Riding long distances bare back

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Barb Peck bpeck@together.net
Hi April:

I'm not sure how old you are, or how much you weigh, but it
sounds like you already know you can ride quite a long distance
bare-back and you and your horse feel fine.

When I was a kid, I preferred to ride my 1/2 Arab bare-back.
Although there were no distance competitions then (1960's)
my buddies and I rode all day... bareback.  This included
pretty hilly (and some dangerous) terrain, as were were particular
to ride under power lines to "see where they went".
We very often rode 25 miles per day, and on weekends, we'd be
gone from dawn till dark and I know we'd ride 20miles out
before thinking about turning for home..... we didn't
poke along either.  But we'd stop to swim, let the horses graze or
get off and just walk along....... (Oh I'm getting nastalgic).

Anyway.. the point here.. finally.. is that as long as the horses
sweat doesn't irritate your skin (we rode bareback in shorts)
and you are a competant bare-back rider... go for it if the
rules allow.  I simply don't agree that riding bare back your seat bones are
going to bother your horse.  As any bare-back rider knows, you really ride
off your thighs and pubic bone as much or more than those seat bones,
depending on the choice of gait.

A good bare-back rider can stay on when the going gets rough
as well as a saddled rider.... but that caliber of bare-back rider is
seldom seen anymore.. so assess your riding ability honestly.

Barb Peck
bpeck@together.net



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