[quote]My intake is that grabbing mane will help more than hurt. I can see your point lilchica about getting reliant on your hands and upper body, but I think it's more important to keep a rider from falling behind the motion or from catching in the mouth. For instance, if a beginner rider doesn't see the distance and the horse does, it may take off earlier than expected. The motion grabs the rider forward, and if she's not grabbing for something (being a beginner) she's going to yank off that horses mouth. Some horses are very hateful and unforgiving and the discomfort will the be least of their problems. Lots of horses will get angry and buck or become "unwound" because of this. If there's not something visual or mental for the student to connect to, things could go wrong.[/quote]
thank you but like i said, i, when i first started, was jumping without any hands. i couldnt grab the horses mouth, and if i was in good form i would stay on over any pop. i guess i just dont see why more trainers dont try to find other ways around grabbing mane.

I don't really grab mane because my pony yanks a little bit after the jump and I almost pulled my arm out of the socet(spelling?). I guess if you grab mane or not really depends on how ur horse acts or what you jump in.....

My pony hurt himself over an oxer last year, so he always gets nervous about them, so if he is going to get really deep or the really long distance, and the oxer is 3'3 or higher sometimes I will grab mane (only in the jumpers) to protect his mouth and not make him nervous about oxers just in case especially since he's galloping, but I don't always grab mane over oxers,(probably 1 in every ten rounds) and have never grab it in the eq. or the hunter ring.

Ok, I might be a little bit late here, but here goes...

Grabbing the mane is certainly NOT detrimental to riding. Obviously a good idea when you are first learning to jump, but it's fine to grab it if you feel insecure. My horse is a green 17 hand TB who throws a tantrum if his mouth gets bumped during a jump, so if we approach a fence too long or short I generally grab the mane to keep him from flipping out. I also don't think it teaches you to be reliant on your hands, it's helping you keep your horse happy if you're not sure you can keep from hurting him!

its alwayse better to grab main then ripping your horses mouth of and punishing him for jumping a jump so if your not sure grab that main and hold on

yeah i have been ridding for 7 years and i have gone to many shows and i still grab mane because i have a bad habbit of sitting down in the saddle to early