Bareback!!!

[Julie Anne]

I was just wondering how many bareback riders are out there. I almost never ride my pony, Chancey in a saddle anymore we w/t/c jump and even gallop on trail in just a hlter and tow lead ropes!

[Emily Roy]

im horrible at bareback lol.... my first instinct is to crawl up in a ball and laugh histerically as soon as it starts getting uncomfterable... smart, eh? ive riden bareback i think twice now in the past like year and a half due to my unability to ride it and my horse's bad back.... i need a sturdy little pony to teach me how! lol

the other day me and some friends got on our horses bareback after they were cooped up in their stalls for almost a week.... omg it was so much fun though! my horse was really happy to b out, i had like no control over him at the canter and he just kept running (fast enough for bareback hahah) and taking me lots of effort to stop him! lmao so fun! then we had to get him over his fear of water which was very interesting.... heheh... man i wish i had bareback skills :)

[Stephanie]

do u hav an indoor or outdoor arena?

[Melanie]

I ride bareback when i'm lazy and don't feel like tackin up haha. (which is often) it helps with my balance and stuff too!!!! :] and i also ride with just a halter and lead rope. i would never had guessed that i would be able to do that when i bought Billy because he's a really crazy horse but we're workin on that. :]

[KBBadmiral]

tying your horse to a tree isn't the smartest thing to do if he pulls back. I've actually seen a horse pull back and end up having to put to sleep because he ended up breaking his neck in the process of pulling back. i'm not trying to be at all offensive just a heads up :] One of my friends has a horse that pulls back and she didn't tie her up for a while, because she scraped up her hocks really bad pulling back on the washrack, until she got over the habit.

As for the actual question/discussion hahaha. In summer I ride without a saddle everyday except for shows and such..im lazy. and right now ill saddle up every once in a while but after I ride with a saddle and get bored i just end up taking it off anyway. My horse was really difficult to ride bareback at first because he was really green when I got him, and he wasn't filled out all the way at all yet. now he has much more collection & is a lot less green so it makes it a lot easier..& it's good for my seat too.

[KBBadmiral]

hahahah. no ask eb you should have seen his canter tonight. it was like mr. western pleasure tonight. it was amazing. at least my horse isn't lazy, and walks through muddy arenas! hahah. oh i love mr.skipper. :]

[Skippa]

Sarah, holy crap this was a looong time ago. Well... only a few months but doesn't it feel like years?

[KBBadmiral]

ohh well does he do it if you tighten the girth when he's not tied up? yeah, a tie ring is also something you could try, it's like a ring that when the horse pulls back it releases the rope so the horse doesn't hurt himself or break any of your halters/leads and stuff...have you tried doing this stuff while he's untied? such as a bath or tightening the girth? some horse's don't like the hose until you play around with it and adjust water pressure ect.

[Laura]

haha im always lazy so i ride bareback all the time^^

[Strange]

I ride bareback all the time. Do basically the same stuff you do, w/t/c/g jump. And I like to work dressage bareback sometimes as well, it's good for my position and it helps me to feel exactly how he's moving.

[Caroline Nauert]

i like riding bareback a lot but I dont think i'm very good at it lol! my horse is the WORST imaginable bareback horse. sitting on Colby is essentially like sitting on the top point part of a triangular prism lol! He's got rather uncomfortable gaits too and I'm always worried I'll hurt his back because his back bone is so prominant and he has pretty much no fat around it. Because I worry about his back i try to do sitting trot as little as possible/slow as possible/ sit the trot as little as possible. I've only jumped him bareback a few times because I worry I sit to much on his back over even the smallest stuff and that it might make him sore. I do LOVE cantering Colby bareback, especially bareback without reins, its just cool to let him go and do his own thing, no reins, no heavy saddle, just running! its really fun! its good for my balence, and to help my sitting trot. it even really helps my shoulders (keeping um back) too.

lately i've been trying to always cool him out bareback, walk him too or from his paddock bareback whenever i can, and have 'bareback days' whenever possible. i'd like to think its helping! i think it might have too, because the other day me and my friend and her mom all took saddles off our horses. my friends mom has a hyper, rather tough to handle 17 hand oldenburg tb cross who can...too put it lightly, be 'quite a handful' lol. they kept talking about how he was being great that day, listining well, and everything. colby's 16 hands, narrow as could be and completely uncomfortable, so Ben (the oldenburg/ tb cross) would be a totally diffrent experience and I had never been on him before. So I hoped on and at first just walked around. then my friend (who had already been on him and walked and trotted him a little bit) kept going 'oh yah you should trot him! he's being great! after colby he'll feel so smooth too!' so finally i was like 'ok this is probably a dumb idea but i'll give it a shot'. lol i hadnt even nudged him with my heels, all i did was sit up and my calves went a little tense as i prepared to ask him to trot, and he took off in a (i'll admit beautiful correct lead adn all) canter, and just cantered around the ring tossing his head like he might want to think about bucking, but that he certinatly didnt want to stop! lol. what made me think I had improved a bit was that (for one I stayed on, which was thankful b/c the height diffrence would have made for an interesting fall lol), afterwards my friend said i looked great! my leg was suppsidly locked in place, my shoulders back, and i was sitting tall, with my elbows at my side!
i think she might have been overexagerating a bit lol, but still, to be able to hop on bareback a 17 hand very green (my friends mom later said this was probably his first or second time with a rider on bareback ever lol) strong horse and have him take off at a canter and not fall off, really is to me, proof that bareback riding certinatly can help improve your balence lol (i doubt if i could have done this if i hadnt been riding colby bareback more often lately lol)

[Emily Roy]

ben's 17.1 so thatll make u sound even better tee hee :)

neways carrie looked even better than she does with the saddle.... i swear u were just so straight and not moving and all proper! not that u arent normally, i just wasnt expecting it lol.... and ALL i could do was laugh... and laugh... and then laugh some more.... hahah that was SO funny....

[Caroline Nauert]

i know all you do was laugh! and susie too! haha 'whoa ben' crack up 'whoa ben' lol!