Bareback – To Be or Not To Be

BAREBACK

To Be or Not to Be

By Glenn Stewart

Some are fans of bareback riding and some are not. As a clinician, I suggest all the time to people to ride bareback. I ride bareback myself on occasion throughout the year.

The reason I do, and the reason I suggest others do, is because it accesses muscles and balance that I cannot achieve in the saddle. Ten minutes a day bareback for two weeks improves my riding more than I can in two months in the saddle or in a year.

The 10 minutes I spend will be done with enough activity that when I slide off my horse it’s hard to walk. I want my groin muscles to know they did something. I hold myself up slightly with the inside of my thighs so my seat bones are not digging or bouncing on my horse’s back. This also works our muscles more. If I ride actively enough for 10 minutes, my goal is to be sore enough in 5 days that I need 2 days off to recover.

Many people will say that’s ridiculous or I don’t want to hurt or some other excuse, but I figure a little on purpose muscle soreness is better than falling off by accident and having a trip to the hospital. I know for a fact it helps my quality of riding in the saddle, which I know my horse appreciates. While riding, I am consciously trying to avoid bouncing or just sitting there like I’m on a couch. The reason for me is to wake up some muscles and balance that have gone dormant.

Riding bareback without a pad and doing it well is a big step. If you are not riding well it doesn’t give any protection to the horse’s back. Using a good quality bareback pad is a great way to protect the horse’s back and keep your pants clean. A good pad should also be built to have a real sticky surface to sit on. The ones we have at The Horse Ranch have 100% wool for the horse’s back and rough-out leather to sit on which is like Velcro. You can also put your saddle pad under the bareback pad to help distribute your weight for added comfort for the horse.

If you’re going to use bareback riding as a tool to sharpen your skills as a rider, do enough to make yourself sore, yes sore. In 2 weeks you will be amazed at the difference in your riding. Always try to leave your legs loose and relaxed when riding unless you are asking your horse to do something like turn or go faster. If walking is all it takes for you to get sore, well, that tells you how weak your muscles are and they need to be developed. When the muscles are in shape you are able to canter up and down hills, spin, jump, whatever you like for 20 minutes and you feel nothing. Your confidence and ability to stay on vastly improves, therefore you make your horse happier and yourself safer.

You might hear bareback riding will ruin their backs. I’ve been riding bareback all my life and have horses that were 25 when I rode them and they are still going strong with backs that are strong and healthy. In my experience, I have not ever seen a horse damaged from occasionally riding bareback.

Some days I’ve had to ride for hours because the horse pulled out and we had to go on foot to find them while packing only a halter to catch them. Then I would jump on bareback and chase them back to camp for 10 miles. I also used to round up my horses every morning bareback - for 100 days straight each year for 15 years bringing them into camp.

I ride mostly with a saddle, but I’ve found great benefit in riding bareback and definitely feel weak at the start and strong at the end of my 2 weeks or whatever length of time I choose to practice. However, as I mentioned earlier, if you just sit there your sit bones dig into the horse’s back and can make them very uncomfortable and maybe sore. Use the inside of your thighs to carry you and lift your sit bones. To know what it feels like, sit on someone’s lap and have them sit on yours to feel the sit bones and how to lift them. Sit bones stabbing you in the thigh isn’t a good feeling.

Start at whatever speed you can stay on at and then build to whatever you can handle as the time goes on and towards whatever goal you’ve set. Have fun, keep their backs happy, get strong and ride better.

Cheers Glenn

Glenn Stewart has a complete horsemanship program and offers year round educational opportunities at his facility near Fort St. John, BC. He is available to travel for clinics, demonstrations, events and corporate leadership. He also offers on-line learning and has a complete Horsemanship DVD Educational Series on his stages program, a great way to learn his horsemanship program from home. For more information on Glenn and The Horse Ranch visit www. thehorseranch.com.