I cruised around bareback for a number of
years. Even with a horse with a nice comfortable back...it took some
riding and time to develop a nice, tough callus on either side of my tail
bone! Anyone remember that??? Now, if I ride bareback more than an
hour, the skin back there gets raw....as I am usually riding in nice riding
underwear. padded tights, fluffy saddle cover, on a treeless saddle, over a
skito pad!!!! I'm not as tough as I used to be!!!!
On the other hand, my set-up allows me to ride for
hours and hours comfortably. And, adding to the thread of what do you need
to get started....my set up has evolved over the years. What makes it work
also are stirrups hung in a balanced position and Flexride stirrups that absorb
a bit of shock.
I have a bum right knee I can attribute to riding
bareback, on a friends nutty Arab/QH that ran away with me and slid on a paved
road....depositing me on my chin and knee. The knee, I am sure, has
chipped cartilidge...but years of jogging stretghtened the muscles enough to
compensate.....
I do remember a friend having the best bareback
horse I have ever ridden. She was an unknown breed, but looked to have
some mustang and Arab. She was relatively short backed, high withered, but
also the cushiest back you have ever sat on. I will never forget riding
her up a really difficult trail with some gals....who were shocked I would do it
bareback.
The ride out from the picnic area was on one of
those really fun, roller-coaster trails that curved and dipped while climbing
back up to the ridge. We all trotted and cantered out; the mare was so
comfortable and balanced I just sat there and enjoyed the ride while
she flowed over the terrain. It would have been murder on a horse
with a sharp backbone or jolty gaits.
This was a horse I had the opportunity to buy
twice and didn't.....I initially thought she was too small. That is one
horse I truly regret not buying...I would have had enormous fun riding her
bareback for years....then she would have been a great horse for my kids.
Our legs were chapped from riding in shorts on sweaty horses on
the hot, humid Mississippi Gulf Coast (on a gaited Morgan I might
add!!!) Those were the good old days.
