# Unbalanced While Riding



## Chevaurra (Aug 16, 2014)

I've been having this problem for a while and not coming up with any answers in my head...suddenly decided, why not ask someone? xD

I've been having balancing problems while riding my horse. It's not a really serious problem, because I can still ride all 4 gaits; it's more of an annoyance, for me and probably for my horse too (and sometimes makes it harder to stay on when she spooks at something 'scary'). I don't know why I've suddenly started having this problem. I noticed it probably about 3 years ago, and at first I thought it was my saddle, but it's the same kind of deal when I'm riding bareback too. I always feel like I'm slipping off the outside (sliding to the right if we're circling to the left, for example), and when we're going straight, I end up slipping to one side, then maybe the other, or just one random side. Right or left.

So I'm kind of wondering, does anyone else have this problem? What are some things I can try to fix it?

I don't know if it's her, or if it's me, or maybe it's the both of us together. I never had this problem with any other horse, and I haven't ridden any other horse in a long time but I'm thinking I'd probably be perfectly fine on any other horse. But I don't know WHY it would be her. She used to turn weirdly, so I had to work on her bending, but it's fine now and whether she bends to the outside or the inside around a turn, it seems like the problem is still the same.

Also, it's the worst at a lope, but it's still there at a trot or even a walk. It just seems kind of weird to be constantly adjusting my position to balance while walking. Nobody else seems to need to do that. And changing directions is seriously a nuisance. That's the worst part. On a trail ride, I'm basically fine at a walk or trot when we're going straight, so maybe it is just the way she's turning or something, but I don't know how to fix that. She bends into the turn well, so it's not that she's being lazy on the turns. And like I said, loping is the worst. I'm alwayyyys falling to the outside at a lope, it's so annoying.

Any suggestions? I could really use some help here. :/


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## TXhorseman (May 29, 2014)

The fact that your reaction to balancing has changed is important to know. the fact that you always feel like you are falling to the outside is also telling. If the problem was with your horse, I would expect you to only have this feeling when turning in one direction.

Try to think of other things in your life that have changed, especially something that may have happened within a few months before you first noticed the problem. Had you been ill? Had you had an accident?

Have your tried riding other horses to compare your reactions? Do you keep physically fit? Are you still as supple as you used to be? How is your balance when you are not on your horse? For example, do you have problems riding a bicycle? Have you had a physical exam in the last few years? This might be a reaction to a problem with your inner ear.


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

Is your horse. Bending properly? If not it will throw you over. Are your stirrups at the proper length? Do you have your heels down and weight in the stirrups?


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

A lot of horses have an asymmetry because of being preferentially worked in one direction. It's common in racehorses. My saddle fitter sees it all the time. However, this problem tends to cause people to slide in one direction, not random directions. Still, if you're finding you are sliding more often to one side than another, it could be a _factor_ in what you are experiencing.

Pilates and yoga are great complementary exercises to horse riding for improving suppleness, core strength and balance. Rollerblading and ice skating are other examples of good complementary sports.


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## Chevaurra (Aug 16, 2014)

I can't think of anything that happened before this that might have caused it. I mean, I crashed my bicycle and ended up with pretty bad road rash, but that's all (and yeah, that was 4 years ago so I've healed from that, lol). I've only ridden one other horse since I got my mare, and that was on a trail ride (I don't have many chances to ride other horses) and I was fine. I'm as fit as I've always been and probably more supple. Also, I don't have any balancing problem when not on horseback. Walking, I'm fine. I can ride a bicycle easily and be perfectly balanced (though not quite balanced enough to ride with no hands when going really slow, haha). I haven't had any physical examination done, but I would assume if it was a problem with my inner ear I would have problems balancing when not on a horse?

Also, it almost seems worse when I try to get her to bend more into the turns. My stirrups are definitely the proper length, although it is possible that one could be slightly longer than the other (I am horrible at being able to tell whether they're the same length so I never can tell for sure). Even when I'm just sitting on her back, the saddle might be slipping to one side and I can never fix that. Either I push it up by putting weight in the other stirrup and it ends up finally slipping to the other side, or I can't get it centered so it's still slipping to one side (not enough to actually slide down, but noticeable when sitting on her back). The girth is tight enough, by the way, so it's not that, lol.

Is it possible that being nervous could alter a person's balance? I'm not afraid of riding my horse anymore (I can relax on a calm day especially), but I used to be nervous around her. Or could a narrow horse cause problems like this...? Being an Arab, my mare is quite narrow (I've had people tell me this!).


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Just a little note, and this discussion has been had before, with many people posting in photos of their wide working Arabs: Most decent working line Arabians I've seen are actually broader in the chest and have more highly sprung rib cages than the average horse, at least in Australia. My 14.2hh mare had a far broader chest and more girth (when lean!) than the 16hh Bavarian Warmblood she grew up with, and equalled the chest and girth of our solid 16.3hh French Trotter mare. She was also wider than the riding school Warmbloods I learnt to ride on.

Sorry to drop this in, but to say a horse is narrow _because_ it's an Arab creates a misconception I want to discourage. Not if they are bred to work...


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## TXhorseman (May 29, 2014)

Chevaurra said:


> I can't think of anything that happened before this that might have caused it. I mean, I crashed my bicycle and ended up with pretty bad road rash, but that's all (and yeah, that was 4 years ago so I've healed from that, lol). I've only ridden one other horse since I got my mare, and that was on a trail ride (I don't have many chances to ride other horses) and I was fine. I'm as fit as I've always been and probably more supple. Also, I don't have any balancing problem when not on horseback. Walking, I'm fine. I can ride a bicycle easily and be perfectly balanced (though not quite balanced enough to ride with no hands when going really slow, haha). I haven't had any physical examination done, but I would assume if it was a problem with my inner ear I would have problems balancing when not on a horse?
> 
> Also, it almost seems worse when I try to get her to bend more into the turns. My stirrups are definitely the proper length, although it is possible that one could be slightly longer than the other (I am horrible at being able to tell whether they're the same length so I never can tell for sure). Even when I'm just sitting on her back, the saddle might be slipping to one side and I can never fix that. Either I push it up by putting weight in the other stirrup and it ends up finally slipping to the other side, or I can't get it centered so it's still slipping to one side (not enough to actually slide down, but noticeable when sitting on her back). The girth is tight enough, by the way, so it's not that, lol.
> 
> Is it possible that being nervous could alter a person's balance? I'm not afraid of riding my horse anymore (I can relax on a calm day especially), but I used to be nervous around her. Or could a narrow horse cause problems like this...? Being an Arab, my mare is quite narrow (I've had people tell me this!).


Several decades ago, soon after I started riding, I went on an organized ride of several days along part of the old Oregon Trail in Wyoming. I was riding a borrowed horse using my own saddle. The horse I was riding had an accident. However, we were spending two nights at one campsite and another rider didn’t want to ride that day and loaned me her horse. It felt like I spent the whole day trying to keep my saddle centered on that horse. I had never had that problem with my saddle on any other horse and the owner said she had never had that problem with another saddle on her horse. We never did figure out the cause of the problem.

Still, in your situation, I would suggest trying other saddles on your horse and trying your saddle on other horses to increase your data for trying to come up with a solution. In the mean time, however, you might consider some facts about balance.

The line of balance is an imaginary vertical line passing through a body’s center of gravity. Ideally, a rider’s line of balance should be the same as his horse’s line of balance – this means both longitudinally and laterally. In high speed situations, other forces come into consideration, but these are normally minimal in general riding.

Also, consider that an object with a higher center of gravity is more unstable than an object with a lower center of gravity. Therefore, a rider should seek to develop a lower center of gravity. There are several ways to help achieve this.

The first thing to consider is longer stirrup straps. The longer the stirrup straps, the lower a rider’s feet hang. The lower the rider’s feet, the lower the overall center of gravity.

If a rider tightens the muscles in his crotch or tightens the muscles of his legs against his horse, his overall center of gravity will rise. A rider cannot push his center of gravity lower, but he can release the tension in his muscles, thus letting gravity do its job and pull his center of gravity lower. If a rider releases tension in the muscles of his crotch, his seat will sink deeper into the saddle. If a rider releases tension in the muscles of his legs, gravity can pull his legs lower while creating adhesion of his legs around his horse. Gravity will also provide the pressure necessary to keep his feet on his stirrups.

While these things work to lower a rider’s center of gravity, it is interesting to note that letting one’s upper body collapse to help lower the center of gravity is counterproductive. A collapsed upper body cannot respond well to the motion of the horse. Rather than collapsing his upper body, the rider should release the tension in the muscles of his torso and let his upper body expand. As the muscles of the torso expand, the bones of the spine are freed to balance one above the other to support the upper body without muscular tension. Without unnecessary tension, the muscles of the rider’s body are free to quickly make the subtle changes necessary to maintain balance.

A rider should always be relaxed, balanced, and freely moving with the movements of his horse.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Yeah, I am inclined to think the saddle does not fit your horse, and may not fit you either. if it's too big for you, you'll always be behind the motion, sloshing around. if the stirrups force your leg into an unatural angle, that, too , can cause balance issues. 

stirrup leathers stretch, over time, so the left can stretch out more than the the right, due to mounting .

your horse could be thinner/thicker than when you started with that saddle.
a too thick wool pad can make your saddle 'wallow'.

if you've gained a lot of belly fat or larger breasts, this increase in bulk, up high, will effect your balance

if your hrose has become sore or stiff and turns without bending, this makes it very hard to not be affected by centifugal force. it feels a bit like being on the end of a swinging gate when you are on a horse who turns with his body stiff as a board.

try riding a different horse, different saddle.  see how that feels.


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## BreezylBeezyl (Mar 25, 2014)

This sounds like a horse problem more than anything, to be honest. How broke is this horse? I remember my green QH mare was horrible at the canter because she was terribly unbalanced. She needed more miles to learn how to balance herself out, although keep in mind some horses just have terrible gaits to begin with and sometimes it doesn't really get better. This horse had horrible saddle slip issues because of how unbalanced she was (and both of her saddles were fitted).

When cantering, are you on the right lead? Same to be said for the trot: are you posting on the correct diagonal? I know if I am off on these things, I get so unbalanced. It doesn't help if you are riding a green horse either: they rely on your to be balanced so THEY can balance out.

If you take lessons, as your instructor if you can ride a lesson horse for a bit to get a better idea of where the problem lies.

Also, were you riding the same horse BEFORE this became an issue for you?

Unfortunately, if your saddle is slipping constantly, you will have a very difficult time balancing. You need to get your tack fitted, and as a last resort, invest in a good non-slip gel pad. This thing saved my life with my QH mare and she didn't mind it at all.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

What I forgot to say before is that if you have an asymmetrical horse, you can't ride it with a symmetrical saddle, until the horse changes shape with training. Your saddle fitter will have to adjust the stuffing in the saddle to suit, and have to keep doing it at say half yearly intervals as you work on getting yourself and your horse symmetrical. I kind of didn't say it because to me it's obvious that a saddle should be professionally fitted to a horse whatever shape it is. It's also not that expensive.


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## Chevaurra (Aug 16, 2014)

TXhorseman- I'll have to see if I can try out some different horses or maybe a different saddle.  Besides that, theoretically, my center of balance should be quite low. My stirrups are long (my last instructor actually made me put them up because she said I was reaching for them too much, lol), but maybe I'll try putting them down a hole next time and see if that makes them...too long. xD I'm not tensed up at a walk or a trot for sure, and I don't think I am at a lope. I mean, my neck gets sore from being tensed up, but if I relax at all I end up flopping around so that's not a good idea, haha.

WillowNightwind- My horse was very broke when I bought her (as in, she's balanced, did walk/trot/canter/gallop and jumped, was very balanced but just needed some work done on bending apparently). She's not green by any means, but she's not "finished" either. She doesn't really do anything too fancy, is what I mean by that.  She has an ordinary walk and a pretty good trot (her trot is actually very smooth), but quite a bouncy lope. I can trot her bareback easily, but I can NOT lope her bareback without almost falling off at every turn (and sometimes even the straightaways). o__o Then again, I've never ridden any other horse faster than a walk bareback, so I don't know if it's her or if I just need more stirrupless practice. :3 And no, I was not riding the same horse when this became a problem. I noticed it soon after I started riding my horse; before that, I assumed it was because she wasn't bending properly that I had a hard time riding her, or else that I was scared (because that first year wasn't such a good one for us, as I had never ridden spooky horses before).

SueC- I am quite sure she is symmetrical...I assume that means the muscles are the same on both sides? I've always worked her the same in both directions, so she should be good. I also mount from both sides (though the left more often). I did have a professional saddle fitter come out the day I got my saddle and he said it was as perfect a fit as possible without having it custom made (of course, that was 3 and a half years ago...she might have changed since then).


To all-- Thank you so much for posting! I'll definitely check the saddle and see if it still seems to fit all right, and maybe I'll see about riding a different horse soon, or trying out different saddles on my horse. Well, I have an English saddle, but that's not the best way for me to go because I feel even worse in an English saddle than bareback, except that I have stirrups...it seems like there is so little keeping me on her back. I don't ride English very much, in case you can't tell. xD So anyway, I'll try that and see if I can figure a few things out. I might be boarding at a big lesson barn this winter so maybe I'll have a few opportunities then. 

Also, I don't take lessons right now because the barn I'm at now is very small (it's just my horse there right now, before that there were a couple of fillies too, but no riding horses except mine) and there isn't a riding instructor. I've had a friend ask me to ride her horse though, so I might get to try a new horse. And my uncle wants me to ride his tiny pony. xD


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## TXhorseman (May 29, 2014)

Chevaurra said:


> TXhorseman- I'll have to see if I can try out some different horses or maybe a different saddle.  Besides that, theoretically, my center of balance should be quite low. My stirrups are long (my last instructor actually made me put them up because she said I was reaching for them too much, lol), but maybe I'll try putting them down a hole next time and see if that makes them...too long. xD I'm not tensed up at a walk or a trot for sure, and I don't think I am at a lope. I mean, my neck gets sore from being tensed up, but if I relax at all I end up flopping around so that's not a good idea, haha.


For general riding, stirrups should hang around the rider's ankles when the rider's feet are not in the stirrups. Another standard is that the rider should be able to stand in the stirrups with heels down and have one or two inches of clearance between the crotch and saddle.

Please don't confuse the relaxation I am speaking of with slackness. The relaxation I am talking about equates to releasing any unnecessary tension in one's muscles. The rider's body does not collapse and flop around. Instead, the spine -- rather than the muscles -- support the rider's upper body. The muscles closest to the spine still do some work, but the stronger outer muscles are relaxed rather than fighting against one another. Gravity pulls the rider's legs down which creates an adherence of the rider's legs around the horse rather than a squeezing of the leg muscles.

Think of a balloon inflated with just enough helium to hold it upright. It isn't being pulled up into the air, but it isn't sinking to the ground either.

If a tightrope walker becomes tense, he cannot shift his balance to adjust for slight variances caused by breathing or wind blowing against his body. On the other hand, if he fails to support himself, he will also fall.

Ideal balance is achieved by letting gravity pull one's weight downward while the skeleton does the major job of supporting the weight. Then, one's muscles can make subtle adjustments quickly and with little effort to stay balanced while moving.

When a horse is walking, it is very easy for a rider to remained balanced whether tense or relaxed. However, a relaxed rider should be better able to feel his body moving with the movements of his horse. As his horse steps forward with his hind feet, the rider should feel his seat bones moving down, forward, up, down, forward, up approximately 180 degrees off from one another. The rider should be able to tell when each hind or front foot is stepping forward or taking weight.

When walking, a relaxed rider should feel a consistent pressure on the reins. The reins should not become tighter or looser as the horse's head extends or retracts to maintain balance.

When trotting, a relaxed rider should again feel a constant tension in the reins. The rider's body is moving up and down with the horse's body, but his hands should be still in relation to the steady head of the horse. If the rider is tense, his hands will be moving up and down with his body.

While smoother than the trot, the canter usually creates a greater movement in the horse's neck and back. A tense rider will find his seat bouncing in the saddle while the reins alternately become tight and slack. A relaxed rider, following the motion of his horse, will remain in the saddle as though affixed by Velcro. The rider's feet will neither swing nor be held forward by stiff legs. The tension (contact) of the reins will remain constant as the angle between the rider's upper and lower arms opens and closes and his upper arms rotate at the shoulders.


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