Learn to ride 101

      Why do I want to learn to ride a Horse?

 First of all you will understand the beauty of the movement of a Horse and then the Beauty of the movement of the Horse and Rider together.

The First thing you need to learn when you are learing to ride a Horse is what to do to get off quickly. If you feel unsafe, place your two hands on each side of the whithers area in front of the saddle and bring your two legs up back on the Horses hind quarters and look at which side is safeest to get off on and if the Horses is moving drop to the ground in a running mode and let yourself roll foward if you haft to as this will help custion the fall. (This is called the Emergency Dismount)

There are Two things you have to control a Horse 1) Natural aids EX: Mind, Body, and your Spirit.  2) Artifical Aids, Reins, Bits, Saddle, and a lot of man made equipment.

Lets start with the reining movements, there are 5 basic reining movements, 1) the open and leading rein. 2) the neckrein or as the English call it the Bearing Rein.  3) the Direct Reining Movement.  4) the Indirect rein of Opposiition in front of the Withers.  5 the Indirect rein of Opposition behind the Withers. Theses reining movements can be used by themselves or incombination

There are 4 Basic Gaits of a Horse, Walk Trot, Canter and Galop.  The Walk is a 4 beat gait. The Trot is a 2 beat gait. The Canter is a 3 beat gait. The Galop is a 4 beat gait.

All creatures have 4 movements when they use their leg to move on something soild..  They are a lift, drop, touch and press. If you ride any creature with 4 legs your legs do not touch the surface so their legs become an extention of your body so you need to try to figure out what each leg is doing when it moves you around. You move your legs the same lift, drop touch and press, so transfer that thought to the movement of the Horses legs.

There are many different kinds of bits and bridles. I feel that starting with a full cheek snaffle being most kind and gentle but giving you good control is the best bit to use, It is a gentle bit and with the full cheek the turning ability that so manny riders fight to get when they first try to ride is easy to achive with a full cheek bit. One good thing to realize is that horses if giving a choice don't want to be ridden but  paticence and understanding  will allow you to invade its space. God gave us dominion over aminals but it is like a stewardship a give and take. After you learn to ride a horse and to find out if you have made progress in getting the horse to like giving a ride, take off the bridle and then get on and see if he will cary you to where you want to go. Sally Swift has written many good things about riding a horse so read her work to understand deeper into ways to handle yourself around a horse.

Let's start with the walk. After mounting sit still and relax using your lower torso push like you are pushing a swing until the horse picks up a slow walk.  Using a direct rein where you use slight pressure on the reins to turn , go in a straight line and feel the walk, the walk being a 4 beat gait, feel the Horses right hind leg as it touches the ground, we will think one. As the right front leg touches the ground we think two. As the left hind leg touches the ground we think three. As the left front leg touches the ground we think 4. This is a lateral movement so you will see the horse at the walk use his head and neck to balance himself. If when you are riding him and you don't follow this movement with your hands and you  hold the reins still the Horse will stiffen his back because the bit will hit it in the mouth so of lack of movement in his head and neck and this will result in passing the stiffness inti your back thus you get the shock wave and after while a sore back. So we must follow the movements that the horse makes even if it means using your hands like a scrub woman uses her hands to scrub cloths on a scrub board, back and forth soon you will transer that movement into your hands.  Knowing where the Horses leg are will avoid interfence with his movements and cause no problems. You can do things like look down at the front sholder to make sure your feeling is on target. or Put your one hand back on the hip to feel the movements in the rear on the left or right side to see the front movement. Soon you will feel the movements in the small of your back to feel the hind movement, so REMEMBER How do you get to feel confortable riding a Horse? Practice Practice Pracitice.

After you feel you are ready for the Trot

, start at the walk again using the direct reining movement, when the Horses legs on the right side are going one, two beat notice your leg on the left side, of that lateral movement, your leg will swing closer  to the left side of the Horse so if you engage with the movement it can be pressed into the Horses left side to increase his walk and when you feel  the 3,4 beat your right leg will engage with the Horses left side to increase his walk until he start a faster walk and as you increase his walk  by swinging in tune with his movements he will pick up speed to a slow trot. Sit until you feel the movement pick you up so you start posting with the increased movement of the Trot.

 The Trot is a Two Beat Gait. It is a Diaganol movement. The right hind leg and the left front leg move together as does the left hind leg and the right front leg move together. The Horse holds his Head steady so no movement but avoid you using the reins as support for your body hold the reins as sticks touching the mouth but not pulling or pushing, instead as the old timers said getup sit down getup sit down or one, two, one, two, this is called Posting so you will follow the movement with your body going out and up to stay in Motion with the Horse. Once you catch the Motion you can use your body to slow the Horse by Posting behind the Motion by going upward and forward slowly or to speed the Horse up going forward and upward slighty in front of the motion.  Again if you get off the Bus and ask someone how do you get to the Horse Show? They will tell you Practice Practice Practice.

Before we move on let me make an important reflection:   If you are going have a relaationship with a horse it's helpful if the horse likes you, as the majority of the work that is to be done, to accomplish the goals you want, the horse will do most of the work. So as my daddy use to say a word to the wise should be suffient.

The movement from a trot to a Canter is achived by increasing the speed of the Trot until he picks up the Canter, that is achived by posting forward and upward ahead of the motion.  Then sit into his body and enjoy the slow Canter. To work up to a median Canter increase the pressure of your legs and body.

Lets look at the Canter:   it's a three beat gait and if you think about it, you have two lateral movement and one diaganol movement that make up the three beats.  The first beat, depending which front lead you want, if you circle right you will want the right front leg to lead and if you circle left you will want the left front leg to lead, in a circle the horse uses the loading of the inside legs to balance himself and you, so leading with the right front leg in a circle to the left is not the best option to lead with unless your attemping a counter canter. if you are asking to achive, the left front lead you start the first beat with the right hind leg, the second beat will be the movement of the left hind leg and the right front legs together in a diaganol movement. The third beat will be the left front leg in a lateral movement.   So the horse would have a tendence to move across his body with out correction, either on his part or yours. You will find the natural aid of your left leg holding steady pressure on the left side of the horse will achive a straight path. Once the Horse understands your signals the less and eventually no pressure will be needed as he will take the cue fron your body movemeny.