Anyone who rides horses has heard it all before, “horseback riding isn’t a sport”, “It’s easy, you just sit there”, “the horse does all the work”. Most of the time it is easy to brush off because we get that people who don’t ride horses would have no frame of reference to understand. And quite honestly, to the person standing on the ground, if you are doing it right, the goal is to make it look easy. I can also brush it off because I know that most people’s experience with riding has been. Someone, somewhere, plopped you on old trusty Rusty and either led you around or your horse followed another horse. You know kick to go, pull to stop, pull horse’s face off to turn. That’s not riding. That’s sitting. And you’re right, that is easy. If real riding were easy, there wouldn't be hundreds (maybe thousands) or books and websites devoted to helping riders improve their position through exercise and practice.
I also know that trying to explain it to someone who has no experience is almost impossible. I can’t really even show you. Because at the best, I would have you come out and ride my horses. And I would give you some pointers. I would probably tell you to sit up a little straighter, try to keep your heels down, and I may even teach you a little bit about how to steer with your feet. But you wouldn’t get it and I wouldn’t want you to feel bad so I’d give up and just tell you to kick to go, pull to stop and pull said horse’s face off to turn. And then you’d leave and I’d apologize to my horse and get on him and fix him.
Someone once overheard me say something about needing to “fix” one of our horses after a lesson. They asked what that meant. What it means is this, riding is about being as subtle as you can to achieve the desired result. Novices are not subtle. Kick to go, pull to stop is not subtle. And typically novices want to “go fast” and trot or lope. (which are the two faster gates than walk for you non horse people). Which usually results in the poor horse having a jackhammer bouncing on their back. I always feel like I owe my horses a chiro appointment after watching a novice lope and seeing daylight between the saddle and the rider’s butt. So after a lesson, we need to get back on and remind our horses what it means to be ridden, not sat on.
What it means to be ridden is that the rider should be sitting erect in the saddle, with their shoulders back, but relaxed. The leg should be long with a straight line able to the drawn from shoulder to hip to heel. Heels should be DOWN. Arms should be bent and relaxed. LIGHT contact on the horse’s mouth. Lower leg needs to be making slight contact on the horse. And now, we walk.
When the horse is moving there are more things to remember. Keep the leg in contact with the horse. Squeeze and lift with your lower leg to keep the horse rounded and collected. Squeeze and relax with your upper leg to keep your seat in the saddle. Do not move around in the saddle. Once you start trotting, find the horse’s rhythm and shift your weight side to side to move with the horse, at the lope it is a slight shift forward and back. Like a trainer once told me, “do not wax the saddle with your ass” - but even worse is coming out of the saddle and bouncing. All of this requires you to maintain a tight core as while your legs are doing this work, your upper body needs to stay as still as possible, yet relaxed. And keep that straight line from shoulder, to hip to heel. At this point, heels down!
Now you want to turn? What part of the horse do you want to turn? If you would like the front end to cross over and make the turn, shift your outside leg slightly forward and apply a firm push with your calf. You may even need to bump. For example, to turn right, use your left foot to “push” the shoulder over. Do you want the hind end to move over? Then shift your inside foot back and apply that firm push or bump to move the hind end over. This would be the right foot for a turn to the right. Use your rein hands to guide your horse’s head or to keep them in position. You should not need the reins to turn your horse. Want to speed up? More leg. For the trot, side to side constant pressure with the lower leg. For the lope, outside back leg to push the hip over, lift the horse and get them to lope off on the correct lead. What’s a lead? That’s another discussion…
Now your horse is moving a lot. You still need to be still. Your tendency will be to lean forward. Don’t do that. Keep your shoulders back but relaxed. Heels down. Your core tight. Do not slouch. You will also feel like you need to move around. Don’t! Heels down. Your legs need to not be moving around on the horse so stay tight! Keep that leg on. Heels down. If your horse breaks gait (switches speeds) it means you’re not using enough leg. Heels down. If the horse doesn’t move in a straight line, you’re not using enough leg. Heels down. If the horse isn’t moving correctly with their rib cage lifted, hip under, hock deep, shoulders lifted, head level; you’re not using enough leg. Pretty much - if things aren’t going right, use more leg.
That’s western. In English (or hunt seat), you need to take a posting trot. In a posting trot, you raise yourself slightly out of the saddle on the correct diagonal, moving with the horse’s motion. You lean forward ever so slightly, again, moving with the horse. A firm core is super important here. Use your thighs and butt, but keep that lower leg still and firm against the horse’s side. You need to propel your horse forward using your seat. It is not “bouncing” out of the saddle. If you are bouncing, you are doing it wrong. Your horse should feel you using your seat, not feel his back being pummeled by a sack of potatoes. The canter/lope is very similar, only a shorter stirrup for English can make sitting still for the more forward canter a bit more of a workout.
That’s just pleasure riding. I don’t even know how to ride games, there are a whole new set of rules for that. Heck, let's be honest - I know how to ride pleasure, that doesn't mean I can. I forget where my legs are supposed to be, my hands, my shoulders, honestly - I sometimes forget to breathe. But in every horse themed sport, the basics are the same, a good seat is a good seat. Want to change it up again, throw a fence out there to cross. Or poles. Or a steer.
Still think riding is easy? All this was discussing what riding is like on a broke horse, that doesn’t want to get you off or get out of work any way possible. Now try doing all of those things on a young horse who doesn’t know what you’re asking, or even if they really want to do what you just asked. In fact, they are pretty sure your ideas suck and getting back to the barn or their buddies sounds like a way better idea. Balance is important on a broke horse, balance is literally a lifesaver on a young horse. So you fell off at 10 mph from 10 feet up. Bummer. Get back on. Your horse can't learn that all they have to do is get you off and you quit riding, because then you've created a monster. Guess what said horse will do next time you get on. Your ride to the ground will be much quicker and more unexpected. True riders ride when it hurts, when it feels great and sometimes, when you don't even remember getting back on.
And that is just the fun part of riding. That’s the actual riding. What about the work of keeping a horse? There are 50-75 pound bales of hay and straw to move. Stalls full of pee soaked straw and shavings to shovel out and clean. There are water buckets full of 5 gallons of water, fence to fix, tack to carry and even the act of grooming is an upper body workout. Curry in circles, scrub and move the dirt. It gets me panting every time. Again, if you’re doing it right. And our sport doesn’t stop on cold days, rainy days or windy days. Horses need to be fed every day and they just don’t seem to stop crapping it out the other end either.
I’m sure you’re still going, “I don’t get it.” And if you do, you’re probably wondering why in the world anyone would put themselves through all that. It definitely isn’t for the ribbons! Horse crazy people will never be able to explain it. But the truly great thing is that there are a lot of horse crazy folks like us out there. So we don’t expect you to get it. We get each other and that’s enough.
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