I mean there are professional jockeys and show riders who must be doing *something* at a very high level, but I honestly don’t understand what. Like if I’m riding a horse that’s jumping over a fence, isn’t that all the horse? And I just need to not fall off?
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I mean, it’s all kinda in the ball park of ‘holding onto the horse’, but it’s rather more involved in that; in the same way that tennis is more than just ‘hitting a ball’.
Horse riding requires, among other things: good self control (over ones own balance, and confidence), as well as the ability to control and clearly signal to the horse what you want, as well as anticipate it’s win movements. Quote someone I know who’s an experienced rider: 99% of horse riding is being in sync with your horse.
Jumping a fence means you have to move in time with your horse. It also requires a great deal of core strength and balance. It’s supposed to look effortless, but actually holding on is in many ways more difficult than it appears.
The part of “just need not to fall off” alone is extremely difficult.
Maintaining balance on a moving horse is crucial for effective riding (and also riding in a way that does not harm the horse). Riders need to develop a strong sense of balance and coordination to stay centered in the saddle, especially when the horse is in motion or executing complex maneuvers.
You have to learn how to communicate with your horse, a horse doesn’t just simply do what it learned but you have to actually understand and communicate what you want with your horse.
You need emotional control – you should not panic if your horse breaks out with you on its back, but take immediate action to regain control.
And the amount of stamina and strength you need because you actually have to mimic the horses up and down (called posting) movement to reduce strain of the horse’ back and allow it more freedom in their range of motion. Imagine having a backpack loosely on your back and you sprint – your backpack will jerk up and down, hurting you and bringing you out of the smooth motion of running.
Now fasten the backpack to your back very tight – this way it works with your flow of motion and isn’t in your way.
If you just sit static on a horse, you will end up with an extremely painful posterior and possibly a fractured coccyx! You will effectively be allowing a 400kg weight to persistently hit you from below while your own weight crashes down from above. Horse riding is all about your legs, timing your rise and fall so that it is in rhythm with the horse’s movements, and acting as shock absorbers.
Aside from “not falling off” the biggest skill is probably learning how to communicate with the horse, so it will do what you want (and expect) it to do.
I am by no means an expert rider, but one of the things I learned very quickly when riding trails… horses will walk by obstacles – trees and such – and only leave enough room for their body to get by. So if you’re not paying attention and “steering” the horse to leave more space, you may find your leg getting sandwiched between a very large, powerful animal and an immovable object.
This is best avoided.
There are lots of ways riders do this, using the reins or their feet or a crop, etc., depending on the type of riding you’re doing.
When you simplify anything down that far it’s going to sound ridiculously easy. All bull riders need to do is not fall off.
You are using your body not only to not fall off, but to communicate with the horse. You’re communicating the direction the horse is going, what speed they need to go, how they should hold their neck, how curved their body should be, how long a stride they should take, etc. And all of this so being done via shifts in your weight, subtle movements of the rein, and leg position and pressure.
Its a little like riding a dirt bike where one has to be aware and in control of ones relationship , with not just movement, but momentum, between you, and the “vehicle” under you. Add to this the element of not always being in explicit control of it. To ride either competently you are always shifting weight, standing, sitting, leaning, all at the same time. If you zig and the thing under you zags, you are in the dirt.
The animal brings all the same skills to bear plus one gigantic difference. You need to know how to use strength balance, control, poise, WITH confidence.
Unlike a dirt bike, the live “vehicle” under you is able to discern exactly how you feel about what’s going on at any given time because the animal gets its confidence from you. If you dont think you can climb that hill the horse wont want to either. Performance of this combo depends on both “agreeing” with each other. It’s actually just short of magical when you experience it.
From someone who learned to ride a horse; “Not falling off” is a crucial first lesson, to be sure.
But then you have to learn to communicate with an animal that is fairly intelligent, has a mind of it’s own, and if it disagrees with you, *it will demonstrate that in the swiftest way available.*
So it’s not just “learning to fall off” but developing a relationship and understanding with the animal as well.
Plus it can be tiring being up on a horse. There’s a lot of core muscle strength that is required to move *WITH* the animal and for both you and the horse to be comfortable.
Riders at the top levels have ridden/trained for many years. Just like other athletes and skilled practitioners. And as others have indicated it takes time and skill to become successful with a particular horse. While any good rider can be proficient with any trained horse, it takes both the rider and horse working together to be truly successful. Also there are many different types of horse based competitions. Racing is a more obvious one. But you have dressage, barrel racing, hunter jumper, steeple chase, cross country, stadium jumping, driving, endurance, etc etc.
Think of it like this, what skills do a race car driver need to win a race? All they need to do is steer the car around the track and not hit other cars right?.
You need to be able to communicate with the horse using body movements. Just sitting on the horse is like just sitting in a car – it wont drive itself.
To get it to move, steer, jump etc you need to tell it and this is done by body movement, use of the reins, spoken instructions and subtle changes in the centre of gravity. With time, horses learn what their regular rider wants and so can sometimes take the initiative. But they arent pre-programmed.
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