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>Re posting being hard on the horses back (in another post) it's only =
hard on
>the horses back if the rider is not using muscle control and slams down =
on
>the back, you can come down very lightly if you use your own muscle =
control.
I'm not talking about impact of the rider coming down on the horse's
back -- obviously, if the rider is posting properly this, as you point
out, is minimal. But just consider the physics. If the rider's body
is moving up and down -- which, in posting, is happening at half the
rate of the horse's body moving up and down -- there must be a force
(and energy expended) to move it up. The body will not rise against
gravity without it. As the rider is being borne by the horse, that
force and energy must come from the horse -- there is no other source.
Even if the rider were to thrust himself upwards with his own muscles
(which is not proper posting), he is pushing down on the stirrups to
do so -- the force and energy to lift him still must be borne by the
horse.
The tendon and skeletal system of the horse is quite elastic and
efficient, acting like springs to absorb energy on the downward
movement of the horse's body (at a trot) and return it to the upward
movement. It's likely that this system will conserve some of the
energy required to raise the body of a posting rider as well. But
that must still place some additional stress on the system, and it is
not 100% efficient in energy conservation.
So I guess the question is whether this additional energy demand and
forces on tendons is significant. I suspect that it is over a
distance of 50 to 100 miles, which is why I believe that staying up
out of the saddle and maintaining a level body postition by flexing
your knees is less stressful to the horse than posting.
--=20
Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
Business Page http://www.mti.net
Personal Page http://www.rnbw.com
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