Hi everyone, I was hoping for a critique on Tres and I. Also, does anyone have any advice on keeping my upper body a little farther away from his neck? I usually tend to fold more than I need to, but I just can’t seem to break the habbit! I think if I had my arms more on top of his neck that would help, but for some reason I don’t release like that every time. Tips/advice would be great, thanks in advance!
Honestly, you look quite competent as you are. It looks like you hit your spot perfectly. Tres is jumping over his knees a little bit, but he looks like he has more than enough scope for the fence and might be just conserving energy.
At any rate, I have the same problem with folding too much. What really, really helped me was spending a few lessons going through grids without reins. After that, I would just try to recreate the feeling over fences, and if I found myself overfolding again, trotting a few laps in half seat with my arms out to the side helped to reinforce lifting up through my chest. It is such a tried-and-true fix.. Bill Steinkraus even makes mention of it in one of his books, I do believe. The rest of your equitation looks very solid. Your leg looks like it will stay put just fine when you fix the folding issue.
I have the same problem with closing too much with my upper body. I can’t do the no reins b/c of my horse, but if you can, it helps a lot. Think about stretching away as you approach the fence and letting your horse jump to you.