Reading you loud and clear!

Pretty amazing how things become more interesting and then more obvious.

Riding bareback today, I found that by raising my knees into what I’d call a “jockey position”, and no other aid, Max would come to a halt and stand waiting. I was trying to figure out why that was, because I’d been trying to achieve this in the saddle with a exhalation of breath, relaxation of stomach and putting more weight into the seat bones (if that makes sense).

Kept trying it, and Max’s reaction was always instant and identical. So I thought and thought, until I worked out that by raising my knees, I must be achieving the relaxed stomach and shifting my weight back slightly, and more firmly with the seat bones.

Well, I don’t want to raise my knees when in the saddle, so I’m going to have to work on this, obviously, but bareback is certainly a useful tool to add to our training. My training.