Bareback riding for a better bod

Who needs a gym membership? Jennifer Wollenberg shares her own fitness secret weapon: riding sans saddle.

From Jennifer:

Let me share a secret with you, Horse Nation. I am relatively lazy when it comes to most physical activity. I have a gym membership but haven’t gone in over a year, and I have a hard time motivating myself to exercise if I can see my couch. When it comes to riding, however, I am kind of a glutton for punishment. I worked pretty darn hard to get to the level I was at pre-baby, and I have no desire to go back to square one and do it all over again (recall the laziness mentioned above). So, I do what I can to maintain my riding fitness and prevent my leg from completely going down the tubes while I’m riding so infrequently. For me, this means I’ve ridden in a saddle exactly once since I came back to riding post-baby.

I never did much bareback riding until the last couple years. My reasons were many: too uncomfortable (ugh, the withers), too slippery, not conducive to jumping. Then a few years ago I started working with a green Quarter Horse who was next to impossible to find a saddle to properly fit. We did the best we could with the options we had, but one day when he was particularly cranky I thought to myself “I wonder if this is because the saddle’s pinching him?” So I got off, took off the saddle, and got back on to discover I had an entirely different horse who was suddenly soft and willing to get on the bit and use his hind end. The abrupt change was really an eye opener to me about the importance of a well-fitted saddle. That’s certainly something I knew intellectually, but that moment was a pretty powerful demonstration of the point. So for several months until we found a saddle that fit better, I rode bareback (assuming I wasn’t jumping) because I just couldn’t bring myself to inflict the discomfort on that poor horse.

That time gave me a strong appreciation for the benefits of bareback riding for both horse and rider, and I’ve held onto that even though I no longer ride that particular horse very often. It also gave me an appreciation for the value of a good bareback pad. [As an aside, in my humble opinion the key to a good bareback pad is to get one that has a) a little padding, and b) a real cinch]. Oh, I have also learned the value of ibuprofen! Bareback riding for more than just poking around the ring or the trails definitely will keep your leg in shape. If you’re really looking to up your game, throw in 10-15 minutes of posting trot. That’s pretty much guaranteed to have you hobbling around for days. A soak in a hot bathtub helps with that.

When the rain, snow, and holidays eased up enough for me to steal away to the barn for a morning, I threw on my bareback pad and headed out to the ring. Val’s time under saddle has been sporadic at best the last two months, but she came out sane, sound, and ready to work. We had a great, low pressure ride. I kept it to walk/trot, and revisited the transitions and changes of direction I used last time to keep her focused on me rather than the brisk December air. Overall it was a great way to wrap up 2013!

About Jennifer: I’m an amateur rider trying to figure out how to maximize my time at the barn while juggling the competing demands of a one year old daughter, a wonderful husband, and a challenging job. I’ve been riding for over 25 years and I’ve done a little teaching, a little training, a fair bit of showing, and a lot of just hacking around. My current project is training a wonderful Thoroughbred mare on a once-a-week riding schedule.