My elbows keep sticking out at a lope what can I do to control that?

Elbows that stick out at the lope — flying away from the rider's sides so that the arms form a wing-like shape rather than hanging close to the body in the correct following position — is one of the most visually obvious position faults at the canter and one of the most directly connected to what the horse experiences through the rein. Sticking elbows are almost always a symptom of something else happening in the seat, the shoulder, or the rein rather than an isolated arm problem that can be fixed by simply tucking the elbows in. The most common cause of flying elbows at the lope is the rider using the arms for balance. When the rider's seat is not yet secure enough to balance independently through the lope's three-beat rocking motion, the arms instinctively spread outward to widen the base of support — the same instinct that causes a tightrope walker to extend both arms when balance is challenged. The rider who is told to tuck her elbows in when the balance challenge is the underlying cause will tuck them briefly and find them flying out again the moment attention shifts, because the underlying instability is still there and the arms are still being recruited to manage it. The correction for balance-driven elbow flying is therefore in the seat rather than in the arms. Longe line work at the lope without stirrups develops the seat security that allows the arms to hang freely at the sides without being recruited for balance, because the rider is forced to find her balance entirely through the seat and leg when the stirrups are removed. The arms, freed from their balance role, naturally begin to hang in a more correct position. Tension in the shoulder girdle is a second common cause. A rider whose shoulders are tense and elevated — pulled up toward the ears by anxiety or by the specific tension some riders carry at faster gaits — will find that the tension pulls the elbows outward as part of the overall defensive contraction of the upper arm muscles. The correction here is through the shoulder rather than the elbow directly — consciously dropping the shoulders down and back, breathing deliberately to release upper body tension, and thinking of the shoulder blades sliding down toward the back pockets rather than the elbows themselves. A practical correction that works for many riders is to briefly hold the reins in one hand and place the free hand's thumb in the waistband of the riding pants — a position that physically anchors the elbow close to the body and gives the rider the proprioceptive experience of what a correctly positioned elbow feels like. After a few strides in this anchored position, taking the reins again in two hands while trying to maintain the same elbow position creates a reference point that the rider can return to when the elbows begin to drift outward.