Relaxing the Tense Horse Under Saddle

A great horseback rider is someone who truly believes in themselves, as well as in their horse. Any great rider needs a good deal of confidence to ride, train, and compete with their horse. Entering a show ring can be a sobering experience, and even just climbing into the saddle can be enough to make people nervous.

10 Signs You Were Destined To Be A Horseback Rider

1. You Love Feeling Powerful.
2. You’re Not Afraid of Dirt.
3. You Chase Your Dreams.
4. You’re Patient.
5. You Don’t Need Words to Communicate.
6. You’re Not Afraid of Hard Work.
7. You’re Strong.
8. You’re Not Afraid to Face Your Fears.

1. Ask the horse to yield to the leg on one side, then the other.
2. Ask the horse to enlarge on a circle, relaxing the neck and jaw on that side.
3. Ride with normal contact for a few strides, release slightly for the same number of strides, return to normal contact.

How to Know if a Horse Respects You

1. Joining Up. “Joining up” is when your horse follows you at your side untethered.
2. Backing Up. When you advance toward your horse, unless you use a verbal cue to tell him to stay, he should respond by backing up away from you, not turning away from you.
3. Personal Space.
4. No Displaying Vices.

Now researchers have found that horses also can smell human emotions. Dr. Antonio Lanatá and his colleagues at the University of Pisa, Italy, have found that horses can smell fear and happiness. The researchers theorized, “We know that horses perform unexpected reactions when being ridden by a nervous person.

You must relax all of your joints so that your lower leg can flex upward and downward in rhythm with the horse’s motion. If you tighten your hip muscles, grip with your inner thighs, pinch with your knees, lock your ankles, or tighten your toes, you will not be able to absorb the motion of the horse’s movement.

Riding without stirrups allows a rider to reach another level of feel, balance and suppleness in the saddle and can be used to effectively solve a variety of rider issues, at any level of training. No-stirrup work can help a rider increase awareness of her own biomechanics as well as the horse’s.

Your thighs should be flat against the saddle, with your knees and toes pointing straight ahead. Be aware that if your knees or toes are turned out, you are probably gripping with your calves which will not help your horse, whatever its temperament.

Challenge yourself by riding one-handed and raising your arm, If you can do so safely, perform balancing exercises without placing your hands on the reins (tie your reins to your saddle horn). Don’t worry about controlling your horse, just find your balance and feel the rhythm.

To find the correct stirrup length, sit in the saddle with your feet out of the irons. Relax your leg and allow the stirrups to bump against your feet. The bar (bottom) of the stirrup should hit your ankle bone. If you’d like to have the correct length before mounting, stand next to your horse.

Pull the stirrup up to just under your knee—you don’t want it to hinder movement by constricting your knee. The stirrups should fit snugly, so they won’t fall down; it’s hard to run with socks flapping around your ankles! The stirrups shouldn’t sag either, which makes them look slovenly.

If the stirrups are too short several things tend to happen: The rider will tend to sit further back in the saddle, this can put too much weight on the weaker part of the horse’s back (the back gets weaker the further it goes from the withers). So riders tend to self regulate stirrups that are too short.

You know that your stirrups are too short if any of the following situations are true:

1. Your knees are forward against the knee roll even when your heels are down slightly.
2. Your heels are pushed way down when your knee is in a proper position.
3. Your upper or lower leg is consistently pinched against the horse.

By, in effect, floating above his mount, the jockey saves the energy the horse would otherwise expend to shove him back up after each bounce down into the saddle. Doing this is “very hard work,” says Wilson, because the rider uses his legs in their short stirrups as springs or pistons.