The horse's back - key to success

You may think the legs of the horse are the most important element of their soundness, but maybe it's actually their back. Over the years I've retrained several nice horses who were trained by "good" riders and were absolutely pathetically low in their back. They looked like broodmares. Their ribs hung off their vertabrae and their back muscles were flat, not full and rounded. They had no muscle system in their core muscles that supported their back.

How do they get this way and how can a trainer/rider avoid it?

First, quit sitting on your butt! Every time you sit in the saddle at the posting trot you should be supporting yourself with your calves. The horse's back is not your sofa, and you are not watching the Super Bowl and eating bon bons while you ride, so don't look like it! Good grief, the amount of abuse a horse's back takes from the rider's butt is incredible! Especially since the posting trot is designed to lighten the rider so the horse can easily elevate the back and round the back.

Second, use a whip and ride the hind legs under the horse - don't beg your horse to go forward!

Third, when sitting, don't push with the seat to go forward, it only makes the back go down. This brings me back to: "use the whip." I don't like spurs because they cause the rider to turn their toes unnaturally outward and that causes them to sit even more on their butt.

A light seat that is stable, is much better for the elevation of the back and gives you a much better ride in the show ring and anytime. Be brave, get some wind in your hair (that is the part that is outside your helmet), and enjoy the feeling of a horse carrying you forward, not the feeling of you dragging a horse around. Remember, he's supposed to be carrying you!