Bareback Riding: Connecting With Your Horse

Riding bareback improves balance for the rider. It also drives the horse to slow down and relax into a stride rather of charging into it. Excellent core muscular exercise is bareback riding. It surpasses doing sit-ups or running on the treadmill. But you should refrain from snatching the mane of the horse since this is regarded as maltreatment and can endanger the animal.

Familiarising Your Horse

Establishing a real relationship with your horse is easier than it sounds. It takes time, but if you spend just a few minutes every day doing nothing with your horse, he or she will begin to search for that bit of time with you. Riding bareback will teach you to feel every movement the horse generates far more than in a saddle. This will enable you to keep in rhythm and balanced. It will also help you better direct and correct your horse during training. Ask a friend for a leg up or use a mounting block to climb on the horse; initially starting out, you could find that riding is difficult. Advancement into the higher gaits will come naturally if you can mount and ride your horse bareback. This will enable you to work on tasks include riding your horse correctly into a fence, turning curves and building cross poles.

Relationship Development

Success with bareback riding depends mostly on developing a relationship with your horse. Your approach and attitude to him will affect your relationship either strengthening or hurting it. Your horse will perceive your uptight behaviour as a threat to him even if you are not intending to be that. Should you consistently ask him to perform a task, he will come to trust your interpretation of what you intend by the request. Practise a walk with your leader leading first, then gently advance to trotting little distances in straight lines. Keeping your balance centred on his back, remember to drape your leg over the barrel and wriggle your seat bones. Though it takes some time to feel safe without a saddle, keep going. Better horsemanship, more security on his back and a sense of oneness that cannot be had without it will make the work worthwhile.

Growing self-confidence

Riding bareback lets you engage your horse on several levels: physically, emotionally, and cognitively. It helps you to grow in your ability to read and interact with the horse in ways not feasible from behind a saddle and to trust your own body. Starting bareback riding with a calm, steady horse comfortable with this new sensation is crucial. Wiggle your seat bones and go forwards and backwards until you discover your equilibrium on the back of the horse by dragging your legs across its barrel. Particularly in quicker gaits, avoid moving too rapidly since this will confuse the horse and compromise your general security. Also, concentrate on keeping your body calm; tensioning yourself will hinder your capacity to relate to the horse. Rather, think less and feel more; visualise a sensation of soft and light like a feather or sing a tune that makes you joyful to engage the right side of your brain.

Growing Your Competency

Riding bareback will help you acquire balance—something you rarely obtain from riding in the saddle. It will also teach you how to track the movements of the horse and develop to sense the minute muscular changes in their body. Instead of making them move faster—which most riders do—it will also compel you to calm down and learn to ride at the pace of the horse. It emphasises the need of listening to the horse, particularly if you are seeking for something different. You should maintain your seat free and your balance light when you are bareback. Many beginners clench with their legs, which is a trouble as it deadens their side to the horses. Good for building core strength and balance are callisthenic exercises include jumping jacks, twists, bend and reach, and squat thrusts.