Letting Go – Part II

      7 Comments on Letting Go – Part II

I discovered in Letting Go Part I that I couldn’t stay on my horse without HOLDING ON.

Usually with both hands!

It’s pretty hard to have a following hand, or much of a position when you’re clinging to a neck strap with all your might.

 
 

Don’t get me wrong……. that neck strap has saved my life!!

more than once.

But I was slowly coming to the realization that it was ruining my hand position…

I was going to have to find a way to stay on this horse without holding on with my hands every moment.

I racked my brain…………

This kiddo does THE most athletic cutting horse moves. If he never becomes a solid event horse….. cutting could definitely be a next career.

So that’s where I started……. I’ve done some cutting…….

besides the obvious differences in equipment one of the ways you STAY ON a cutting horse is longer stirrups.

I tend to jack my stirrups up until my knees are touching my chin, so lengthening them a few holes certainly isn’t a problem.

Step One: Longer stirrups

Then I thought of a time when I could stick it better without my hands……and I was riding a lot bareback.

Out came the bareback pad.

Step Two: Bareback time

For the record, I was pretty SURE when I climbed on bareback that I was going to die.

Step Three: LET GO.

I had to force myself to let go. We’ve been slowly building to more and more time without holding on.

And many times to fix something you have to exaggerate, so I’ve been pushing my hands forward over fences to compensate for the hands on the neck-strap position that’s become my default.

Amazingly…….. I haven’t fallen off yet!!

We’ll see how long that lasts!!

 

 

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7 thoughts on “Letting Go – Part II

  1. Jennifer

    I am so in the neck strap club with you. It's amazing how quickly I get addicted to it. Best of luck letting go, maybe I'll try and join you in the "hands free" club 🙂

  2. Beckz

    Love this blog so much! Good luck with the letting go. I love my monkey strap it feels so weird to it, even if I'm not holding it

  3. Susan Friedland-Smith

    Neck straps are a highly underrated life-saving device. Maybe the day after International Helmet Awareness Day there can be a similar day devoted to the humble neck strap.

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