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When your in the ring you try so hard, but you don't always win. There is often hard competition in classes, sometimes yoour compieting against peopple who have been riding since they were born. So here are some good riding tips.
FLAT WORK!
When it comes to flat work there is no time when there's no competition. You always think you'll do so well buut you sometimes don't get your wish granted. The walk the trot the canter, and for advanced the half-pass, leg-yields, and inside bends. Here are some tips for all of them.
BEGINNER
When your in the beginner classes you just mostly do the usual: Walk, Trot, Canter, mabey the extended trot and canter too.
WALK: At the walk you want your horse to look alive. A good fast walk always impresses judges for those who have ponies or horses with a slow head down walk. To improve your walk push him on, not with your heels but with your hips, push him forward, but make sure it's not to noticable. When you are making a transition, be sure your legs are stretched and heels down. DO NOT KICK! When you kick your horse in the show ring it is not at all professional and could give you negative points. Just squeeze really hard with your heels, or give him a tap with your whip. But don't through your body forward at him to get him to go, thats one of the worst things to do. Sit tall and stick your chest out, make it look like your trying to hold a acorn between your shoulder blades. Be sure if you do use a whip it's always on the inside. Be sure to always have the excess of your reins on the right. When you are going to a halt sit back the tinniest bit, squeeze as hard as you can with your thighs and give a little (un noticeable) pull, if you have to. You sit very straight and always smile no matter what happens.
TROT: The trot is sometimes a hard thing to do in the beggining. Most people post the trot in novice classes. Be sure when your posting tto still keep straight, don't through your self forward, it's not pretty. Just do little up and down motions, not huge only post as high as you need to, to keep uup with your pony. If your pony has a really fast trot you can slow him down by squeezing your calves, leanning back and slowing downn yoour posting.
Then theres the dreaded sitting trot, you always are bouncing around, and sometimes you can even lose your stirrups whhich is a bad thing iff you have a sensitive pony, beacause he might feel the stirrup knocking against him and take off! So heres how to make it easy, most peopple get tense and start lifting there legs like a jockey and fall right off. JUST RELAXE! Sit back squeeze with your calves and keep a contact with your pony.
CANTER: The canter is often the easiest gate if you have a slower horse or pony (thats trained well enough to keep going!)But, it's not exactly the best gait for those of you with fast ponies or horses that fling their heads up in the air. Their are ways to prevent this common habbit of your horse or ponies. Your horse definetly needs a martingale if he starts throwing his head when you pull back. You can ask for one at your local tack store they should be fairly cheap. If your horse already has a strecher or martingale, you may realize your pony still speeds like a buffalo's chasing him. Then you get all tense and start pulling as hard as you can and he may crow-hop or buck. The thing is if you go to a really fancy show they may not let use a martingale or a strecher! So to make everything work well you tighten your reins before you ask for the canter and your horse probably just needs you to give him the reins, don't loosen them, just put your hands slightly forward. If he dose need a bit of encouragement give him or her a light squueze. Another problem you may have when you are getting into the canter is getting a really nice transition, sometimes they just trot really fast before the canter, so you need to use a little cheat, the whip, Always when you carry your whip have it on the inside hand. Give him a little smack and a big squeeze, BUT DO NOT LEAN FORWARD, I reapeat Do Not Lean Forward, it's a classic and terrible habbit, sometimes you don't even know your doing it you just do. Always sit straight up, and one of the other most important things is keeping your hands in the same place, usually your hands go up and forward or back when your try to get the canter, but don't let it happen. If you really need to grab a strand of hair from your pony or horse's mane (if it's long enough) and ask him. Your hands should be just in front of his withers, and about 3 inches high.
If your pony has a really hard time keeping and getting into the canter beacause he's really slow read here!: Slow pony and horses are not good when it comes to showing often it takes them 12 steps later than it should to get the canter, so heres how to fix it. Carry a longish whip and when your preparing to go squeeze on and off to tell him something's gonna happen. When your four-five feet away give him a tap with the whip then as you get to the marker SQUEZE, and dig your heels into his sides, (it really helps if your leg is far back when you squeeze but not really far back just so that your heels are reaching his ribs.) and Whip him once or twice. If your pony has neither of the above problems but does have a really bad problem a bout getting the right lead read here!: A way to fix this problem is pretty simple, just squueze really hard with your inside leg, like your trying to push his inside leg forward. then keep your outside leg back and squueze really hard.
LEG YIELD: Some horses have a problem with leg yielding in shows. One way to get it perfectly is to practice! When you practice, you may ask someone to help you. What you do is: Go down the qaurter line of the arena on the long side, you should begin by trying at the walk then push him over with your leg and heels over to the fence. Only use the inside foot like your pushing him. Always keep a tight inside rein too or they will just turn and walk over, without side stepping. If your horse has no idea what your doing and keeps on going in little circles read on: You may need to ask someone to help you all they have to do is while your pushing and pulling ask them to push him over towards the fence. It is best if they press in the crease between their flank and stomach. reapeat this a couple times each time ask the person helping you to push a little less. Keep doing this until you can push him over all by your self. Ask somone in the end to tell you if he is side-stepping. The key of the Leg Yield is: To get your horse to preform a side stepping motion from the qaurter line to the fence, while he is facing the opposite side of the ring.
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