07/17/2025
The most common riding flaw I see among today's riders, including pros, is that they look down. To maintain correct balance, we need to ride with our head up and our eyes forward. I see riders posting images all over the internet of them riding that show they are looking down. This might seem a minor issue, but it is not.
When your eyes are down, your horse can feel that your balance is more forward to varying degrees over their horse's forehand. This might seem like a minor issue, but it will put your horse onto their forehand. When your eyes go down, your head that weighs 15 pounds (7 kg) goes down and forward, and usually your shoulders begin to close. All of this together causes a horse to fall forward onto their forehand. The fact that your head is up high at the end of an effective lever, that is your upper body, multiplies the forward weight of your head and shoulders significantly affecting your horse's balance.
The negative effects this has on your horse show up in several ways. It makes both upward and downward transitions more difficult for your horse because this imbalance interferes with your horse's need to engage their hind to reach under themselves. Simply said, when you shift your weight forward in this manner it becomes more difficult for your horse to use its hind. The same is true in lead changes. Rider weight over the forehand, even a little bit, makes all movements that depend on hind engagement more difficult for your horse.
This common riding flaw also affects the rider. Looking down makes it more difficult to develop "feel". To develop "feel" a rider must be centered in unity with their horse's balance. Being forward, ahead of the horse's center of balance creates an obstacle to feeling the horse's balance.
If you look down when riding, just stop it. If you have to look down for a reason, move your eyeballs, not your head. If you keep your eyes and head up and your shoulders open, many improvements will follow. You will sit the canter better because your head and neck position will no longer interfere with your hips swinging to the beats of the canter. "Eyes up". It's simple and fixes a lot of things.
