It was a great experience actually. I've ridden Walker bareback before but I was pretty proud of how much stronger I am. When I first rode Walker bareback, I could barely stay on for longer than 10 minutes, but yesterday I was on for 30 minutes before I decided to call it a day. Riding him bareback is particularly a lot of work not just because you're using more leg muscles all around, but because he's hard to get to do certain things when you're in a saddle (let alone without one!). For instance, I cantered him bareback for the first time yesterday, but it was only for the length of one wall. Getting him to make the turns in a saddle is really hard and requires a lot of leg and kicking, and I just didn't have the strength to hold myself on him and kick with all my might without falling off.
I do think that the next time I ride him bareback though I will ride him without spurs. I have a feeling I may have jabbed him with my English spurs a couple of times because he didn't seem impressed with me, and one time he gave a little squeal. My legs are pretty long and so I need to physically hold them up in position, so it's more than possible that they slipped low and I caught him somewhere I shouldn't have. If I'm going to put myself through the physical pain of riding bareback, I might as well put myself through more pain by riding without spurs. Needless to say, I don't think I've ever gotten him to lope without spurs, so it should be an interesting experience.
Speaking of pain, I was in a lot of it yesterday after riding and today as well. When I hopped off, I felt like I had 95 year old knees. I must have been gripping so hard with them to keep my legs up and myself balanced. I wanted to try posting (or even two-point) but I could not get myself up. I'm thinking that momentum probably helps and Walker was just doing his Western Pleasure jog (which is pretty comfy for bareback). A couple of weeks ago when my instructor was telling me about the correct position on a horse, she said that your pelvis will naturally be in the correct position when you ride bareback. Well, apparently she is correct because this morning when I got up, my seat bones were so sore from sitting on him that I could barely sit on a chair!
the other man in my life - he likes to chew on bridles and expensive things
Other than that, I have been thinking a lot about my weekly schedule. I like consistency, and my instructor always talks a lot about making sure to do lots of different types of exercises to have a happy, healthy horse. I am enjoying learning to jump, but I really don't want to overdo it with him. I've come up with the following schedule:
Monday: day off (for both of us)
Tuesday: jump
Wednesday: lesson (which means lots of turns, lateral movements, and exercises that I often leave out of our routine)
Thursday: jump
Friday: work on W/T/C (but mostly canter)
Saturday: turns, laterals, playing well with others
Sunday: bareback ride
When I say Tuesday and Thursday I will jump, I really mean that there will be jumps in the arena, and I will work them into our ride. Obviously, I won't overdo it with him, and when I start jumping in my Wednesday night lessons, this will probably change the dynamic of the week. On Friday, I have the barn to myself for the entire afternoon, so I like to work on our cantering issues - getting him to turn, do patterns or circles, etc. On Saturday and Sunday, the barn is always packed, so on Saturday he needs to learn to work with other horses in the arena (and not bolt). It's a good day to do the boring stuff I never want to do (turns, laterals, etc.) that we do in lessons because I often don't canter him in the arena with other horses (or at least not on purpose or for a long time). Sunday, I would like to do some bareback riding, and although I may ride him under saddle first (or ride him bareback on other days), I think it's obviously going to be key to my posture and strength to do some of that regularly. Sunday is a good day for that because Sunday is a lazy day anyway, and then I have Monday to rest my weary bones!
The next day I'll be at the barn will be on Tuesday and I have plans to set up two crossrails for a change. I also want to try cantering one of them (maybe even both) and see how he behaves when he has to pay attention enough to me to do a mini-course (if you could call two jumps in a giant arena a course).
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