October 2006

Work through the mechanics at the walk, dropping your heels as you get out of the saddle.

Simplifying the Western Post

Once thought of as an activity only for sissies or English riders, posting is now de rigueur for riders of all disciplines, at least for schooling. Of course, you rarely see Western riders post in the show world. There, the rider sits through all gaits. That works well because those horses walk, jog, and lope. But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ever post in a Western saddle.

People over 50 who learned to ride as kids rarely saw Western riders post. Their saddles were rigged so riders often sat "on their pockets," with their feet out in front, making posting extremely difficult. Then in the 1960s and ’70s, along came…