Two centuries ago, children used to do bareback riding, i.e, riding without a saddle. They hopped on to any old pony in the field and sped off.

Today’s riders are mostly lost without a saddle, unless they are Indigenous Americans. There isn’t any question saddles help with function and appearance to a degree. But there is, a lot worth saying for bareback riding, which can significantly benefit confidence and posture.

Because riding bareback allows a very close feeling between pony and rider, you are better able to soak up the horse’s movement without any obstructions. Through this, you also grow as a profesional rider.

When it comes to English saddles, they have very little leather between horse and rider, especially dressage saddles, which have thin flexible flaps.

Any rider of any discipline, at any level of expertise can gain advantage from bareback riding. For years now, I’ve been riding bareback once each week, as I find that it magically improves the performance of both rider and pony. The horse also benefits because he achieves superior sensitiveness to rider cues, with no leather in between to act as an inhibiting factor.

Bareback riding is wonderful for improvement of balance, posture, strength and pliability. All of this adds up to improved confidence. You are tuned in fine on your horse’s movements and you can feel individual muscle in motion; you also gain greater sensitivity to the horse’s feet placements for each movement, which is bound to help tremendously with your horsemanship. Free flow of touch communication is an integral part of good horsemanship. A large amount of the best riders will make it clear that they become one with their horses when out on rides, sort of like they were centaurs.

An amount of athleticism is also needed by all riders. As a rider, you need robust muscles, whether you are a part time pleasure rider or a much more serious expert. Strong muscles function better when stretched. When you are doing bareback riding, you get more ease of movement and an improved sense of balance. Your body and legs shoudn’t be restricted by saddles and stirrups. You should feel less tension and more balance.

Lunging

Lunging is an excellent place to begin, but don’t forget to lunge with a particularly safe horse. Where there are riders who prefer utilising the reins, I personally find it’s far better to ignore using all equipment and simply concentrate. If your pony gives any signs of discomfort, you need to dismount. I’ve seen accidents happen because the rider ignored signals and stayed on the horse. Work inside a round pen or other enclosed area with soft soil. If the horse is less than suitable, choose another. Never work with a horse that’s not fully fit for lunging. Also, always remember to wear a helmet. Frequently, riders fall in reach of their horses’s feet.

Practicing dismounting is a superb exercise that prepares you to face emergencies well. It improves your sense of coordination. From a walk, get your hands on your horse’s neck, thrust up, swing a leg over and then jump down. Try and make this an automatic habit. You can if you practice it often enough. It is going to be of great help if you ever have to dismount in a crisis. Reward your pony if he comes to a stop when you dismount. This is just what you need him to do.

The fat content of the horse’s body mass has a role to play, too. You can communicate better with thin horses, and you are able to sit more easily on fat ones. You get the very best results from horses that are of medium build, but you should try and get experience on all builds of horses simply to increase your knowledge base. Horses that are overweight are incline be rather ungainly and not in perfect coordination when throwing their legs out and this means you lose the finer edges of your sense of balance. Moreover, avoid riding fat horses continually.

As you begin walking on the line at a walk, concentrate on your balance. Are you tilting one way or the other? Try to get your weight precisely centered. This will also teach you the best ways to make seat bone contact. Try and find rhythm with the horse’s movements, don’t just sit there rigidly. Do some stop and walk again transitions, while continuing to feel the legs and muscles under you.

If your pony is of a quiet disposition, shut your eyes and attempt to connect with it. Doing this will fast-track data fed to your brain. When done continually, you will improve much faster.

The trot and canter

Go through the gaits in a relaxed fashion. Dont let anybody hustle you into a speed that you are not comfortable with. This may result in your losing confidence badly enough to give up horse riding for all time.

It happens regularly enough that at the start of a trot, you get thrown to the front and jerked back again, thus sending confusing signals to your horse. Work on that problem habitually, and try and sort it out satisfactorily before your horse becomes totally lost. Never forget that whatever you do with your horse represents training, even riding him bareback. Perfect riding comes from perfect practice.

Speeding up

You may find that your pony runs slow with you on a saddle but runs fast when you ride bareback. This is maybe because when you’re bareback, you grip and move your legs around. If this happens with you, return to a walk and attempt to get balance back with some more stretching exercises. Remember: when you come across a problem, return to slower gaits to work on them.

Avoid using reins for balance

A common but erroneous bent is for bareback riders to use their reins to balance. If you should feel yourself losing balance, grab onto the horse’s mane rather than the mouth. Treat your horse’s mouth as a sensitive area to be protected and never abused. Furthermore reaching for the reins constantly is definitely a form of abuse.

Jumping Bareback

Of all activities possible bareback, jumping is certainly one of the most electrifying. Don’t begin on jumping unless you are absolutely confident about your horse’s ability to take the smaller poles and fences to start with. Use ground poles to begin with. Commence with a single pole and keep adding as you get experience and confidence. Sometime in the near future, you might even try out gymnastics on a lunge line.

Confidence

One of the greatest assets you gain from bareback riding is confidence. Bareback riding necessitates the type of trust between rider and pony that can’t be achieved as well with riding on saddles. Rider and pony share a sense of freedom, of exciting oneness, the kind that isn’t matched in other sports. As time rolls by, you may start to balance naturally, without conscious thought and really, that is the very best way to ride.

Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about farrier tools