Evelyn Rides · Deep Dive
Position Trends
138 scored lessons · 2021-10-02 → 2026-09-05
Across 138 scored lessons from 2021 to 2026, Evelyn's overall position has climbed from a composite 2.86 to 3.39/5 — led by a transformed upper body, and, now that the leg is scored fairly for saddle seat, a genuinely strong all-round seat. (Grader recalibrated 2026-09-07; all lessons re-scored.)
What the five years show
Biggest win — upper body, transformed
From 1.65 in 2021 to 3.3 in 2026 (+0.26/yr, the steepest climb of any skill). Her posture went from her weakest area to tied-strongest — she now rides tall, balanced, and sits the canter. Last 10 lessons 3.51, still trending up.
Correction — the lower leg was never the weak spot
For years this line read ~2.0 and “flat,” which drove a lot of leg feedback. That was a grader miscalibration, not her riding: the pose scorer used a bent hunt-seat knee band and unreliable foot landmarks (see “A closer look” below). Recalibrated for saddle seat on 2026-09-07 and re-run across all 138 lessons, her lower leg is actually a solid 3.42/5 over the last 10 (up from 2.9) — right alongside her hands. The real, mild thing that remains is a leg that drifts a touch forward; no-stirrup work still polishes it, but it’s not a weakness.
Hands — solid, but a recent dip
Historically her most consistent skill (~3.37/5, steady every year). But the last 10 lessons slipped to 3.25 from 3.74 — coinciding with a looser, lower contact on Blue that lets him travel above the bit. This is now her clearest build-on: a steadier, elastic contact with the hands carried up. Likely the strong forward horse plus a loopy rein, not a position change.
Composite — genuinely strong and rising
With the leg scored fairly, her overall position now averages 3.39/5 over the last 10 (up from 2.86 at the start), trending +0.12/yr. All three pieces — seat, hands, leg — now sit in the low-to-mid 3s; the upper body is the anchor and the contact is the next few tenths.
A closer look at the leg — and how we fixed the score
Because the lower-leg score drove so much feedback, we pulled it apart — and it turned out the old
2.0/5 was mostly a measurement artifact. The pose grader’s old “good” knee band (100–130°)
was a bent hunt-seat knee, so Evelyn’s correct long saddle-seat leg (knee 116–170°) was auto-flagged
“watch,” and its heel check read “heels up” ~60% of the time from unreliable foot landmarks when her heel
is actually level/down. On 2026-09-07 the grader was recalibrated for saddle seat (open-knee band, heel dropped from the
score, size-normalized leg alignment) and every lesson was re-scored — which is why the lower-leg line above now reflects reality.
The one real thing that remains is mild: the leg drifts a touch forward — clearer at the trot (~100px), gentler at the
canter (~50px). Worth schooling, but a solid-3 leg, not a crisis.
Year-by-year averages
| Year | Lower leg | Hands | Upper body |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3.35 (2) | 3.25 (2) | 1.65 (2) |
| 2022 | 2.98 (13) | 3.25 (13) | 2.34 (13) |
| 2023 | 3.00 (21) | 3.48 (21) | 2.38 (20) |
| 2024 | 3.14 (40) | 3.21 (40) | 2.59 (40) |
| 2025 | 3.19 (40) | 3.43 (40) | 2.78 (38) |
| 2026 | 3.13 (22) | 3.50 (22) | 3.30 (20) |
Values are the mean position score (1–5) from the pose read; lesson count in parentheses.
The takeaway
The story is genuinely encouraging — and clearer now that the grader is honest. Five years of steady
posture gains made Evelyn’s upper body a real strength; her lower leg, once scored fairly for saddle seat,
turns out to be solid too (mid-3s, with only a mild forward-drift left to polish). The one thing actually asking for attention
is contact — her hands dipped over the last stretch as Blue leaned on a loose rein. A steadier, elastic contact with the
hands carried up is the next few tenths.
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Scores come from the same pose read used on every lesson page. Charts and figures generated
2026-09-05. Trajectory lines are a 6-lesson rolling average; faint dots are individual lessons.