Buckaroo Texan Blog

Do you having trouble staying  with your horse as you go thru transistions?  Do you feel stiff in your legs, knees or ankles? Does your horse feel awkward or stiff in different areas when you ask for say a sidepass?

Alot of stiffness in the horse and rider can stem from you riding the saddle and not the horse.  It took me years to get this figured out.   At times you seem to be with your horse and other times you almost feel like you are being thrown around in the saddle like a rag doll or even worse you feel like you will catapult out into the air off one side or the other of your horse.

1.  Check your stirrup length.   The stirups are there to steady you if you need them.  There should not be pounds of pressure going down your leg thru your knee and ankles, and after a time of riding have your feet feel numb.  Cowboys riding long days, will get off occassionally and adjust their stirrup length to give their legs a rest.  If your saddle wears sores on your legs anywhere, you need a better made saddle or someone help you with your position in the saddle and stirrup lengths.

2. If there is stiffness in you or your horse anywhere, stop and think- Am I riding my horse or am I riding the saddle.   Riding the saddle you will not get good responses from your horse.  Even well trained horses will loose  their softness to ques if you ride the saddle.   

3.  Relax down into your saddle, let your legs hang normally down from your hips and you should be able to wrap your legs around the barrel of your horse, conform to him when you drive him forward.  You should be able to take your leg off one side of the horse at a time withour losing your center in the saddle and you should be able to take both legs at once off of your horse without loosing your center  on the horse.  Your horse will give you lots of good horse trys when he can feel confident comunication coming from your seat and legs.

4. Really practice getting with your horse and counting cadence.  This is counting out loud when a front foot or a hind foot leaves the ground.  This will help you to get with your horse, feel each step and become one with your horse so you can influence his stride.  In time just the position of your seat and the rhythm of your legs around the barrel of your horse will direct him from a walk to a trot to a lope, back to a trot and then to a walk.  You will also be able to direct the horse to stop from any gait at any time and with quality. This is the beginning and the essence of getting softness between you and your horse and to be able to get him collected, gathered up, flexion or whatever you want to call this soft communication between you and your horse so that he is poised for any maneuver.