Horseback Riding 101

Lesson 5: Where Do I Go From Here?

No pain......lots of gain

WARNING: In horsemanship, forget the idea of no pain, no gain. If you work your horse to that point, he’ll be lame. Then you can’t ride until he’s not lame, or you’ll have a vet bill, or both. Not to mention, the harm to the horse.

If you work yourself until you’re in pain, you will have tightened your muscles, which does two things. It upsets your horse and, if he’s a school horse, may make him hard to move forward. (If he’s a hot horse, it may drive him nuts, and that’s not good.) And it will put you in jeopardy. For riding, one needs strong SUPPLE muscles, not tight ones. The very worst thing you can do, the thing that will set your progress back very quickly indeed, is go running for four hours, thinking to strengthen your legs. You need strong legs to ride, right? Not that way. You need strong legs that will stretch, without bunched up muscles. By all means, exercise both on and off the horse. But accept that you will be safer (‘locked’ muscles while your’ on horseback mean you cannot physically adjust to the horse’s movement as easily) with strong, stretchy muscles, and your horse will be happier. And, you’ll become a skillful, sensitive, effective and elegant rider all the faster.

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