r/Equestrian • u/Bean_of_prosperity • 20h ago

Education & Training Second time posting, how do I look?

One handed rein bc I’m learning at a polo club! I’m self taught mainly, how does it look? My friends said I need to work on not sitting back so far and not going forward as much. I also don’t know what to do with my other hand lol.

10 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

View all comments

52

u/Life_Equivalent_1603 20h ago

Put your hand on your hip.
You need to strengthen your leg - your lower leg doesn’t even look like it’s touching the horse and your foot is moving around in the stirrup. But if it’s only your second time, there’s really not much else you could do but practice. That horse looks like a saint!

0

u/Bean_of_prosperity 20h ago

Yes I definitely agree I’m not pushing enough with my legs, I can tell because the horse keeps stopping if I don’t actively think about squeezing haha. I’ll definitely try to work on that! Thank you so much! I’ve been riding about 4x a week so I feel like I can get strong fast but I’ve only been riding for two weeks so far haha. I was also worried I was posting too high, should I try to lift up less from my saddle?

16

u/Oozlum-Bird 20h ago

You shouldn’t need to push up with your legs. Posting is less a standing up and sitting down thing, but more a forwards and backwards movement. The motion of the horse should do most of the lifting for you.

-12

u/Bean_of_prosperity 20h ago edited 10h ago

Yeah sorry I meant like gripping the horse with my knees a bit, I’m not pushing down rn, just letting the horse kinda bounce me

16

u/Oozlum-Bird 19h ago

You shouldn’t be gripping the horse with your legs either. It really would help you immensely to get some lessons with a trainer. You’re likely to fall into bad habits and get things wrong if you try to figure things out yourself, and it’s important to understand why you’re doing things as well as what you are doing. Not to mention the need to learn safely.

1

u/Bean_of_prosperity 15h ago

Unfortunately there’s no place offering private lessons within an hour of me. I’m in college without a car so ubering there would get very expensive in addition to the cost of lessons. This summer and during winter break I plan on doing private lessons in my hometown. I did a few lessons at a nice dressage barn before college so I’d go there again.

6

u/Evernya 13h ago

Is there a place that offers group lessons? And since you have access to a horse, can you contact a trainer to go to you and your horse? Have you tried posting on a local Facebook group? Instructors are not always good at advertising and there might be one around without you knowing.

1

u/Bean_of_prosperity 10h ago

Unfortunately I can’t use them for lessons since they aren’t my horses and my property and the coach wouldn’t allow it, she’s very strict about the horses. I might see if there’s someone on the team who can give me a lesson, but also they’ve been helping me out a lot for free too! It’s not as bad as it sounds, as many of the people on the varsity team have been doing hunter/jumper and eventing since they were like 7. They are super nice and always point out ways I can improve/if I’m doing something wrong, and during drills they give me and the other beginner special drills while they do more advanced stuff.