How to Sit Western Style on a Horse

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Part of the video series: Horseback Riding & Transitions Western Style

Summary: Watch a seasoned horseback rider explain how to sit on a horse Western style in this free online video on horseback riding.

Views: 2,352 | Tags: safety, riding, ride, style, western, horses, horse riding


About the Expert

Kelli LaBar Kelli LaBar is a practicing aesthetician and makeup artist in Wilmington, NC. She graduated from Miller-Motte Technical College as a certified aesthetician, a... read more

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Video Transcript

How to Sit Western Style on a Horse

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.

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