Develop a Stronger Riding Position

to think about having a tall body by relaxing your shoulders looking forward with your eyes and opening your chest and rib area. Think about lifting your chest and stomach and pretend there is a string pulling you from the top of your helmet up into the sky. A wellpositioned upper body should be a completely natural yet elegant tall carriage.
Hands and Arms
Your goal is to have elastic arms while keeping a straight line from your elbow to the horses mouth. You want your elbows relaxed right at the place where your belt would be on your pants. A clinician I once rode with told me to think about holding a beach ball and this worked really well to help with stiff arms. Hands should be placed just above and slightly in front of the withers about two to three inches apart thumbs just inside of the vertical. Keep your fingers closed so that you can feel the palm of your hand with your fingertips thumbs pressing down on the bite of the reins. Your arms and hands need to be strong enough to control your horse but relaxed enough to allow him freedom. I like Centered Riding founder Sally Swifts visual of holding baby birds in your hands you dont hold your fingers so tight that you kill the birds but also not so loose that the birds fly away. My students always like that one and it gets lots of laughs.
Exercises at the Walk
Twopoint at the walk When you are in your twopoint position you lift your weight off the horses back and put it down into your heels and stirrup irons. Think of crouching in the saddle always keeping your hands ahead of your shoulders. This is the position used for racing galloping crosscountry and in hunter seat equitation. If you are new to this position I would advise you to bridge your reins and grab onto the mane to ensure you do not pull your horse in the mouth. 
I like to have riders do many different variations with this exercise such as placing their reins in the outside hand and putting their inside hand on their hip arm outstretched to the side on the head on the small of their back etc. I also like the rider to hold the twopoint position while making upward transitions to the trot and back down again to the