Beginner riding tips: #1 Stop looking down!

This is the first in a series of posts I plan to make on short, bite-sized riding advice that improved my riding.

Stop looking down!

One of the easiest mistakes to make for a beginner while riding is to look down at the horse.

You may already know why looking down is bad. When you look down, your head, which is a very heavy part of your body, moves forward and upsets your balance. You either begin to slouch or you subtly shift your weight forward off of your seat bones to compensate. Either way, you lose contact with the horse through your seat. Your desires are communicated less clearly the horse becomes unsure and less confident.

I had an instructor tell me that "He's not going to turn purple!" and "Stop looking down!" a million times during one lesson. However, the temptation is very strong! Half of it is marvelling at this immensely powerful animal that is (sort of) doing as you bid and rest is trying to figure out why this immensely powerful animal is only sort of doing what you want him to. (Well, unfortunately, looking down isn't helping.) Despite my instructor's exasperation, I couldn't stop!

The thing that actually changed my desire to look down was learning when it was appropriate to look down. First is to make sure that you are on the right diagonal when posting to a trot or the right lead when you're cantering. Second is to check that your horse is not overly flexed in the neck during a lateral movement. That's it! If you're not doing that, you have no excuse to look down.

So stop looking down, he's not going to turn purple on you, I promise. :)