Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> From: Kathy Mayeda klmayeda@xxxxxxxxx
> The advantage to riding bareback is that it is actually
> ?harder to stay on the horse if you grip or are tense than
> ?if you ride relaxed and following the horse's motion.
This is true, but there are lots of bareback riders who never learn that, 
because they never get past the "grip with the knees and hold onto the reins" 
defensiveness.? Before you have developed balance and the ability to follow the 
horse's motion, gripping with the knees and holding onto the reins is the most 
reliable way to keep from falling off the horse...and so, they never develop 
any balance because the gripping with the knees is actually getting in the way 
of doing so.

> However, bareback riding usually requires riding in somewhat
> ?of a chair seat which is hard to unlearn when you start riding
> ?in the saddle.
Riding bareback doesn't require a chair seat.? In fact, you can use a 
"classical" seat (shoulders over hips over feet) riding bareback as well as 
riding in a saddle, and it works better for "controlling the horse" (i.e you 
can use your legs and seat as aids) as well (although it is a bit 
uncomfortable, especially on a high withered horse or a really broad backed 
horse); however, few people who learn to ride bareback ever learn it as their 
first inclination (after they stop gripping with their knees, if they even get 
that far) is to go to a chair seat because it is more comfortable (even if it 
IS less effective).? Hunt seat riding bareback is extremely difficult, 
virtually nobody does it, and certainly not for any extended period of time.? 
Although hunt seat IS one of the best seats for riding long distances at 
anything more than just slow.

I don't recommend riding bareback as a good way to develop good riding skills.? 
It develops more bad riding habits that need to be broken than good riding 
skills that can later be transferred to riding in a saddle.? If you don't want 
riding bareback to develop bad riding habits, it is far better to have learned 
good riding skills already.? It CAN (although not always) help develop balance, 
but it usually brings a lot of other baggage along with it which then needs to 
be unlearned; especially since lots of people who use it do so "unsupervised" 
and so have nobody correcting this baggage before it becomes an ingrained habit.

Riding bareback might improve your balance, but that it about the only thing it 
will improve.? Although it can also be effectively used in the early stages of 
teaching the "emergency dismount" as it is far easier to bail off a horse 
quickly and smoothly if you don't have a saddle or stirrups in the way.? But 
even then, it is important to then "graduate" to learning the emergency 
dismount from a saddle.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)

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