bred studs!
If I had to pick something that I would like to change it would be not posting so high and keeping her hands independent of her rising trot, BUT I think both of these errors are exacerbated by this colt's ridiculous pushing power. What would I like in a sale/stallion video? How about some indication of good temperament and future carrying ability.
The chair seat and excessly high posting is quite distracting as are her bobbing hands. However, I tend to sit behind the motion on a horse that tends to be spooky, and I would put a 3 yr old stallion in that category for sure. I have 2 of the buggers myself and I don't overcommit my balance too far to the front on either of them!
ReplyDeleteYeah the anonymous posts crack me up. It is blatantly obvious that she is doing something odd...we are not ripping her apart, just saying what we think she could improve upon and why her riding looks so odd. We can all improve.
ReplyDeleteAs for the thought that she was a hunter, I could believe that. I used to use my hands to pull myself up, since I used to be a hunter. It took 6 years to revert that habit.
Again though, amazing horse, and the big movement could attribute to her slight sloppiness. But you have to be somewhat of a good rider to get that out of a horse, even if he is well trained.
Saying that, you can see the horse is a little upset she is hanging on his mouth, but he goes along anyways like a good boy.
Sorry for the longer comment here
Sure she isnt very neat, but at least she is an active rider that influences the horse positively. Especially considering this is a young horse and if you back off for one second they will take advantage of that and get distracted, possibly spooking and taking off.
ReplyDeleteShe does a good job with him, not many people could enforce such control over a huge mover like that.
I agree Casey. I see a horse that's giving some great gaits and showing obedience, so she's obviously got it going on in the effectiveness dept. But it's not a classical position, and it fact she's pretty far from it. Hence the discussion.
ReplyDeleteAll of the other aspects of her ride seem to have been covered, but what about the walk? I don't have an expert eye, but it seems to me his walk is naturally big and relaxed-beautiful! So I'm having trouble understanding why she seems to be rocking her pelvis so much; I actually blushed a little bit watching at one point! Even for dressage, it seemed a bit much. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm willing to bet that if she quieted her seat at the walk it would look even nicer than it does already.
ReplyDelete-Haley
Despite the thick half pad, the saddle is rocking so the rider HAS TO post really high just to get out of the "chair seat" and over her leg. A better saddle fit would easily put her back in the front of the saddle and over her leg.
ReplyDeleteI saw lots of the exaggerated rock at a walk this summer at shows. As a relative beginner, I thought that it looked ungainly, and I thought the same thing when I saw this video. It looks like she's pushing rather than riding.
ReplyDeleteMy impression is that the lady is a very good rider, not necessarily a dressage specialist, who was pressed into service to make a video. It may not be her regular ride or her regular saddle and someone else's stirup length. It's easy to be an armchair critic. I don't like to speculate too much from short videos since I have no idea how they came to do this short segment. We've all seen lots of videos where someone is trying to sell a horse and providing a less than ideal example. In the end, I think we'd all love to own this horse and plenty of us wish we could ride so well.
ReplyDelete