How to Sit on a Horse While Cantering

Series Summary

Man has enjoyed a unique relationship with the horses on this planet. Horses have carried us into battle, brave and without fear. They’ve helped us travel over long stretches of terrain. In some parts of the world they still pull our farmer’s plows and carry our loads. They’ve been indispensable in herding and driving our cattle. And the police have mounted horse patrols for crowd control situations in urban environments. No question, horses have proven to be well-suited for human life, expressing qualities of loyalty and bravery, responding to commands, and usually having a calm, docile demeanor.

Since they are wild animals, all horses need some sort of training before they can work side by side with humans. Especially in horseback riding, the relationship between horse and rider must be cultivated over time and with the proper techniques and equipment. In this free video series, learn how to canter and lope on horse. Get safety tips and riding techniques.

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Kelli on behalf of Expert Village. I am going to show you some tips and techniques that I use when cantering and loping my horse. So the first thing that you want to ensure that you do when you first get on your horse is that have proper posture so that when you are sitting on your horse, you want to be sitting vertically, your shoulder, hip and heel should be in a line. You don't want to be too far forward because that can cause your horse to surge or pick up some speed. You also don't want to be too far back because that can cause your horse to kind of haul out its back and get a little off balance. So you want to be nice and vertical, have your shoulder and hip in a line. You don't want to have your heel pressed downwards. You don't want to have your heel come up because first of all it is going to throw your leg off balanced and second of all, it is going to cause too much of your foot to get stuck in the stirrup because when you have your foot in the stirrup, the ball of your foot should be on the stirrup and shouldn't have too much in the stirrup. If you were to happen get thrown, your foot could get stuck and get drug and could be very dangerous. So when you are sitting, you want to be sitting in your vertical line. You want your shoulder blades to be almost touching together. You should have your shoulders pulled back and downwards. You don't want your shoulders scrunched up here and you also don't want to be pressing them downwards. You want them nice and rolled back, shoulder blades touching and that will ensure that your back is arching properly as well. You don't want to over arch your back because that is going to cause you to sit a little too far forward and not sit back on our seat bones. You also don't want to round your back because that is going to cause your posture to be off and your horse to go off balance. When you are sitting, nice vertical line back nicely arched, shoulders square. You also don't want to be leaning to one side of the horse or the other because that is going to cause your horse to go off balance as well. So whether you are riding one or two handed, if you are riding two handed you just want to hold your reins rather loosely, elbows bent at your side, you are holding them a little bit above the saddle horn and about four inches off the horse's neck. You are holding one handed, just holding it with one hand right in the center of the horse's neck and right off to the side or off to the other side. So when you are looking, you want to keep your hand parallel to the ground. You don't want to be having it too far up or you don't want to be looking down at your horse. You want to be looking straight ahead where you want to go or between your horse's ears. This will ensure that your horse won't get off balance or you won't crash into somebody if you are not paying attention to where you are going. These are some tips and techniques that you can use that you can more effectively and more in a balanced way ride your horse."