follow up on position and balance

I'm finding that posting embarrassing pictures of myself frequently prompts very insightful comments, which then help me better understand some murky concepts. So thanks, readers! 

On more than one occasion, I've posted a picture thinking I had all the problems figured out. But nope! Maybe I don't. Still definitely got a lot to learn...

I included this picture in last week's post on optimum balance and wrote that my position was ahead of the horse. My reasoning was because my upper body was tipped ahead of my lower leg, and ahead of that handy dandy red vertical line.

However a reader commented that actually, no - I'm behind the horse's motion here since my shoulders are behind Isabel's. Huh. Never actually thought of it that way before. 

So I went back to the video to get a frame-by-frame sequence. I wanted to see why my impression of my position was the exact opposite of a reader who frankly has significantly more experience than me. 

I'm not particularly fond of my position here (and our distance was a smidgen tight) - but it's a pretty honest representation of where I currently am in my training. #noshame 

I lean back approaching the fence, then apparently make a big effort to bring my upper body forward at take off. Is this what C meant about needing to be STILL at the fence?

It looks like I tip my upper body forward for take off, then quickly sit up and back again after the apex of Isabel's jump, and land practically standing straight up. My lower leg just swings back and forth, with my hands playing too much of a role in balancing. 

So maybe I've been my own worst enemy all along: I make a big effort to 'go with the horse' over the fence, which feels like jumping ahead. So then I sit even farther back to the next fence. Thus starts a vicious cycle...

My assessment for improvement is, I believe, still the same: solidify lower leg and close hip angles so that I have a better base of support for my upper body. But actually looking at the full sequence makes the mechanics clearer.

What do you think - have you ever looked at (or posted??) sequenced pics of your riding? What qualities in your position do you consider to be most important for safe (and clear) jumping rounds?


(also, I'm tagging the posts with super insightful comment threads under 'training tips' - feel free to peruse the previous topics! it actually kinda reminds me a little of the 'teach me tuesdays' that SprinklerBandits does... yay for awesome advice from the blogging community!)