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Regular
Posts: 61
| Its monday after the weekend, and we are all knocking the dust off of ourselves and our horses and getting ready for spring (well if it has finally decided to arrive) and those nasty bad riding habits or muscle memory reactions are rearing their ugly head, so I ask, how did you retrain yourself, whether it be riding a different style of horse, retraining your reaction time, retraining your positioning or retraining your mental state and mantra?
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3314
  
Location: Jersey Girl | Slow work Slow work Slow work. Really think about what you are doing in that slow work and concentrate on what it is you are trying to change. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 602
| Muscle memory and reaction time. Ive done so much slow work with my gelding he seriously forgot how to stretch out and run. So now Im on the opposite end of training..... adding speed! I breezed my gelding for the first time last week and that experience was interesting. My reaction time was super slow and my hands were a little aggressive. My plan of action is training 1-2x per week on speed while keeping his poll and ribs soft. |
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 Ms Bling Bling Sleeze Kitty
Posts: 20917
Location: LouLouVille, OK | Found your thread... for me, I start slow and don't expect much from myself or my horses lol
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Took the first of what will probably turn out to be many lessons, LOL!!! |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I just read a pretty good article on FB that suggested walking an imaginary barrel pattern working on hand placement, getting forward, everything you want to do during your run. Creates muscle memory. It has been working great for me. My horses are finished and don't need to see the pattern plus they stay calm and relaxed. |
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 Ms. Elvis
Posts: 9606
Location: Running barrels or watching nascar | I had to quit watching everybody in sight, even on TV. While most can learn from watching others, they are just a bad habit magnet to me. Even the best ones. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | Watch of video of yourself! This is the best way for you to understand what you are doing wrong. Then start visualizing how you should ride to be better. Practice, Practice, Practice the correct way. Remember when you and your horse get nervous, it is easy to revert back to the old ways. Stay calm and cool to help you and your horse. Start visualizing at the races what should be correct for you and your horse, do not think about going fast to win, going fast to beat so and so, or going fast to win $$.
I do agree with the problem of going too slow for too long. You have to work at a faster speed at home too.
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 563
Location: Small Town Iowa | I agree with most on here that you can only do so much slow work before your horse forgets how to speed it up a bit. And if you have a horse that is well versed on the pattern then don't ruin them by drilling on something that you need to improve on not the horse. I'm kinda in the same boat. I have a very smart, well patterned horse but we are working on the running and getting faster at this point in time. So for me it was trying to get the muscle memory down of the RIGHT way to do things for me and my horse. Walking the pattern helps, but one of my problems is not sitting in the turns. Now this is probably going to sound hoaky, but work on your muscle memory in your day to day life. If your sitting on the couch and your problem is hands then work on your hand position, if you need to learn to sit, when you drive and you make a turn sit deep in your seat while you're driving. Being safe of course. It helps me because becoming a better rider is definitely an ultimate goal of mine as well and these are a few things that helped me while it was still too cold to ride or I didn't feel it necessary to drill my horse over and over again on somthing I needed to work on. |
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Veteran
Posts: 238
| rodeomom3 - 2014-04-14 5:27 PM
I just read a pretty good article on FB that suggested walking an imaginary barrel pattern working on hand placement, getting forward, everything you want to do during your run. Creates muscle memory. It has been working great for me. My horses are finished and don't need to see the pattern plus they stay calm and relaxed.
I was taught to do this from the beginning. Before every run I walk an imaginary pattern, put myself and my horse exactly where I want us to be and envision the arena. 2/3/4 times while waiting to walk into the arena. |
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 1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
Location: Southeast, Texas | You could practice on the lawn mower too!! [= I "run barrels" around all the trees in the yard, much to my husbands dismay! But, I have a good seat. Hehehe!! Jcrouse, I thought I was the only one pretending to make pockets, sitting deep, and looking up when driving! At least now I know I'm not the only crazy one!!
My words of true advice- trust yourself a little!! We can slow work ourselves to death and practice until we are blue in the face, but if we never put a little faith into ourselves doubt is going to be our biggest bad habit! [= |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 563
Location: Small Town Iowa | ABroussard - 2014-04-15 1:34 PM
You could practice on the lawn mower too!! [= I "run barrels" around all the trees in the yard, much to my husbands dismay! But, I have a good seat. Hehehe!! Jcrouse, I thought I was the only one pretending to make pockets, sitting deep, and looking up when driving! At least now I know I'm not the only crazy one!!
My words of true advice- trust yourself a little!! We can slow work ourselves to death and practice until we are blue in the face, but if we never put a little faith into ourselves doubt is going to be our biggest bad habit! [=
You are not the only "crazy" one out there!!! I have been told to only do it when I am by myself because the kids and hubby find it rather "odd" while they're in the car with me. LOL!!! And I love mowing for that same reason, I come to a tree or obstacle and I set, rate, and turn. Sometimes I even push my rider into high gear like I'm pushing to the next "barrel" LMAO!!!  |
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How do you break your bad riding habits?