What is the best way to introduce your pony to going bareback?

horsesgallop0475: What is the best way to introduce your pony to going bareback?
My pony has the flattest back, but I don’t think she has ever been ridden bareback before. Any tips on getting her started?

Answers and Views:

Answer by h0r5eybabe
Well to start I would have a friend hold her and you can drape yourself over her back(so if she decideds she doesn’t like it you can slip of without getting hurt). Whats her disposition like? If she is pretty easy going it shouldn’t faze her but if she is pretty high strung then it might take a while. Also is she broke to ride? If she is then it shouldn’t be a problem. But remember to wear a helmet just in case because with horses anything can happen.

Answer by chillin’ with my horse
Hop on and see what happens! 🙂
I’m joking, or course. I don’t really know. My horse was a bareback pro when I got her, so I didn’t need to teach her. But good luck!

Answer by Azeri
Just get on. Have someone hold her for you, if you’re worried she’ll take off, and are worried about your balance, but most horses have no problem being ridden bareback. Only if your balance is all wiggly may she act differently.

Answer by horselover845
Well, (From my experiance) it doesn’t go too smoothly if your horse hasn’t had experiance bareback. What my mom did was put the saddle on loosely that way she could feel that we’ll get off-ballance every now and then. ((We practiced in a round pen)).

Later after she got that down, we added weight. I’m not quite sure how, I think we got rocks and put it in the saddle bag or something =D

Start only using a saddle pad when you ride her. That will let your pony know that were moving on WITHOUT a saddle.

NOTE- You might get a little buck. I have fallen off in the process

Once you get her comfortable you may move on totally bareback. If you need to go back to the uneven saddle that’s okay. Again, once you get it comfortable, go back to where you were.

Sooner or later your pony should get used to it. It takes alot of patience and knowlage so good luck and be careful.

Hope I helped.

Answer by AmericanMadeMorgans
Well I have never had to “introduce” bareback to any of the horses I have broke or trained. You just get on like normal. I have 28 horses & everyone of was rode bareback be for the saddle!! Bareback is first, then saddle in my ways. I have never had a horse have a hard time with it. Just get on! She will be fine!

Answer by missy
If the pony is already ride-able, I doubt you would have any problems. You may want to try getting on from a fence/gait or have some one give you a leg up and opposed to just jumping on if the pony is used to using a saddle to mount (this is if you cant just throw a leg over- not sure of the size of rider or pony). If you feel uncomfortable just hopping on and seeing what happens, have someone hold the pony and lay across its back and see what happens. If every thing is OK, get on and have your helper walk the pony around so that you can get used to not having a saddle and the pony to having that direct contact on its back. remember that you don’t have any buffer between your legs and the pony so be a little bit more gentle when kicking or squeezing 🙂 and don’t forget to praise your pony and let it know everything is OK… if your calm they most likely will be too 🙂

Answer by Kyle B
let it go in a fened in area for awile.