"Remove the girth" (Captain Desi Lorent)

[Janey Painy]

Hi everyone,
I'm fairly new to Enlightened Equitation, but I everything I know so far is fantastic! I was up late last night reading Heathers book, when I got to page 57. That's where she explains how Captain Lorent could ride his horses with no girth. Besides the fact the story made me laugh for ages, I also got thinking how unbalanced I must be when I ride. I'm not keen (yet!) on the idea of riding with no girth, but it got thinking.
I used to constantly have trouble with un level stirrups. It drove me mad! Constantly up one hole on the right, no, down two, no, up three on the left... it goes on. When I got off there was sometimes 20cm difference! Now, after a long hard look at my legs, I have decided they ARE the same length, so I'm just a crooked rider. :mad:
So, I came up with a great idea. Sorry if this is mentioned later in Heather's book, I'm only on chapter 6. But, how about attaching BOTH stirrup leathers together instead of each individually to the saddle? You can connect them by something like a martingale neck strap or even one of those towelling belts we use to wear bath robes. Then, if they are connected to each other, when the riders weight is unevenly placed, you'll slip to that side, so you know to correct it! This will work even better on a hard slippy leather saddle as you'll slip forwards and backwards too. I think this is a great idea that will develop a need for REAL unaided balance, or else you'll simply fall off!
If anyone is going to try this I would only recommend trying it in a controlled environment. It will be dangerous when out hacking if the horse spooks and bolts to one side. But other than that, it has to be an interesting experiment!
Let me know what you all think.
Jane & a very fat Lipizzaner called Esther

[Showjumper]

or you could just ride bareback - it's what I do and I feel it's much safer than doing your method, cause surely if you should take a fall, your legs would be attached together which would be unsafe. Also, riding bareback helps improve balance and co-ordination and deepens your seat - it's great fun - I highly recommend it! :D

Good Luck and Happy Landings

[Moonlightrider]

I mostly ride bareback, but I hadn't for three weeks today, and I nearly fell off twice! I did get DC to canter on the left lead in a halter, though!

Anyway, I started riding bareback in December. My balance has improved a TON - I used to do the same thing as you! I ended up starting to ride no-stirrups just to get away from them! I'm all for riding bareback. I teach lessons, sometimes, and a few times I've let seven or so year olds ride DC bareback (NO CANTERING), then put a saddle on him, and their balance had improved just in that.

I gave up on stirrup leathers. They're never quite even, the saddle isn't half the time, I never am... oh, well. Without a saddle, DC doesn't care if I'm half falling off. If I come off, he'll stop - usually.

[Janey Painy]

Riding bareback is a good point in theory; but if you are riding bareback, you might as well be riding without stirrups. It is still possible to grip tightly with the leg to keep you on, whilst your balance may be wobbling way off centre. Although it is good for a rider to deepen her seat (in terms of feeling more at one with the horses movement - NOT heaviness!) by riding with no stirrups, I was thinking more in terms of developing balance in the normal riding seat.
By re creating the angles of the leg we use in everyday riding, we are in effect hovering on springs on our horses backs. By having the stirrup as one continuous strap, it shouldn't be possible to have a difference in the angles we create in our legs, without slipping off to one side (and so being reminded to correct our position). The ideal angle behind the knee seems to be about 130 degrees. If we were riding crooked, the angle of, say, our left knee, could be 140 degrees and our right knee 120 degrees. OK, so that's a big difference and would most likely be obvious. But what if the difference was only 3 degrees? Thanks to Heather, we now know that horses feel even the slightest weight bearing differences.
By keeping our legs even, not gripping up with our knees, and allowing the weight to fall softly and deeply into our heels, it should be possible to ride perfectly normally and consistently in balance with the horse. I believe it will still be possible to actively use the weight bearing techniques indicated in Enlightened Equitation, but this time making sure you are JUST bearing more weight on a specified seat bone, NOT motor biking around corners!

This 'one strap stirrup' idea could also be useful when schooling over fences. I used to compete BSJA, and was consistently seeing riders leaning to one side looking at the poles as they hurried their horses over the jumps! Surely this can only serve as to unbalance an airborne horse?! Err, not a good idea! When I schooled my mare with no stirrups over fences (with the aim of deepening my seat) I would have the natural reaction of gripping tightly and tensing my leg. She would zoom faster and faster over the jumps, causing me to grip harder and harder! The result was utter chaos. At least with the one strap stirrup you have something to steady yourself - as long as you remain in balance.

As for the safety issue. Hmm, well I don't know, but not having ANYTHING attaching us to the saddle will surely reduce the risk of getting dragged along the ground in a fall? Besides, what could possibly be more bizarre than climbing aboard a huge, powerful, once wild animal, and expecting it to do strange dances, or chuck itself over a stack of poles in a lovely (un natural!) leap!? Humans are sooo weird...