Laura I always enjoy your videos. I am a 46 year old who used to show in hunter equitation classes. I stepped away from riding for several years and in the past 5 years have gotten back, and now my daughter shows in IEA. Everything you teach is how I was taught :) thank you for these helpful videos.
As someone who can’t currently afford a hunter lesson teacher, this is extremely helpful! I do hunter for 4H and for APHA. I will definently be looking at my stirrup length when I’m at the barn tomorrow! It’s crazy how many differences you can spot from dressage vs hunter! I have a problem with pinching in my knees. It causes my legs to swing when I post. It makes me cringe so bad. I wonder if my stirrup length is helping me or harming me.
Purely reaching out for some tips or advice...i am 6'1 in hight and i just started riding for my university this year. My trainer and barn owner joked that I have the longest legs they have ever seen. Im having HORRIBLE problems keeping my legs straight and still becuase they are swining all over the place. Trying to get the horse to go is also tough because my ankles are hanging down past the stomach. Any tips would be lovely- got a show comin up in a few weeks and I wanna do well. Thanks!
Omg, I feel you!! I've been riding for about a decade (mostly in showjumping and eventing, but I might start showing in hunter saddle for my uni) and I'm also tall! I'm a tad bit shorter than you (about 5'11) but the memory of my legs swinging everywhere as a younger rider is still haunting me to this day. Honestly, the best advice is that any rider should use their calves (well, more like their full leg) more than their feet when riding anyways. Try to work on muscle gain and flexibility so you can condition yourself into having a nice long leg when riding (grand prix rider Anna Buffini posted on Tiktok and Instagram a series of workouts, and the leg day and the piaffe ones have some great exercises for keeping a long, steady leg). Once you have this down, you'll be able to keep your leg fixed while riding, and you'll therefore be able to learn how to use your calves instead of your feet. You could always try to ride with shorter stirrups, but it'll throw off your balance, and your lines won't look right (+ you can't just magically have the same leg length as a 5'2 girl anyway). Finally, see the bright side of it! You'll never have to deal with relying too much on duck feet when riding! I know that it's still a struggle even when your legs are swinging around, but it's more linked to posture, whereas it's sometimes also a bad habit learned at a young age by riders in beginner lessons (including me!) that is hard to get rid of (you basically have to relearn how to use your muscles and give the right signal to your horse). My answer's a little late for your show and I'm sure you've learned a lot in the last few months, but I hope you can find something useful in this! Also, sorry if something's unclear, I always had horse riding lessons in my first language, which is definitely not English. I'm also far from being a coach, a judge or any kind of authority in the horse world, so I'm fully open to corrections from people more skilled and knowledgeable than I am! Also, talk to teammates and coaches about this and see if there's advice that you could take from them! Best of luck to you!
Being tall is a wonderful challenge to have. You may need to have a bigger horse. Taller and bigger barrel to use up your leg. Also, you may need to shorten your stirrups a bit more than normal when you are riding a smaller horse. Usually a swinging leg is caused from pinching with your knee. Any you may be pinching because you have no horse under you. Let me know how it's going.
Laura I always enjoy your videos. I am a 46 year old who used to show in hunter equitation classes. I stepped away from riding for several years and in the past 5 years have gotten back, and now my daughter shows in IEA. Everything you teach is how I was taught :) thank you for these helpful videos.
Thank you Jessica. What is your favorite tip?
Hey can you do a review on my position??
I always enjoy your videos!
Thank you. I appreciate that!
As someone who can’t currently afford a hunter lesson teacher, this is extremely helpful! I do hunter for 4H and for APHA. I will definently be looking at my stirrup length when I’m at the barn tomorrow! It’s crazy how many differences you can spot from dressage vs hunter! I have a problem with pinching in my knees. It causes my legs to swing when I post. It makes me cringe so bad. I wonder if my stirrup length is helping me or harming me.
if you're not sure, try it out.
So glad I could help.
What did you like the most, or which exercise helped the most?
Purely reaching out for some tips or advice...i am 6'1 in hight and i just started riding for my university this year.
My trainer and barn owner joked that I have the longest legs they have ever seen. Im having HORRIBLE problems keeping my legs straight and still becuase they are swining all over the place. Trying to get the horse to go is also tough because my ankles are hanging down past the stomach. Any tips would be lovely- got a show comin up in a few weeks and I wanna do well. Thanks!
Omg, I feel you!! I've been riding for about a decade (mostly in showjumping and eventing, but I might start showing in hunter saddle for my uni) and I'm also tall! I'm a tad bit shorter than you (about 5'11) but the memory of my legs swinging everywhere as a younger rider is still haunting me to this day. Honestly, the best advice is that any rider should use their calves (well, more like their full leg) more than their feet when riding anyways. Try to work on muscle gain and flexibility so you can condition yourself into having a nice long leg when riding (grand prix rider Anna Buffini posted on Tiktok and Instagram a series of workouts, and the leg day and the piaffe ones have some great exercises for keeping a long, steady leg). Once you have this down, you'll be able to keep your leg fixed while riding, and you'll therefore be able to learn how to use your calves instead of your feet. You could always try to ride with shorter stirrups, but it'll throw off your balance, and your lines won't look right (+ you can't just magically have the same leg length as a 5'2 girl anyway). Finally, see the bright side of it! You'll never have to deal with relying too much on duck feet when riding! I know that it's still a struggle even when your legs are swinging around, but it's more linked to posture, whereas it's sometimes also a bad habit learned at a young age by riders in beginner lessons (including me!) that is hard to get rid of (you basically have to relearn how to use your muscles and give the right signal to your horse).
My answer's a little late for your show and I'm sure you've learned a lot in the last few months, but I hope you can find something useful in this! Also, sorry if something's unclear, I always had horse riding lessons in my first language, which is definitely not English. I'm also far from being a coach, a judge or any kind of authority in the horse world, so I'm fully open to corrections from people more skilled and knowledgeable than I am! Also, talk to teammates and coaches about this and see if there's advice that you could take from them! Best of luck to you!
Being tall is a wonderful challenge to have.
You may need to have a bigger horse. Taller and bigger barrel to use up your leg.
Also, you may need to shorten your stirrups a bit more than normal when you are riding a smaller horse.
Usually a swinging leg is caused from pinching with your knee. Any you may be pinching because you have no horse under you.
Let me know how it's going.
hi! i love your videos! i was wondering if i could get a position review?
Yes of course. This is why I do them.
Please send me an email. 🐎
@@LauraKellandMay ok what email do i send them too? also thank you!!!
@@psky123 please use ThistleRidge at Hotmail.com
@@LauraKellandMay ok! thank you I just send an email
@@LauraKellandMay I recently sent the video about a week ago, please let me know if you are able to do the position review. Thank you so much!!