From: rmvale@watnow.uwaterloo.ca (Ruth Vale)
Subject: Re: Hunt Seat Hand position
Summary: Fashions come and go!
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 14:26:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.213135.3545@desire.wright.edu> sbishop@desire.wright.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug17.183147.8917@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>, paw@coos.dartmouth.edu (Pat Wilson) writes:
>> sbishop@desire.wright.edu writes:
...
>>>hands is with the wrist straight, having a straight line through forearm,
>>>wrist, hands, reins to the horses mouth.  The hand is to be with thumb
>>>on top, not 'cocked' or bent.   Currently, lots of the people around here
>>>are showing in hunt classes with their hands in the 'doggie paw' position,
>>>very low on the withers.  These people seem to be winning.  Since I am
...
>> I haven't heard that "piano hands" (which is what I _think_ you're 
...
>> are winning, overriding their hand position, and it _does_ depend on
>> whether this is "hunter on the flat" or "equitation" - as I'm sure you
>> 
>
>Yes, piano hands fits the description.  Over all these riders look fairly
>correct, just the hands that look very bad.  I was sitting with a dressage/
>hunt trainer and she was complaining as much as I was about it.  She says
>it comes from lots of use of draw reins on QH showing.  A very bad habit
>to pick up!

The habit is also picked up if one regularly rides with one hand (turning
the hand palm down and the reins coming out of each side to guide the
horse who doesn't neck rein).  My English horse neck reins (from her
Western past) and I love it - so we've kept it up, but I pay the price
in Equitation classes when I forget to keep my hand more vertical.
Now that I'm riding the occasional Western class again, I have to figure
out how to hold those long western reins!

In Hunt Seat, the straight line between hand and horse's mouth still applies.
However, there has been a change keeping one's hand vertical and
allowing it to tip slightly to the inside at a more natural angle.  The
idea is to keep the bones of the upper arm in alignment and not crossed
over between the elbow and the wrist.  It depends on the rider's confirmation
as to how much of a tip feels/looks most comfortable.  If the hand
looks stiff, you'll lose points no matter how you hold it.  My dressage
instructor(s) have corrected my hunt seat hand position ad nauseum, but
it never seems to take hold.  I think the influence to relax the hand
inwards also comes from jumpers (read a comment from Chris Todd (?))
in a magazine some time this year about permitting the hand inward.  The
whole idea of a half-halt, BTW, is to use the fingers, not the entire
wrist/arm.  If you have to do that, it isn't a half-halt, or at least
it is a maximum intensity half-halt (like "whoa or else!).

The low-hand position in equitation is also basically a concession to
equitation.  In going back and forth between a hunt-seat coach and a
jumper coach, I'm switching hands up and down all the time.  The low-hands
may be an attempt to encourage the horse to lower the head on to contact 
w/o actually coming "on the bit" (too round a frame) while the
high-hand position was, in my experience, essential in controlling
an excited, high-headed jumper.  It is the only way to do a "pulley-rein",
one of the essential skills in riding the horses I had available
at the time.  Although I can understand the low-hand position, I used
to consider it (and still do, I think) a "pretty" seat having
little practical value.  Used to wonder what would happen if their
horse ever got seriously spooked :-).

There has also been a change, in hunt seat, in allowing the toes to
come out.  We used to call 'em "daisy-picking", but now it seems to
be acceptable, because most people do not have the inner leg strength
to use the side-of-the-leg pressure properly.  Personally, I see it
as a concession to non-full time riders, understandable, since these
folk would obviously feel more secure with the strong muscles
on the back of the leg holding them on.  After all the work I've put
into developing the inner-leg muscle (and I'm NOT a full-time rider) to sit
properly and align my feet, I'm not really interested in letting my
feet swing back out.  I wonder, too, about what that does to the alignment
of bones and tendons between the ankle and hip.

Just some observations. 

Ruth

-- 
=============================================================================
  I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am
    not sure you realize that what you understand is not what I meant.
=========================== rmvale@watnow.uwaterloo.ca ======================