My Bareback Opinion
I would just like to share my opinion on riding bareback of which some of you may find helpful seeing it's so common. :)
I've ridden bareback for several months since a fairly new horse in my exercise riding career came to me. I've done w/t/c in a Thinline pad and thought it would be great for my seat, legs, balance, and feel. While it certainly did help me gain more feel and balance, it was very detrimental to my seat and legs. I didn't realize how much until I went for a lesson with my previous coach. Her words for the hour boiled down to "why are you doing that, you've never done that since we fixed that, stop that, just let your leg go, stop trying to grip with your butt." Of course, I was not happy to hear all that. 😅 However, having taken the time to look at the physical demands of riding bareback, it makes sense why I was doing that.
1.) Bareback requires you to put your center of gravity in your knees. Whether or not you mean to, you will hold tension there. This isn't necessarily all the time, but when things go wonky, your horse takes a turn like a barrel racer, or your horse spooks, your knees are what will hold you on as they stabilize your body against your horse's sides. (Not necessarily gripping, just holding!)
2.) Your seat changes. You don't sit in a posture like you would in a saddle, so your equitation will go downhill. You can't keep your heels down, your legs long (see about your knees in #1), or sit 100% where you need to on your butt. Your seat is a lot less stable, resulting in a lifted leg. Because you are forced to sit back more, your leg goes forward. You can't follow your horse the same, so you again compromise. This leads to bad habits in the saddle.
3.) While you absolutely can sit the gaits well while bareback, learning how to is not fun for you and especially not your horse. When learning to do so bareback, made a more prominent issue as most bareback pads (in the style of Thinline and not like Nalanta, Cavallin, or Signum Omega, you are bouncing up and down on your horse's spine in a rather uncomfortable manner. While your ability to sit will be very good once you figure it out, the process of getting there is less than ideal.
So, my take on bareback is that it's a great tool to pull out of the box once in a while to build confidence, better balance, and feel, but it's still best left alone for the majority of the time. Best for you and best for your horse's back.
Let me know what your opinion is!
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