BAREBACK BALANCE
Stacy Westfall
— Photos by Cappy Jackson
Learn from bareback genius and reining freestyle phenom Stacy Westfall as she teaches you how to use saddleless riding to boost your balance and fine-tune your cueing. Here, use our super-fun Click ‘n Learn stop-action sequence to see exactly how she maintains her bareback position during a rollback.
Press the Play button to play the sequence automatically all the way through, or use the individual numbers on the right to proceed one image at a time.
As you watch the sequence, observe how Stacy:
- Sits over her horse’s center of balance, just behind his withers, and grabs mane for anchoring.
- Lets her legs drape down naturally for ballast–no gripping with her knees.
- In the stop, supports herself on the V shape made by her thighs over her horse’s withers.
- In the turn, stays upright with her body, keeping her hips rocked back to stay in position over her horse’s center of gravity.
In the lope-off, inclines her upper body forward just slightly to stay with her horse’s motion (and, again, her lower leg hangs free).