Elliott has improved so much! When I first bought him, he was really skinny and hadn't been taken care of very well. He has gained more weight and looks so much better, he behaved really well when I first bought him, and I'm not saying he doesn't behave well anymore, but he has picked up bad behavior and habits from the other horses where I ride at. I'm going to try to break him of those bad habits and I'm making it my goal to teach him to obey, listen, and respect me.
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A good informational website about riding horses bareback is: http://www.lovehorsebackriding.com/bareback-horse-riding.htm
It has good advice that I have learned from and that I continue to learn from. I apply the knowledge I get from them to help me work with Elliott and train him to ride bareback. Even though there is a lot of trust involved in riding bareback, reading this website has helped me ride better. Elliott has been behaving a lot better lately, when I ride him and when I'm on the ground working with him. I think he is starting to trust me more and obey me better. We are in the process of creating a bond and trusting each other, the process is slow, but it is coming along. The more he trusts me, the better we will work as a team and then I will become a better ridder and we can work more on riding bareback. I rode Elliott bareback last night and he was very good with it, he obeyed me and listened well to all of my leg cues and commands. I just walked around bareback last night, we are working up to the point where we can trot bareback and then eventually take it further.
I read that some people, horse whisperers, can communicate with their horses by simply acting and thinking like horses. It's interesting to think about, that people can just bond with their horse and gain the horses trust, by behaving like one. I read that some people never use whips or spurs or anything like that on their horses, that can go both ways, bad and good, depending on your horse. There was an article about this guy that just went in a pasture with this wild, untamed horse, and all he did was act like a horse himself, he would follow the horse around (while it would be trying to kick him) and then, somehow it eventually decided it could trust this guy. The guy then saddled this wild horse and rode it without any trouble. I'm not quite sure that is real, it sounds like something that would happen in a movie, not real life. The point is, people have to gain the trust of a horse in order to have a good bond with it, that's what I'm trying to do with Elliott, then he will trust me more and I will trust him more when I ride him bareback.
I have done more research, and I discovered an article where a veterinarian on horses talks about the benefits and consequences of riding your horse bareback. Some benefits include, gaining better balance, bonding with your horse, creating less pressure points on your horses back from the saddle rubbing, and gaining better muscles in your legs. Some cons to riding your horse bareback include, some horses have high withers (a horses withers are where their necks meet with their shoulders on their backs, it's where the front of the saddle lays) and if you ride a horse bareback that has high withers, it is more painful for the rider and less effective if you are trying to prevent yourself from being hurt, and, I read it can also be dangerous for your anatomy. Also if you have thicker thighs or if you have a wider horse, your legs will get pushed out more and your lower legs will be hanging. You then can't use your legs to cue the horse properly and since our hips joints can't widen beyond a certain point, your pelvis gets rocked back and forth, pulling you from your balance. I have done some research and I found that if you ride your horse bareback to much, or for a long period of time, your horse can get sores on it's back for the weight not being distributed the right way. When I fully train my horse bareback riding, I will not ride him bareback all the time since it can be bad or painful for the horse. Some things you can do while riding bareback to help spread out your weight is to use a bareback pad, they are softer on the horses back and more comfortable for the rider.
I rode Elliott (my horse) bareback for the first time!! He was such a good boy! One of my friends held him for me and then walked him around while I was on him! I was so happy and proud of him! We just walked around for a while and he was so good, I could tell he wasn't that sure what I was doing because he had his ears pricked up and he was holding his head up higher than he normally does when I ride him. I'm not going to trot him bareback yet because his trot is bouncy and I still need to work on my balance more while riding him bareback so when I do try to trot him bareback I can maintain good balance so I won't fall off.
Elliott is learning fast, I think he is starting to understand what I want, which of course is to teach him what I do when I ride him bareback. When I ride him bareback, I act and ride the same as if I was riding him with tack. (For those of you that don't know what tack is, it's the saddle, pads, girth, all the leather and blankets on the horses back.) Riding my horse bareback is proven to develop good balance, and better riding skills. In the saddle, your feet are in the stirrups, so you have better balance, but you don't learn how to get it. Riding bareback, teaches you how to develop good balance, great posture, and it helps you develop better riding skills. It is a lot harder to keep your balance while riding bareback, but after practicing, you just get the hang of it and you get better balance. Although it also helps you have a better connection with your horse.
I'm still in the process of training my horse Elliott, although I have been to busy to do much with him, and the cold weather doesn't help. I'm also going to research different ways to train my horse, to learn about different methods and see which is most effective. I think this training will help both my horse and me. I believe it will make my horse and I trust each other more and create a special, unbreakable bond, even if I can't train him to a point where I can ride him bareback, my goal is for us to trust each other and have an unbreakable bond. It will also give me more experience and I will become a more confident person and rider.
My project is going good, I've been to busy to work with my horse lately, although he is still learning and doing good with it. The next thing I plan on doing is, after I get him used to pressure on his back, I'm going to just lay on his back, to be safe, because in case he gets scared, I can then just slide off and avoid getting hurt. Some horses are easier to train than others, there are a few horses I've ridden that are perfectly fine with you riding them bareback. Others, like my horse who have never been ridden bareback yet, can be harder to train or can take longer and get scared more easily. When horses do get scared while you are on them, they usually will either run off (because in the wild they stay in a herd and their instinct is to run away from danger) or they will buck you off, which is when they kick up their back legs kind of like they are jumping, but only their back legs go up. Riders normally fall off when their horses do this, my horse is constantly bucking and I have fallen off a few times, it is very painful, which is why I'm trying to be careful and safe while I train my horse to ride bareback.
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