Bareback and Bitless

The above statement describes pretty much every ride I have. I always ride bitless, and more often than not I ride bareback.

I personally believe that bitless riding is better. Better for the horse, better for the rider, and just the more enlightened way to ride. I don't believe that sticking a cold, unyielding piece of metal in a horse's mouth is the best way to communicate. Obviously, there are many bitless options, and not all are gentle or terribly effective. I'm a minimalist though, and I think that you should go with the "lowest" option that works for your horse. I'd be a "most horses should go in a snaffle" person if I was into bits.

Whatever the gentlest option is that is effective for your horse is what you should go with. I follow my own advice too. Most of the time I ride in a simple sidepull or a Dr. Cook's bridle. Occasionally I'll ride in a mechanical hack, but that's really more for me to work on NOT using my hands at all (more seat and leg) than for my horse's benefit. She goes just fine in it, but the leverage is just not necessary for her. Horses are sensitive creatures, and it really doesn't take much to get a message through to them. If they are listening, of course.

As for bareback riding, I love it. I count using a bareback pad as bareback riding, by the way. I'm not a "bareback purist". I know I'd prefer a little padding on my back if someone was sitting on me. If the pad has stirrups though, yeeeah, I'm on the fence about it. In my mind, you might as well get a saddle, as most of the pads with stirrups are just plain dangerous.

I'm a very lazy person, and thus bareback riding appeals to me. Less tack to deal with, less hassle, and less thoughts of "I saddled up, now I HAVE to have a real ride". Somehow I feel lame if I just plod around if I've gone to all the trouble of saddling my horse. It's as if I have to make the effort of fully tacking up worth it. It's silly though, becuase who fucking cares? I don't have a trainer, I don't have goals besides "don't fall off", and it's just me and my old horse. I doubt she gives a damn whether we work that day or not. In fact, I'm sure she'd prefer to just amble around for a little while and be done.

The trick with riding bareback though, is that it's actually MORE effort than riding with a saddle once you get on. It's far easier to skip the whole tacking up part, but once you're on your horse's back, bareback is more difficult. I like that, it tricks me into getting more exercise and riding more effectively. If Cherry decides to act up, it's much more effort to convince her that no, she does have to listen to me and no, she can't do as she pleases. That really gives the leg, core, and arm muscles a lot more of a workout than doing the same thing in a saddle, and I don't even notice until I've got her attention back and I've relaxed again.

Cherry appears to prefer the Natural Ride bareback pad (I refuse to call it a saddle, it's not) to any other set up. I do too, actually. I can feel her movement, I feel secure, but there's still a nice amount of padding between my butt and her back. My saddle, though lovely and properly fitted, feels stiff and ridgid. There's so much less nuanced communication with all the wood and leather in the way. I also have knee and ankle issues, so keeping my feet in stirrups for a long period of time is painful. I'm working on it slowly, but bareback is more comfortable to me right now.

I personally believe that full-on bareback on a regular basis is a bit too much to ask of her right now. I'm rather a heavy person, and though I'm a balanced rider, I think having some padding there is a good thing. Having a bareback pad makes me more secure, which is always good. I feel bad if I flop, even for a moment, so having the extra stability of a pad is beneficial. Besides, I like how the extra cushioning feels to my butt, so why not? Riding "naked" once a week is good for my balance and overall riding, but I don't want to do more than that at the moment.

Some might say that I am too heavy for my horse to carry as she is rather small and I am rather... not. However, I don't believe that this is the case. Cherry has a sturdy build with a nice short back, and is decently well muscled. I've been monitoring her back for signs of pain, and haven't found anything abnormal. Cherry has always been "cold backed" and will dip her back away from pressure no matter what. What I look for is other signs of discomfort such as pinned ears, angry faces, tail swishing, and diliberately moving away from me.

I try to mount carefully and gently so I don't just plop down onto her back. Today I didn't get her lined up quite right to the mounting block, and got on a bit ungracefully. She made this kind of grunting noise, like "you're such a fat ass, Mom", but then walked off just fine with no further complaints. Since Cherry is a horse who acts like she's broken a limb when in fact there's just a small scrape, I feel pretty confident that I'm not hurting her. There would be far more theatrics than that if she was truly unhappy with me riding her. So I continue to ride her and don't worry too much about it. The more you fuss and fret over your horse, the more likely you are to find a problem.