Comment

Comment by Polo Mare on May 27, 2010 at 6:28pm

Ah! Your theory makes perfect sense, KT. I suppose the same would be true of the saddle horn on a western saddle (to a lesser extent though 'cause you're not so locked in). But of course, you hope/assume no horse would ever flip over backwards on you! Though I know anything can happen ...
My stallion is not a rearer, never has been, but of course can't guarantee what would happen in any and all circumstances. My food for thought I guess.

Thanks for the clever insight :-)

Comment by Kt Mehers on May 27, 2010 at 3:07pm

I believe the reason for not riding a "rearer" in a side saddle is that if the horse goes over backwards you cannot be thrown or get yourself clear. This can cause death due to the damage caused by the pommel to the rider. However in my experience if you know the horse you should do your own risk assessment ie if you know how the horse rears and how high. The stallion in this clip is incredibly well trained and most important very relaxed with it's rider, they obviously have a very deep relationship.

On the rider retaining an upright position this would be impossible on the height of the rear that is being achieved, the pommel would get in the way, on smaller half rears this may be possible, though it may unbalance the horse.

Hope this helps Polo!

Comment by Polo Mare on May 26, 2010 at 5:38pm

This video is fabulous for obvious reasons . . . but most interesting to me is the lay-back trick when the horse rears. I have a very old cherished instructional book on sidesaddle riding and it strongly discourages riding stallions sidesaddle specifically because there was a greater chance that a stallion would rear (uncontrollably) than a gelding or a mare. This disappointed me because I have a stallion I wanted to ride sidesaddle. I was further discouraged by a horse show manager who told me stallions were prohibited from being exhibited sidesaddle in hunter hack classes because "it's just not safe and stallions aren't traditional sidesaddle mounts". This prevented me from pursuing the idea any further :-(
The instructional sidesaddle book went on to explain that although a sidesaddle is considered to be very secure to ride out a bucking horse (it even went on to suggest using a sidesaddle on a chronic bucker because it could actually be safer than riding astride) the book INSISTED that a rearing horse was never to be a sidesaddle horse because it was very dangerous and near impossible to remain mounted on a rearing horse in a sidesaddle.
This video would seem to disprove that. I would love to see a clip of the rider remaining upright during the rear, just to see what it looks like body-position wise. Maybe the leaping head/horn gets too close to the rider's stomach for comfort?
Anyone out there have any thoughts on this?