BALANCING BAREBACK

Riding bareback is tons of fun, but it takes a bit of extra skill.

- SAMANTHA TORCISE

Riding bareback is something you often see in movies, but there is a lot more to it than just jumping on and riding off into the sunset. You might be surprised at how sore you are afterward or how hard it is to stay balanced without the security of the saddle and stirrups.

GETTING STARTED

Just like riding in a saddle, it's important to have a helmet, proper footwear, and an adult watching. The easiest horse to ride bareback is a horse with low, round withers and a flat spine that doesn't jut up like a rooftop peak.

If your equine bestie isn't quite that shape, it's OK. You can still ride bareback with the help of a bareback pad, and maybe even an additional thick pad under that for extra bony-withered horses, like Thoroughbreds.

It's also important to make sure that the horse you will be riding tolerates being ridden bareback. One way to test this is to ride him with a saddle and see how he reacts to you riding without stirrups or even walking and trotting with your legs dangling and swinging a little bit. Once he has been desensitized to this, you can try bareback.

MOUNTING

Have a parent or friend hold your horse at the mounting block in case you need to do some extra wiggling to get settled. The taller the mounting block, the better.