Alice - Glad you got such high compliments on
Deli - you are smart to be working things out like you are! Hopefully we can try
and coordinate a time to ride together one of these days...!
BTW I think you can learn a TON about balance and
hands by walking and trotting without stirrups - not just by going bareback. So
maybe you can convince your daughter to do that. I found that from my
youth riding bareback, I learned to hold on with my legs - the full length of
them. It became my natural reaction to a testy situation. Not a good idea as an
adult when the horses you are riding consider that a cue to GO.
I started my daughter bareback on her pony when
she was three. For months she rode in the round pen with a halter/leadrope and
bareback. she fell off a few times, but kept getting back on and was doing
great. then, one of my friends though she needed a saddle and talked me into
buying one. that was a mistake. Now, three years later, I have a hard time
getting her to ride bareback. I try to make her once a week, but then she
wants me to do it too, which I won't do. She looks terrible. She won't
keep a long leg in the trot and she's never tried to canter bareback. I hate
the way she flops her hands and that's when i make her ride without a saddle,
it keeps her honest.
At 08:50 AM 4/8/04 -0700, you wrote:
When my son got his first horse,
he was not allowed to use a saddle until he could trot and canter his
horse bareback. Not only did he quickly learn to canter
his horse this way, but did the "watch this, Mom!" as he jumped his
horse over a fallen tree. Now, when his current horse spooks, he
doesn't even reach for the horn (he rides western, obviously), just goes
with her. I believe learning bareback riding is one of the most useful
tools a rider can have.
