RIDING Is posting easier on a horse’s back?

Q:In “Old Masters” (EQUUS 441), a rider “rode standing in the stirrups to ease stresses on his horse’s back.” I have also heard other riders say they post or stand in the stirrups to take weight off their horses’ backs.

As someone who’s studied engineering and physics, I wonder if standing really benefits the horse. The stirrups are connected to the saddle and, apparently, the saddle still distributes a rider’s weight onto the same area of a horse’s back regardless of whether the rider is sitting, standing or posting. Sounds to me like standing or posting is for the comfort of the rider and not the horse! Have any studies or experiments borne out this thought? (I enjoy relaxing on my Quarter Horse, who is very comfortable at various trotting speeds, with or without a saddle.)

Carl Stephanus

Berryville, Virginia

limbs are grounded then rises as the

horse pushes off into the suspension

phases. When sitting the trot, the rider

follows the horse’s movements---the

rider sinks into the saddle during the

diagonal stance, and the force on the

horse’s back increases. As the horse’s

body starts to rise, the rider feels a

push from the saddle and the force on

the horse’s back is at its highest. Dur-

ing the suspension phase the force

decreases. So the force on the horse’s

back increases and decreases in a regu-

lar pattern.

When the rider stands in the stir-

rups, the hip, knee and ankle joints flex

as the horse’s body rises in the suspen-

sion phases, which compresses the

rider’s leg length. Then these joints ex-

tend to lengthen the rider’s legs as the

horse descends in the diagonal stance

phase. As a result of these changes in

leg length, the rider undergoes less

vertical motion than the horse. Thus

the rider glides along at a fairly con-

stant height above the ground while the

horse is bouncing up and down. Saddle

pressure recordings show that the

peaks in the force curve are smoothed

out---the minimal values are higher and

the maximal values are lower.

In a rising (posting) trot, the feet

push down against the stirrups to pro-

vide the force that raises the rider out of

the saddle. This results in an increased

force on the horse’s back toward the