Bad news, I can’t ride. Seriously my poor horse has to put up with my
crap as I flop around like a sack of useless potatoes that leans horribly to
one side. Good news, I can ride without
a saddle. More bad news, I cannot ride
dressage bareback forever.
Growing up when I got my first
horse all that I had was a 50lb western saddle.
I was a kid and I had nowhere near the strength to put that up on a
horse so I spent the first two or so years riding bareback 90% of the time. I see this as a blessing because I
credit it as giving me a good seat.
Nothing fixes a bad seat like riding bareback (it can create its own
issues but we won’t get into that). I’ve
always enjoyed bareback riding.
Yesterday I hopped on Mr.
Mort. I was trying out a pair of those
roller ball spurs to see if I could get away with some lighter aids. He was a touch tense when I first got on and
didn’t get better throughout the ride. I
couldn’t get him to relax over his topline.
I couldn’t get him to push into the outside rein tracking left (an
ongoing issue, but seemed worse). I used
the spurs a couple times and he did move off of my leg really well, but we had
so many other issues I was starting to feel the frustration train pulling
in. I jumped off and pulled off my
saddle.
Mort and I have yet to have a
tense, frustrating ride while I’m bareback.
I know I put less pressure on both of us, but I wanted to
experiment. He was almost immediately
better. When I upped what I was asking
of him instead of getting tense and tight he did it with almost no issues. I even cantered him for the first time
bareback yesterday and his tricky left lead wasn’t nearly as tricky. Essentially we went from tension and
frustration to relaxation and easily accomplishing some tougher stuff. I didn’t need the spurs more than twice
bareback because he responded so well to thigh and calf pressure.
Riding a relaxed and happy horse is
easier, but I could immediately feel the difference in my body. I can not only feel my seat as it gets
crooked at times, but it pretty much fixes itself. I don’t forget to support him with my left
leg when it’s on the inside. I also
support him with my whole leg instead of just my lower leg. My left hand isn’t magically fixed, but my
body being fixed, making Mort more fixed, helps me give my hand more focus to
make sure it doesn’t get stuck.
Essentially I have to actually stay straight and balanced bareback and
since my feel is better I am automatically better at supporting him
gently. All of this was awesome and a
lot of fun and we played a lot with moving his individual body parts. But it’s not the final answer.
Clearly I need to double-check the
fit on his saddle. We’ve had it almost a
year and Mort’s body has changed a lot in that year. I’ll for sure take a look at that tonight
before our ride. But I really do think
that most of the issues are me because I feel myself being crooked in the
saddle and I just cannot seem to fix it for more than a stride or two.
I also
didn’t realize what a poop I was being with my left leg until I got a couple
bareback rides in; I was only really supporting him with my calf and letting my
thigh sit there like a dead fish. I wonder why he doesn’t bend well through the
turns that direction? Poor Mort. For now, I’ve pulled the stirrups off of my
saddle. I’m going to check the fit and
try some no-stirrup rides to see if that helps even out my seat. I think (hope) that me being more aware of my
left leg being a slacker will make me better about using it. I’ll also most likely do a bareback ride
about once a week to double check that I’m doing the right things.
The good stuff is that Mort is less
crooked than I thought, but I’m more crooked.
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