Many people believe the key to staying on their horse while riding is to prevent their horse from misbehaving or spooking.\u00a0 In other words, their security depends on the emotional stability of a 1,000 lb animal that believes objects\u00a0weighing mere ounces could kill him.<\/p>\n
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Living with and riding\u00a0horses that will always spook, no matter how many experiences or how much formal “bomb proof” training they receive, I finally decided that I was the only one in the equation that had the ability to change drastically, not my horse.<\/p>\n
If you want to learn how to stay on your horse, you can read and learn in many places about how to have a secure seat.\u00a0 This term is a misnomer, I have discovered.\u00a0 Sitting down on your bottom on a horse is only secure as long as your horse is doing what you think he is going to be doing.\u00a0 If you plan to trot in a straight line along the arena wall and turn at the corner, you will\u00a0be secure if your horse does this.\u00a0 If you plan to do a canter to trot transition at a certain spot on the trail, you will be secure if you follow all the principles of a secure seat such as: ear, shoulder, hip and heel in alignment; weight equally distributed on seat bones; relaxed posture with following seat; etc.<\/p>\n
The issue with this “secure” seat comes when your horse does the unexpected.\u00a0 Instead of trotting in a straight line down the arena wall, your horse jumps to one side, bolts forward three steps and then turns to face the wall.\u00a0 Or instead of the canter to trot transition on the trail, your horse stops dead and flips around 180 degrees before taking off at a canter in the other direction.\u00a0 Now it would be very nice if you\u00a0could prevent all of these things from happening.\u00a0 Perhaps if you’d known in advance that a pop can was going to roll out of the bushes while glinting in the sun right at the spot where you planned to begin trotting, you could have spent the time training for that.\u00a0 But real life on horseback is full of unexpected surprises.\u00a0 I find it difficult to blame my horses, since out in the woods I may occasionally spook more than they do.\u00a0 Perhaps my horse caught the scent of the ground fowl before it flew up under our noses, because sometimes I find that even my spooky horse is walking on calmly while I’m the one jumping out of my skin.<\/p>\n
On this video, look at the rider’s position at the 2 minute mark.<\/p>\n