Horseback riders should always find a well-fitting helmet, understand the proper posture for riding and learn the basic heel and verbal commands. Learn a few tips for horseback riding with advice from a riding instructor in this video on equestrian living.
My tips for horseback riding... mine start with the use of a good-fitting helmet. Like my seat belt, I have one even though I've ridden all my life and have never had a major accident. I just feel like this makes me feel really good about going into and starting whatever I need to with my horse, whether it's speeding around with cows or jumping jumps, it all makes the same sense to me. When we get on a horse, we want to think about how we try to get on in a way that's going to make us balance with the horse, not over the front of the saddle or falling over the back. I like to take my reigns in one hand, as you can see, they like to move around sometimes. We could go into a whole topic about how to stop that, but I'm going to hold my shorter reign, my hand on the mane as well. Another big tip that I have found useful in my career: grab that mane as well as your reign so you're not influencing his mouth with the movement of the bit as you try to get on. I turn my stirrup towards me, put my left leg in and come up over the center of this saddle, and swing my leg over. He steps out a little bit, I just have to be ready, and make sure I hold him in control. Simply getting on is the first step for a lot of riders, because it's not always easy. We want to practice that idea about staying over the center of that area of gravity so you're not leaning forward and falling forward as you get on. Then the other tip: keep it simple. If we know that horses are very easy to train, by the concept of they move away from pressure, I can easy start to move with this horse by saying if I press with both heels, he's going to move forward as if I just squeezed a tube of toothpaste with my heels. He moves forward through that center. If I need him to stop, equally he'll move away from pressure. I try to apply the very least amount of pressure, and ask him to "whoa." Horses are creatures of habit. That's a simple piece, that's a tip to those who are embarking on this sport. If you repeat the same thing, every day, the same way, over and over, your training technique--with the concept of they move away from pressure--and we repeat that same application of pressure over and over again, you can bring your horse to be pretty well trained with just those simple tools.
