Last night I happened upon this article about a girl who rides her horse over jumps backwards. Perhaps this girl is not taking such a big risk, and I'm merely being over-critical. However, there is one thing that keeps pestering me:
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| Image by Polo the Weirdo. |
Have you spotted it yet? Let's try that again.
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| Image by Polo the Weirdo. |
Please tell me you have found the riding error that's driving me crazy. No? *sighs* The girl's heels are not down. They aren't near horizontal, and if one is gonna do crazy stunts, they really should incorporate the standard safety precautions.
I mean, I'm not great at keeping my heels down either. It's something I still must think about because it isn't a habit yet. I would like it to be one, but I haven't consistently ridden a horse for about two years, and I probably won't anytime soon.
Regardless, thanks for letting me rant about that. Next time you ride, keep in mind the position of your heels. If you find that you need to work on keeping your heels down, do it.
Let's not take the control God has over everything for granted and be reckless when we know how to not be. Have a safe day, cheers, and +1. Thanks!
Hiya, nice to see you stumbled across my article. It's always nice to see my controversial topics going beyond Ponybox.
ReplyDeleteI must say, you have raised a very good point here. The fact that I don't have my heels down certainly could make this stunt more dangerous than necessary. In fact, I considered the same danger myself when I first began working on this stunt - that was why I initially tried it bareback. Unfortunately the bareback jumping proved too difficult starting out, so I started using a saddle. Naturally I did try to get my heels down, but when riding backwards, I found that in order to get my weight back over the jump as I have to do, I need to push back from the ball of my foot. Obviously, this is an unsafe way to ride, and I thank you for pointing it out. :)
I am going to make a conscious effort to further develop my backwards riding position, and see if I can find a way to keep my heels down. Otherwise I'll go full riding school and invest in a pair of safety stirrups.
Cheers!
Oh heya!
DeleteAhh, your point makes sense. You can probably tell I've never attempted jumping backwards before; I never once thought of the physics and weight balance involved in it. Now I know! :)
I have to say that I do feel a little bad for criticizing the way you were jumping in the pictures. However, I am glad to hear that you'll be working on making it safer! Let me know once you have it perfected; perhaps you could write an article here about it, if you are fine with that. :)
Cheers to you as well!