Tense through the Arms

[Kim with Rio]

I seem to tense up through my arms/shoulders on occasion, my ned tells me when I am doing it , as of course it filters through to her.

Has anyone any tips for keeping those arms relaxed? What has worked for you?

Thanks.

K

[angblue]

Mmmm this is hard as I often do it myself!
Don't know if this is good advice but I keep my shoulders relaxed & sometimes rotate them one by one (in a safe area!) before we set off, otherwise I tend to have "no neck syndrome" where my shoulders meet my head lol!
Also I took a leaf out of Heather Moffatt's EE book which is to hold the reins (in the normal way) but firmly between thumb & forefinger & the rest of the fingers loose round the reins & only closing them when you want a halt/turn etc. This works for me as I don't grip the reins anymore & blue is more relaxed & responsive as a result.
Hope this helps ;D

[maryplain]

If you 'breathe down to your boots' (or breathe really deeply from your diaphragm) you will find your posture improves and your arms relax somewhat.

[Kim with Rio]

Definitely goes through shoulders to arms and hands and I guess torso too......

Thanks for the tips about holding the reins and breathing down to my boots - I'll try these.

The shoulder rotation one not quite so easy to do whilst out hacking (I have to hack to sandschool too), but a good one to do in a 'pre-flight' check before setting-off :-)

K

[SamD]

When you feel yourself tensing up...stop, let go the reins and put your hands on your head, stretch them out beside you..this may help to relieve the tension

[wozzer]

If I find myself doing this (for no apparent reason, ie. we are not about to whizz off unexpectedly or spook), I will deliberately try and relax and let the reins go long enough to encourage Lincoln to stretch down (we can now do a super "walk on a long rein across the diagonal" for a dressage test ;D).

Try making yourself yawn too, often your horse will as well, and it is hard to be tense when you're yawning ;D

[Kim with Rio]

Sam D - thanks - I might give this one a go in the sand school if I have the b***s.....!

Wozzer - thanks, the long rein good to try when in a safe enough area. I did do this yesterday after having 'braved' an empty skip lorry hurtling our way on our way home - opposite side of the road and he had the decency to stop a way off, so that I could turn off down the track back to the farm. The track is single, seldom see any cars and I usually give her a long rein here to stretch out after the ride. Anyways, said skip lorry had gone up the hill behind us, still 'banging' away as the skip was empty, so I let her have the usual long rein. She promptly then heard the skip lorry bang in the distance, thought it was coming to eat her for breakfast and promptly thought about shooting off at a trot! I simultaneously thought, ooh, better gather my reins, and ned started to throw teddies out of pram. Asked her to halt, she did, then I gave her a long rein again home and she said OK, I'll walk if I must, but I'll do it so fast that you'd think I was in a walking race LOL! Bad timing on my part!

I'll give the yawing a go too. I ride early enough, hacking out before work, so I won't look too mad....

Thanks again.

K

[Casper]

I get really tense through my shoulders and arms if Bobby tenses up - thus creating a vicious cycle! A big part of my RWYM lessons with Julia (one of the RA's) is to work on having "brave hands". So I have to think about thrusting my hands forwards in the event of the horse appearing tense instead. It is difficult sometimes when my instincts want me to snatch the reins back and go into my flipping foetal crouch position but slowly slowly we are getting there. That's great advice about yawning as well, really good.