Horse people (especially professional horse people) often credit their knowledge to the horses they have worked with. In my experience, this is mostly not true. Most of us learn the basics from other horse people because at that stage of our learning, we don’t know enough to know what we should be learning. So we turn to people who are more expert than us for guidance. But as our skill levels advance and especially as we become quite expert, we learn from horses the nuisances that we need to graduate from a capable horse person to an expert. Those horses teach us the difference between driving the feet versus directing the thought, among many other lessons.

So in this post, I want to talk about something I learned from horses that I should have learned from my instructor. I’m talking about riding down a hill. It is so basic that it is almost unbelievable that my teacher lied to me. Yesterday I did an online search and found every video that came up showed trainers also teaching the same lie.

I was a kid working weekends at a riding school along one of Sydney’s northern beaches. I was raw around horses and spent most days cleaning stalls, feeding, and saddling horses for the next group of lessons. Eventually, I was promoted to taking small groups of novice riders on an hour-long trail ride. I’d take them along a dirt track to a local quarry. Then up and over a steep hill to the other side of the riding school. It was fun and a very pretty ride.

On the first few rides of taking students on the trail, the boss came along to ensure I knew the routine. He showed me where it was safe to let them canter, where to stop for a rest break, what path to take when bypassing the piles of gravel at the quarry, and which track led over the hill and straight back to the riding school.

“Now when you lead the group up the hill, make sure you show everybody how to lean forward over the saddle horn. That way they’ll stay in balance and be less likely to fall backward if the horses trot. But when you come over the top of the hill and start heading down, you have to show them how to lean back in the saddle to stay balanced. It’s less strain on them and easier for the horse to control his speed going downhill.”

Those were the boss’ instructions. They made sense and I never thought any more about them.

Since then I have heard a lot of instructors and trainers tell people the same thing. A rider should lean slightly forward when going uphill and slightly back when going downhill. It’s all intended to keep the rider in balance with the force of gravity.

But what about the horse?

Several years later I chose to quit my job and go on a long riding trek along the east coast of Australia. I had ridden on weekend trails and camped overnight before, but this trip was going to take several months to complete. I knew I had to prepare for such an adventure. It was the first long ride of many more to come.

I spent months riding Luke and China 6 days a week to build up their strength and stamina and train them to carry a pack saddle, how to walk in hobbles, and learn to negotiate all types of terrain. I also had some work to do like learning how to catch fish, birds, and rabbits. I learned to light fires in the rain. I learned first aid for the horses and myself. I learned lots of new skills and practiced to get better with some old ones too.

Eventually, the time came to embark on day one of this new adventure.

The first several days were relatively easy. Although, despite all the preparation I still developed a sore bum by day 2. On the morning of day 6, we had a steep descent into a gorge ahead. I decided China could carry me and Luke could carry the pack saddle. It was a long windy track leading down to a river and some lush grazing at the bottom. It took over 6 hours of constantly riding downhill to reach the bottom. It was a relief to finally get there.

The next morning I rose out of bed to notice China had two large swellings on his back - one on either side of his spine. I touched them and they were hot and he was very sore. Luke showed no sign of any problem, but China was definitely in pain. It occurred to me that the swellings were precisely where the rear of the saddle touched. I knew then there would be no riding until China recovered. I decided to rest for a day or two. We had plenty of water and plenty of grass and had nowhere special to go for the next 10 months or more.

It took 5 days before China was sound again and showed no sign of soreness. During the 5 days, I had plenty of time to think about why China was so sore. It occurred to me that during the long descent down into the gorge, I had been leaning back because that was what I was taught to make it easier for me to balance and for the horse to carry me. But it also meant putting more weight into the back of the saddle and this was the spot where the swelling appeared on China’s back.

It made perfect sense that by putting more of my weight in the rear of the saddle, the soft muscle tissue was being subjected to a lot more force and bruising. It wasn’t a saddle problem. It wasn’t a fitness problem. It wasn’t even a hill problem. It was a rider problem. The cost of making it easier for me to stay balanced in the saddle when riding down a steep slope was the make my horse more susceptible to soreness and pain.

During my many long treks over the years, I have confirmed my theory that leaning back when riding downhill is hard or even damaging to a horse’s back muscles. Later, I was able to obtain a resin that I shaped to fit between the saddle and the back of a horse. As I rode, the resin would change shape to indicate the area of the horse’s back that bore the most weight or force. It clearly showed significantly more weight was exerted on the horse’s muscles at the rear of the saddle when riding downhill with the rider leaning back - as most people are taught.

Why hadn’t somebody told me this before? How many horses are sore after a trail ride because of the way riders lean back during a long descent? Why are people still teaching riders to lean back when going down a hill?

I don’t want to suggest that going on a 2-hour trail ride and leaning back for 3 minutes as you descend a hill is going to cause significant harm to a healthy horse with a well-fitting saddle. It probably won't create a problem. But this story is just another example of the value of listening to your horse before listening to your boss AND don’t be afraid to think and question everything you are told.