Don't say that, there are MANY clubs that offer that. Just search and travel a little and you'll find.
Very very nice pic BTW :) :)

Thank you. :} I do realize there are training schools for natural horsemanship but I'm afraid that they are out of my price range and do-ability. Perhaps someday!

it is possible with loads of practice and you must trust the horse completely but it is possible ^_^ awesome pic sweetie

It's not so much trusting the horse as the horse trusting you, and rigorous training. There are training schools tailored to natural horsemanship, but I'm not sure if I could ever afford one. :}

ahh ok *hugs* one can try ^_^ the secret to getting the horse to trust you is to allow it to come to you

Your horse anatomy looks excellent. I admire somebody who can draw a nice looking horse like that!

Thank you muchly! :D I love horses, I used to work with them a lot up into my teen years. :}

*grins* Thank you! I also love riding bareback, but still have to use a bridle as well. Someday I won't though. :D

I do some natural horsemanship, though my main focus is dressage. My horse has been ridden bridleless though I never have done it (though I've ridden with just a leadrope and halter a lot). I have two horses, and do natural horsemanship more with one than the other; I didn't like how my natural horsemanship trainer worked with my gelding, who is blind in one eye (she didn't make any allowances for that and it scared him a bit), but she's great with my mare.

Ironically, a group came from a locally famous natural horsemanship barn to do a bridleless riding show at our barn for a Western Extravaganza we put on each year to benefit our handicap riding stable, and during the show someone was thrown into the arena wall, and then trampled by her horse, breaking her arm. The response of the others? "Oh, we fall off all the time." o_o I was a little put off by it at that time.

However, we do a lot of natural horsemanship at our barn of various schools of thought.

Too much bareback riding isn't good for the horse, because you don't have the saddle properly distributing your weight (you're right on the spine instead) but I LOVE it, and would do it more if I had time. I love to feel my horse under me.

I was raised riding Western, and when I started riding English, I was amazed how much more I could feel the horse, and that's the first reason I switched. English is just a little closer to bareback. :D

Oh, thank you for the thoughtful comment - I didn't know riding bareback was potentially harmful to a horse, but it does make sense. I've never ridden English myself, just Western. I'll have to try it sometime, whenever I have the next oppurtunity to ride. :}

You might enjoy it. :D You might never go back. Hehe.

It's so much closer to the horse, and more natural feeling to me. Some people, of course, love the security of a western saddle, or dislike the percieved snootiness of English, or have other reasons for certain preferences. My mom likes her endurance saddle, which is sort of in-between English and Western.

I like the lightness of the saddle (many many pounds lighter than almost ANY western saddle, and I think that any weight I can spare the horse is probably a good thing) and how much easier the saddle tends to be to fit horses than a western. Not that all English saddles are better fitted than Western -- it's so so important to have a properly fitted saddle for each invidual horse no matter the type. However, I've got two English saddles (one general purpose and one dressage) to fit my Arab, neither of which were hard to find, while it took six months of active looking to find a western saddle to buy for him.

Another thing I like about English is that western stirrups tend to hurt my knees after a couple hours in the saddle, and the seats of western saddles are generally not as comfortable for me. I've sat in dozens of hard bruising western seats. I've sat in only a couple English saddles that absolutely killed my butt but many more comfy ones. My current saddle is DIVINE. It's a Kincaide dressage saddle and it is THE most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden in.

For me, once I rode English I could never go back. Everyone has different preferences though!

Bareback can be harmful for a horse but so can a poor fitting saddle. Bareback is not bad occassionally, if the horse is properly trained -- and in good enough shape -- to lift its back and use its hindquarters effectively, and if the rider is balanced and skilled. A horse that runs around with its head up and nose sticking out and its back hollowed shouldn't be ridden bareback. A horse in training learning to lift its back shouldn't be either, because if its back is weak, it will move away from that pressure on its spine and it won't learn to use its body correctly -- "proper posture".

So many horses run around in awful unnatural form (so many people, too, hunched from too-heavy backpacks or damaged backs) because they're flinching away from the weight on their backs, and I just wince every time I see it. Heh.

I just spent all day at the barn, and now I want to go back and ride. :D :D :D

*horsegeek*