On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 08:13:52PM -0700, Judy Ryder wrote: > I love to ride bareback. It's close contact; you can get good communication > with the horse. > > But it may not be for everyone. Once we get dependent on a saddle, it's > hard to break away.
i think maybe it would be good for us, the riders, to be the ones to make the hard changes sometimes. sure, it's not possible for everyone, just as some people need wheelchair-lifts to ride &c. but becoming that bit more flexible, that bit more sensitive, i think is maybe part of what we should do for our horses' sakes. we spend enough energy making *them* change -- we want them to be responsive, we want them to be light, we want them to be brave; seems the least we can do is stretch out a quadricep or two, grab some mane and learn to balance. even if it *is* hard. (and it's not as hard for us on iceys as it would be on some breeds with less-cushiony typical backs :) > It's great for kids to learn bareback right from the start. certainly. but i think adults are on the hook, too. i have (i think) just signed on a mother/daughter pair to take lessons again (they were my students when i was an apprentice), and i'm darned if i'll let the adult use a saddle and make the kid go bareback. you're never to old to build muscle and balance, and never too old to learn. > Passenger lessons are helpful in bareback riding also. definitely, passenger lessons imho are about trust as much as anything, and they certainly allow you to test and trust in your own balance. that said, i would not start "rehabbing" a rider dependent on a saddle with a passenger lesson. i'd start them on the lead line and the lunge. --vicka
