How to Sit Western Style on a Horse

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, watch as Kelli LaBar teaches how to ride a horse in the Western style. Learn the different transitions and commands necessary for horseback riding.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Kelli on behalf of Expert Village I'm going to show you some tips and techniques that I use when using transitions in the western style riding. So the first thing you want to do is when you are riding you want to make sure you have properaly posture. You want to make sure you are sitting vertically above the horse having your shoulder, hip and heel on in a line. You don't want to be to far forward or to far back this could cause your horse to loose it balance. You also want to keep your leg with a nice soft bend, you don't' want your knee up to high or you don't want your leg to straight. You want your heel down and stirrup resting on the ball of your foot. You don't want to get to much foot in your stirrup and you don't want to have your heel up cause if you would to have thrown that oculd be a little bit dangerous. So we are going to have our stirrup resting nicely on the ball of our foot. We are going to have our ball down, we are going to have our heel, hip and shoulder all in a line. We are going to be holding our reins one handed. So we want to make sure that our reins are even so we are going to hold them at the end make sure they are even. Grab them in a place that is comfortable for both us and the horse that we still have enough contact from the horses mouth. We are going to hold our reins, wrap our fingers around, put our thumb on top and we are going to hold them right in the center of the horses neck even with the saddle horn. We want to keep our shoulders nice and square. If you can picture your shoulder blades touching together that would ensure that your back is arched properaly. You don't want to get slouchy and your back does not want to arch to far back cause that would throw you off balance. So you are going to sit nice and square. You want your chin parallel to the ground. You want to be looking where you are going keeping your horse on balance at all times. You are going to be sitting square on your cheek bones not off to one side or another. You want your stirrup resting nice and on the bottom of your foot and you want your shoulder, hip and heel all in a line. So this would ensure that you are properaly balanced and your horse would be able to move the most effectively and efficiently way for you and you have a nice comfortable ride."