Riding Bareback.... good or bad - pressure points?

[domane]

We all know that a well-fitting saddle will spread the weight evenly. We often hear people saying "my saddle doesn't fit so I'm riding bareback". However, if you ride bareback, surely your bum bones create two very specific pressure points? If you are a "pear" shape, like myself, I would like to think that my larger than average bottom is more padded than a thinner person D), but then I'm heavier than her (or him). A thinner person would surely have a more bony bottom, so although lighter will produce more pressure?

So is bareback riding really not good for a horse's back?

 

[team barney]

One horse had an unbelievable amount of issues with back/saddle etc. I gave up trying to fit a saddle and just rode bareback, fast forward a few weeks and the improvement was tangible, fast forward eighteen months and the difference was remarkable, you wouldn't have believed it was the same back! I wish I'd taken before/after shots but I didn't think to at the time.

 

[canteron]

I think one of the points to take into account is your size relative to the horse. So for example if you are an adult on a pony then you are probably putting a lot of pressure on a relatively little amount of back and you need a treed saddle to spread the weight.

If you are a tiny thing on a great lump of horse, then probably more acceptable!!

 

[tallyho!]

Unless you ride bareback with your knees held up or like sitting on a chair, there is no way your seatbones dig into your horse whether you are fat or thin.

When you straddle the horses back and relax, it is the back & insides of your thighs and your glutes that your horse feels. You can test this on an exercise ball, a chair will not demonstrate it well as you will feel your seatbones. Most of your weight will be on your thighs.

Just think of your skeleton... your pelvis is not wider than your horse (unless you are adult on a pony) and since your femur do not open out directly sideways, rather more forward and out, your seatbones will not creat those two pressure points you are imagining. This only happens in a saddle, when you sit in a chair-seat position.

 

[Rose Folly]

As TallyHo says!

 

[JFTDWS]

Unless you ride bareback with your knees held up or like sitting on a chair, there is no way your seatbones dig into your horse whether you are fat or thin.

When you straddle the horses back and relax, it is the back & insides of your thighs and your glutes that your horse feels. You can test this on an exercise ball, a chair will not demonstrate it well as you will feel your seatbones. Most of your weight will be on your thighs.

Just think of your skeleton... your pelvis is not wider than your horse (unless you are adult on a pony) and since your femur do not open out directly sideways, rather more forward and out, your seatbones will not creat those two pressure points you are imagining. This only happens in a saddle, when you sit in a chair-seat position.

Exactly. As usual it's not what you do, it's how you do it

 

[*hic*]

A quick way of checking what tallyho says is to sit correctly on your bareback horse, get someone to hold your horse and then put a hand under each seat bone. Now lift your legs up and away from the horse - feel the difference on your hands

 

[JFTDWS]

I think one of the points to take into account is your size relative to the horse. So for example if you are an adult on a pony then you are probably putting a lot of pressure on a relatively little amount of back and you need a treed saddle to spread the weight.

If you are a tiny thing on a great lump of horse, then probably more acceptable!!

This is counter intuitive - if you're an adult on a pony, you will cover a much greater area of the back relative to the entire length of the back - or more usefully relative to the region of the back on which a saddle would sit. Therefore, the addition of a saddle would be unlikely to spread the weight much further.

On a larger horse, you can fit a larger saddle which will spread the weight across a greater area of the total useable area of the back - therefore on a larger horse, you would be more likely to get pressure points from riding bareback and sitting on a relatively smaller area of the back.

BUT, that assumes the OP's hypothesis is correct, which in my opinion, it isn't - as the majority of your weight should not be transferred through your seat bones.

You'd also have to consider the fact that (unlike a saddle) you're not anchored to one spot by a girth and you're more likely to spread your weight by moving with and around on the back (which could be a bad thing if you're bouncing about, or good if your weight shifts in an appropriate manner with the movement). There are also all sorts of rider-skill and rider-weight related variables I won't even begin to consider here