Riding bareback to improve seat/for fun!

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poacher82

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Does anyone ride bareback regularly, either to improve your seat or just for fun?
I often ride 1/2mile bareback to turnout my horse out, and the other day decided to go for a bareback hack to save 2 mins tacking up time. I sat on a grip-pad saddlecloth, thinking I'd leave it on a gate down the track if it was slipping,and it didn't move on my or the horse so before I knew it we'd been 40mins, some trotting and cantering, and it was such fun! Felt like being a little pony clubber again!
Just curious if anyone else does similar?
 
Me! I'm the wrong side of 40 so probably should have stopped years ago but when my horse was 4 I had real trouble with saddles, she was bucking when I asked for canter in the one I was using at the time and I thought well only one way to work out whether this is because of the saddle. Hopped on her bareback and she was a star! So got rid of the saddle & started riding bareback, not just for schooling but for hacking (not on the roads though) & the odd small jump too. We have saddles that fit now but I love riding her bareback so still do it :) We did the Interdressage Christmas pudding bareback challenge last year and came placed so we might have to have another go if they run it again this year :D
 
I love riding bareback. Backed Samba bareback as had no saddle. Used to ride Toffee all the time bareback out on local hacks close to the farm until recently I came off her and havent had the confidence to do it again since out of the safety of my field :(
 
I enjoy riding bareback and i do think it improves position and balance, i have been told i ride better bareback :o
I ride in the school bareback - walk, trot, canter and jumping but i wouldn't hack out bareback.
 
I LOVE riding bareback! I ride some rather chubbty arabs and they are so easy to ride bareback!! Because they have such smooth paces, i find it easier than riding with a saddle because you can feel them tense up so much quicker so you can calm them down before they get wound up :)

Theres an arab i ride with legs that swell up easily (spoke to the vet- was told to just keep an eye on it and rest when shes sore, cold water bandages and take it easy without any jumping) but when shes had a few days off, or even after a few weeks off, when bringing her back i always ride her out bareback as its to much easier to feel how balanced she is and if shes sore or anything.

I always ride bareback whenever possible, and im trying to teach my mum to ride, and shes had her first bareback ride last week :') I think its really good for the seat and can really get the rider completely tuned into the horse :)
 
I too am a fan of bareback, though only on my cob x as he's like an arm chair. Think I would loose my virginity allover again if I tried it on the ex racer lol :eek:

When we had all that snow earlier this year I took him out bareback and went for several very good gallops. :D Also find it useful for improving my jumping position
 
ye are all going to laugh, but when i was learning to jump, i fell off at least twice every lesson. After a year of this, i started to "sit back" hunting style going over a jump. In the end, my instructor took my stirrups to try to get me to go forward but it didnt work, so she took my saddle for 6 mths. I rode bareback, jumping and all, for 6 mths, and it worked. it got me jumping properly. Hadn't done it since then until i got cooper, and when i got him, he hadnt been ridden in 2 years, but i hadn't a saddle to fit, so i hopped up bareback. he was easier to ride bareback, i loved it, but prob not on every horse. My friend sat on her horse bareback, after been riding him for 5 years, and he sent her into tomorrow, really didnt like it, but he's just a spoiled little fecker of a horse!!!!!
 
I used to ride bareback as a child because my tack lived at home and the pony seven miles away - and I biked there everyday!

I have ridden all our horses (except the new mare) bareback but I would add a word of warning to those thinking of trying it for the first time. When I tried it on our big sensible mare who isn't fussed about much I soon realised that she had never been ridden bareback before. Now, sensible people probably wouldn't make their first attempt to ride a horse bareback by hopping on from a gate next to the road - but I did. She's 16.3 and we jiggled, jogged, bounced, snorted and went sideways most of the way home on the road. We have repeated the exercise at home in the school and I now do use a bareback pad but really for me "bareback" is best ridden wearing shorts with nothing between you and the horse.

I do still ride both the big horses bareback if I'm worried about saddle issues and because I like it!
 
Me too I luv riding bareback in summer I ride rose in from the field in just a headcoller n rope. Also I school without stirrups as I find my whole leg and seat are a lot more secure.
 
Miss-rose said:
Me too I luv riding bareback in summer I ride rose in from the field in just a headcoller n rope. Also I school without stirrups as I find my whole leg and seat are a lot more secure.
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LOL - They do don't they!! I often school with no stirrups too. I do hack out bareback with a pad (I worry my bones might dig in at some point!) and felt it's much better! Have fallen off once though... a few years ago... he cantered and did a little buck halfway across this field and I sort of slid off landing on both feet then did a running hop type thing and fell flat on my face!! LOL!!!
 
I didn't have much choice this summer!

Saddle got too tight but otherwise it would have been lunge and long rein between april-september, no thanks!

I'd like to think it has improve our bond massively, our connection is much better and he seemed to be enjoying work for the first time ever (to the point of getting excited and jogging! :eek:).

Like to think my position has improve, don't seem to be gripping with my knees so much in trot!

May - http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...3_397089092326_633522326_4743136_451747_n.jpg

September - http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._427919162326_633522326_5584419_5283181_n.jpg

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http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._427916607326_633522326_5584377_1110751_n.jpg
 
I pretty much learnt to ride bareback, pony was far too fat for a saddle and it would quite literally slip under his belly. So dieting and riding bareback was the way forwards ;). Once he had lost weight and saddle did fit him, I would continue to ride bareback, walk, trot, canter, jumping. Was sooo much fun! Still is ;). Ride my 4YO bareback in from the field sometimes, have walked trotted and cantered him also bareback. Jumped a teeny twig bareback on him to - but only being 4 and still green to jumping didn't want to push it :p. I actually sat on him first time bare back also, just slipped my leg over and then slid off - much less to worry about when you don't have a saddle in the way :p.

However I hadn't ridden bareback for along time, and the other day when I did decide to hop on, god I realised how much I collapse through downwards transitions :p, definitely gave me a wake up call :P.
 
Haha sounds like so much fun!!

I was thinking about doing a sponsored bareback ride... but thought i would
probably fall off!!

What are these pads that you ride bareback in... think i need to get one!!
 
I ride my event pony and horse in a bare back pad to improve my position and help lengthen my body...
This lasts half a session as the other half is spent jumping :P. Its sooo much fun and I would love to do a headcoller/bareback team chase....would be amazingly fun!
 
When I became scared of Melly with the bucking and bolting, and gave up riding her I would often sit on her bare back in the stable cuddling and listening to her eat hay, so I deciaded to try riding her out in just a pad, It was amazing, and we now either ride babre back or in a treeless....or we would do if she wasnt broken!
I always loved bareback as a kid, so it was a natural thing to try! I love it, you feel so connected to the horse, and as someone else said, you can feel any tension before it becomes an issue. Wouldnt go back to a tree'd saddle now!
 
haha I used to all the time on my old pony! He was fab. Won a tenner of my friend for going xc (obviously not in competition) without my saddle :) But my current horse HATES it! He goes round with his back up as if he's cold backed...I think he'd really like to buck me off but is far too well behaved to! so yeahh, replaced the saddle pretty sharpish.
 
Everyone thought I was mad when i got on my BWP bareback, no-one had done it with her as she was so tense, but once she got the idea she was fab! I do walk and trot but she is really bouncy!!! Its so much fun and really builds the bond with u and the horse
 
nothing better in the winter than riding bareback with an exercise sheet wrapped around you:D

used to ride micah bareback to the field to save my bad ankle, would carry my crutch under my arm so I could walk back:D
 
I try and ride bareback once a week. I started to go down the farm drive as I was unsure that I was sitting straight in walk and trot. I even had a lesson bareback and was suprised at how much better Mick was.
 
I hack out bareback quite a lot- no reason why more just the fact i can.


she goes lovely, best feeling in the world when i ride past local livery yard when they are having lessons- my mares round, working through her back tracking up etc and i have the lightest contact while they are fighting to get them to come down onto the bit even with a saddle.
 
Often do it on the beach - we go right in swimming so it also saves on wrecking the saddle!!!

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Way back (When the Vikings were here) when I was being taught to ride my instructor always made us ride bareback for part of the lesson - I was told it improves your seat, your balance and allows you to move with the horse and be in tune with the horse's muscle movement.. Who remembers 'round the world' and 'scissors'? I have taught my daughter to spend some time bareback and she finds it good for her balance.
 
I love riding bareback, and my cob is sooo comfy! I think my balance and confidence have really improved since I've been riding bareback. I love to watch the fearless kids at my yard galloping and jumping without their saddles, but I'm too much of a wimp for that. :o I don't dare canter bareback because my boy tends to plunge forwards into it (he's still quite on the forehand) and I think I'd come flying off! One day...
 
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