Cramps while riding + bareback pad suggestions?

[invalidsync]

Hey guys! I have a couple things to ask about. First, I love riding bareback and I wish I could do it more often. However, I have an extremely narrow-built Thoroughbred. High withers, very bony back, impossible to ride bareback. I have tried riding him bareback with a thick pad, but it didn't help much. I'm interested in investing in an actual

Comments

[glenatron]

A regular stitch is related to breathing, specifically to breathing in time with the body's movements. The typical place to get one is when you are running and you breathe in time with your feet. If you have tried breathing differently and still get the cramp, then it's something else. If it's always in the same area, there may well be some underlying weakness or injury there, in which case a good bodywork practitioner can probably help.

If your horse is uncomfortable for you to ride bareback, consider that it is probably also very uncomfortable for him to carry you bareback. All those parts of him that you are sitting on have feeling too. This is one reason I'm not a great fan of bareback riding- I don't think it's good for most horses. The purpose of a saddle is mostly to protect the horse's back from our weight. If you're finding your horse is bony and disagreeable to sit on bareback then a well fitted saddle might be the best thing for both of you.

[invalidsync]

Does a good pad not help relieve that issue though? I am aware that properly fit saddles are better for it, but I'm not talking about running around on him bareback all the time. My idea of riding this particular horse bareback "more often" means mainly walking, short rides, probably a handful of times a year. I've had this horse about 5 years now and been bareback on him once, the first year I had him. Which was very short-lived because I immediately realized that his high spine digging into my crouch was not going to work for either of us haha. His topline has filled out a bit since then, but I haven't tried it again and I'm sure it would still be fairly bad. I was previously used to thicker-backed horses or ponies with plenty of cushioning I could tool around on bareback no problem, so this revelation was a slight bummer for me that I have never quite let go of, clearly.

[quietann]

I find bareback riding really good for developing a sense of "feel" especially in the seat. That said, when I ride bareback it's about 80-90% walking (and I don't canter at all because my hips are so tight and my good mare goes back to trotting... maybe she knows I might fall off at the canter ;)

I ride bareback maybe 2 or 3 times a month, usually in the evening after work when I am really too tired to have a "serious" ride.

On bareback pads -- lots available. I have a "Best Friends" -- the basic model -- which IMO is the nicest of the less expensive ones. It retails for $70 to $80. If I had the $$$ I would get a Christ sheepskin pad, but at $400+ it's a bit dear! I've sat in one and just fell in love.

That said, if your horse is narrow and "V shaped" in his back, even a good pad might not make that much of a difference. Mine is narrow for a Morgan, but has well-sprung ribs and I barely feel her spine.

[invalidsync]

Yeah, it definitely helped my sense of feel as well. If only I had the money to spend $400 on a pad! haha.

I'm worried about it not making enough of a difference too. I once saw someone who had fashioned their own sort of thing where they put a thick sheepskin pad under the basic bareback pad to boost the effectiveness/cushioning, so I'm thinking I may end up needing to do something like that.

[glenatron]

If the pad is good enough that you can't feel him, he probably can't feel you, but if there's a lot of collision between you and him then a bareback pad probably won't help much. If spine-clearance is a problem you're getting into treeless saddle territory to fix it and those are a pretty mixed bag at the lower end and not much different to a regular saddle at the higher end. I'm maybe more paranoid than most about this because I'm relatively heavy but even a light rider can cause harm doing a lot of bareback riding.

I'd say try again without now he has a bit more muscle, but if you aren't comfortable I doubt most pads will make that much difference, you may just need to accept that he's not so much of a horse for that.