Balance

The first time I climbed on a horse, I was sure I was going to slide right off again. There were no handles, and certainly no seatbelts.

Fortunately, I’ve improved a bit since then, and learned a whole lot about how to stay balanced in the saddle.

How you sit on your horse will determine how good your balance is. You want to sit on your horse in such a way that if I could suddenly yank him out from under you, you’d land happily on your feet!

You can test this without a horse at all. Stand up straight. Now bend your knees a bit, but make sure you keep your shoulders, your hips and your heels all in a line. What happens if you lean forward? You start to fall over, and must stick your bottom out behind you to balance yourself. What happens if you lean back? Or try to put your feet in front of you? All these things make you fall over on the ground, and they make you unbalanced on a horse.

The position of your body is very important to your balance. When you’re sitting on a horse, you want to make sure that there is a straight line running from the top of your head, right down your back, through your hips and to your heels. Leaning forward or pushing your feet out in front of you breaks this line, and will have the same effect on the horse as if would if you were standing on the floor.

So how can you make sure this is how you sit on your horse? Try these exercises!

1. Practice standing on the ground in front of a mirror the way you want to sit in the saddle. Look in the mirror and make sure your head, shoulders, hips and heels are all in a row.
2. Now try it on a big exercise ball, one of those inflatable ones at least three feet across. Spend at least fifteen minutes a day just sitting on the ball the same way you were standing earlier.
3. Lastly, have someone take a picture of you in the saddle. How’s it look? Print it out and see if you can draw that line from your head to your heels. If not, what needs to be changed?