QUESTION: I have a hard time keeping my thumbs up when riding and my hands steady when posting. Are there any exercises or techniques to help correct my hand position?
Answer submitted by Kerry Petty:
Start off by not thinking about keeping your hands still but working on your overall body alignment as when you focus only on your hands they usually get stiff and bounce more!
You must be able to drop a plumb line from your ear to your shoulder to hip and heel. At this angle your upper arm can hang out of the shoulder socket in relaxed manner as the ligaments aren't stretched. Then you drop the weight from your shoulder into your elbows and think of your elbows as springs. The trot rhythm can then be absorbed by your shoulder socket and your elbow joint not by your hands. Your hands move when your joints are stiff. Usually the reason your joints are stiff as your have not engaged your core riding muscles - back, lower abs and oblique abs. When you think of your bouncing hands you may observe others whose legs bounce, head bounces or nods , or mid section that wiggles - these all come from a soggy core and stiff joints.
The thumb bending comes easier if you check to see your are holding the reins in the palm of the hand and then folding the finger over the rein - not grasping the reins in the fingers and curling them. Folding your thumb down has a purpose to help give an aid to the rein through the pressure on the thumb.
Answer submitted by Diane Marcina:
Remind yourself to keep your elbows hugging your ribs, much harder to have flat hands that way
Then, as an exercise, ride with a short bat/crop clamped under both thumbs at the same time so the bat lays across the horse’s withers, guaranteed to keep your thumbs up
Will also encourage you to ride w/2 reins but 1 feel
If you want to be really courageous you can try holding on to a small glass of liquid in each hand J J
As for quiet hands when posting
Look down at them sometimes to encourage you keeping them still
Open your little fingers and rest them on your horse’s neck and leave them there while you post
Put a bucking strap on the d rings of your saddle and hook your thumbs in it
Rest your knuckles on your pad or front of the saddle and keep the feel steady (unfortunately that one will give you flat hands again!)
Hope that helps
Answer submitted by Jane Kelly:
The best option, as always, is to be longed on a quiet horse by a competent person and work on developing a better seat. When you have difficulty with keeping your hands quiet it is usually due to your seat
not being secure enough.
There are many exercises you can do while being longed. If you don't have a helper you can work by yourself with a quiet horse by knotting the reins and riding in a small arena. An excellent reference is the book
Lungeing the Horse and Rider by Sheila Inderwick.
Exercises you can do without being longed: Holding a crop(whip is too long) underneath your thumbs so it goes straight across, parallel will make you carry your thumbs on top and your hands even.
Open and extend your pinkie fingers to touch the withers (or pommel if you have short arms) and maintain this position while posting, and sitting the trot. Don't do this exercise while walking or cantering since your hands need to follow the horses head and neck movement at these gaits.