How do you trot bareback

chunky monkey

chunky monkey

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May 2, 2007
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I've been trying to practise bareback trotting on and off for months now. Last night ended up with me off. My worst fear. However it was a very graceful side exit onto the floor, and role, so no injury sustained.

But does anyone have any tips that might be useful to help me master it.
He is a 14hh, wide cob and quite bouncy. I kind of find at the moment that my knees are creeping upwards. I am thrown one side and then the other. I can only do four or five paces before I find myself grabbing for the mane and resting my hands on the back of his withers and then I am back to a walk and readjusting for another go.

I know that I should take the stirrups away from the saddle to help. But at the moment I don't have a saddle to ride in as his saddle doesn't fit and I am in the process of getting a new one sorted. So in the meantime I want to bareback which will help me improve.
 
When you sit on him, have him stand a while, and feel with your lower leg for a hollow just behind the shoulders, you'll prob need to raise your knee's a little to find it with your lower leg, you kinda slot in there just perfectly.


This is where you want your lower leg to be when you ride bareback, when you trot, it gives you somewhere shaped to grip slightly with your legs yet your not getting in the way of his shoulder movement or any of his front movement at all & it gives you enough of a secure hold to be able to post gently with his trot. It takes a few goes to get the hang of how much pressure your lower leg needs to gain security, but once discovered its like riding a bike only far more comfy !
 
I read somewhere that you should let your legs be loose. That doesn't work for me. I have tried wrapping my legs round but it doesn't help either, but by the sounds of it I might be to far back on him.

I so want to master this. I know they say that canter is easier but I haven't the heart to go faster and fall off. I really think that if I can learn to trot bareback it will help me become better overall and learn the horses movement better.
 
my trotting bareback involves me hanging on for dear life with my arms wrapped around the neck, quite comfy when you get used to it
 
ok some tips

first -- hold the mane -- BUT hold it a certain way -- most people hold it with their thumb on top of their closed hand, and this actaully pulls you forward when you pull on it -- ie off your seat

if you turn your hand so that the thumb is away from you and nearest the base of the mane, then when you pull, it pulls you down ONTO the horse!!!

second -- at the walk, practice feeling your horse's hind legs -- feel them rising and lowering as they move --

when a horse trots, the hind legs move up and down as well as forward and back -- and that means your HIPS move this way as well -- but one side at a time

to sit a bareback trot, it helps if you think about rolling each hip SEPARATELY rather than just think of your seat as one lump

pedalling with your feet like you are going backwards on a bike helps with this -- try it at walk first

lastly, it is much easier to start all this on a circle first as then your hrose has a constant bend you can get used to!

good luck

Cathy
 
How are you trying to sit?

The thing I find really helps, is to remember that your bum isn't just 'one mass' for want of a better description, but 2 seperate seatbones! As horses left hind steps under his left side of his back will lift. Let your left seatbone rise with the back, whilst the right stays with the back lower down. As the right hind leg steps under, the right side of back will lift - let your right seatbone follow, and your left fall. You can do this at walk first. This should help you go with the movement, rather than getting bounced up from it if that makes sense? This is how in theory you should sit to trot in a saddle too I believe...

Is the horse relaxed about the situation? The tenser he is the more difficult the movement is to sit so try to keep him relaxed and calm.

I know how you feel - my 16hh has a really bouncy trot, but he's also very tense a lot of the time, and I just CANNOT bareback trot with him as his tenseness bounces me all over, despite being able to canter, gallop and even jump him bareback without issue lol! My 12.3 on the other hand is another bouncy one, but much more relaxed about the whole thing and I find his movement as a result much easier to stay with....

Good luck =] x
 
Have you ever seen gypsies riding thier horses at a fast trot?

They tend to lean back and have their legs long (no gripping)

appleby_gs_01_470x353.jpg


I tend to employ this type of style...although not quite as extreme. If you tilt backwards very slightly, so you aren't totally upright, relax move with your horse and let your legs go long it is much easier to sit to trot.

okay...so you do need a fair bit of balance too...but give it a go. Might work for you.
 
lean back slightly, let everything go loose from the bum down (let legs hang) and allow your hips to move with the movement of the trot.. try and absorb the bounce, but control the pace....

pic above isnt really a good example... he's hanging onto the rein (if rein was attached to a bit, he'd be hanging on the mouth). legs are too far forward and too high... and he's not got a hat on!
 
Julz said:
pic above isnt really a good example... he's hanging onto the rein (if rein was attached to a bit, he'd be hanging on the mouth). legs are too far forward and too high... and he's not got a hat on!
Click to expand...

Pic was just an example of how you tend to see gypsies riding when trotting fast....as I said...it's the idea behind it i was talking about...but not to that extreme.
 
i'm currently doing quite a bit of stirrup less work at the RS i go to and i have been taught in a trot, lean slightly back, shoulders back, legs long and heels down, i think i would prefer it without a saddle as i slide all over but it does get easier, i can now just about manage a circuit of the school but believe me it aint a pretty sight..:eek:
Caz
 
Great thread!:D I tried it on sunday and it was sheer luck that he stopped (Mummy loves you Arnie;)) before I slid off the side. He is also very very wide and flat and I just started sliding off the side.

I will try some of these tips (but next time I'll have my hubby on the ground ready to grab at least one of us - "pick me G, pick me!").

Cantering is actually easier but the trouble with cantering is that you usually have to go through trot to get to and from it:(.

I dont know, these bloody indians on the telly make it look so easy. I'm pretty sure Geronimo never slid off the side when he was trotting:D
 
Skippys Mum said:
He is also very very wide and flat and I just started sliding off the side.

Cantering is actually easier but the trouble with cantering is that you usually have to go through trot to get to and from it:(.
Click to expand...

Do you want to borrow my not very wide Lance, who loves his walk to canter transitions, and hence solve both those problems there? ;) :D

I warn you though...not so wide is less slidy....but much more bony....*ouch*:eek::rolleyes:
 
Ahh Peaches - I forgot about withers - Skippy had withers. I could stay on bareback no bother at any speed. I just couldnt walk afterwards:D. At least Arnie was really comfy;)
 
Maybe its just me, but I grip slightly with my thighs when I trot bareback. Its not intentional, thats just what I find myself doing. My lower legs are totally loose though.

I ride totally bareback most of the time now. Do you have a surcingle and a thick numnah or pad? If you do, then thats provides something a bit grippier then your horse and also makes a bit of padding for your bum and his back, just in case there is some bouncing. Really recommend this if you can - the numnah does slip a bit, which is annoying, but it is excellent at helping to get you into bareback riding.. I rode with that combination for ages, while I had trouble (Jasper has a bouncy trot too!) and then recently removed them when I felt more comfortable.

Otherwise, have you tried rising? Really not much more difficult then rising without stirrups to be honest. Though again, not any good for long periods of trotting.

Trotting bareback is hard and EXTREMELY tiring. Bareback canter is magic though, so its all worth the build up!

If it helps, here is a video link to me trotting bareback (weeks old, ignore the no hat and crappy hands - I was having a mid-teen crisis). See the slight chair position, with legs just behind the shoulder. Also, the fact that I had to give up halfway round (and Jasper was so nicely helpful but instantly speeding up..) and went into rising. And equipment-wise, the numnah and surcingle.. also, with Jasper I put on a spare neck strap (from a disassembled martingale) to grab in times of slipping. Saved my butt a few times I have to say!
 
i do the totally loose legs and leaning slightly back - i've been riding for the past 6 weeks bareback due to not having a saddle and with this i've schooled her, taken her up the gallops, cantered along the beach, gone over trotting poles, sat a fair few shies and rear/spins :rolleyes: and been fine through it all :D

i do ride with a neck strap though so if i needed to grab anything i'm not pulling on her mouth ;)

to be honest though - it's really what works with your and your horse - ie trot - i kept it very slow to begin with - canter - i perfected walk to canter and canter to walk on the lunge first ;) then asked for it as i was riding her so i didn't have to do the big trot ;)

ETA - my EP had a v good analogy (is that the right word?! neeeeed my cup of tea :o) think of riding a bike - and how your legs go and how each hip moves - allow for this movement as the horse trots

oh - and by the end of my 6 weeks bareback i managed extended trot bareback :D (this is the horse i'd not managed - in a whole year of ownership - to sit to her trot WITH a saddle before =- it's done my riding the world of good :D
 
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Years back I learned bareback riding on his/her rugs going to the field and back in winter. Rugs give you more grip so not so slippery and you can get your balance before summer comes and they get slippery especially after a bath.

It also helps your confidence as they know exactly where they are going so hopefully wont deviate and run off anywhere so are calm and it is little and often.

I even pop a thin rug on in summer for stability for a few minutes practice so as not to get them too hot.

You have something all round you to grip on to with your hands too especially if you are sliding off just grab the opposite side of the rug. Just make sure you pull the rug up at the front first as you would with a numnah so as not to squash the withers too much.
I have even used a fleece, with surcingles, good grip for your bum but they stretch if you grab while sliding off.
 
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