09/05/2026
There’s a lot more thought behind a riding lesson than what you can see in a photograph. ❤️🐴
I saw a comment recently questioning why our students were riding in ba****ck pads, without stirrups, and why their leg positions didn’t look like what someone might expect to see in a traditional saddle.
So, I thought this was a great opportunity to explain why we do what we do at Blazing Star Stables.
Those ba****ck pads aren’t being used because we don’t have saddles.
And our students aren’t riding without stirrups because we don’t know how to teach proper leg position.
Quite the opposite.
They are being used intentionally and for specific teaching purposes.
At Blazing Star Stables, we teach a wide variety of riders—including children who are neurodivergent, children with different learning styles, and riders who are still developing body awareness, balance, coordination, confidence, and communication skills.
A ba****ck pad can provide a tremendous amount of useful sensory information.
It allows a rider to:
🐴 Feel the horse’s movement more directly
🐴 Develop an independent seat
🐴 Become more aware of their own body position
🐴 Learn to follow the horse’s movement rather than relying on a saddle for stability
🐴 Develop balance and core engagement
🐴 Understand where their legs and hips are in relation to the horse
🐴 Work on relaxation and body awareness
🐴 Develop confidence before adding additional equipment and complexity
And removing stirrups is also intentional.
Stirrups can become something a beginning rider depends on for stability. Before we worry about creating the “perfect” textbook leg position, we want our riders to understand where their body is, how the horse moves underneath them, and how their balance affects the horse.
Once those foundational skills are established, we can introduce or refine stirrup use and work toward a more traditional position.
And here’s something else that matters:
Every rider is different.
The “right” way to teach one child may not be the right way to teach another.
A rider who is neurodivergent may process balance, sensory input, verbal instructions, spatial awareness, or body position differently. Some riders need more tactile feedback. Some need fewer variables at once. Some need to experience something physically before the verbal explanation makes sense.
That’s not lowering the standard.
That’s adapting the teaching method so the student can actually learn.
We also have to consider the horses.
Some of our horses are incredible teachers precisely because they allow riders to learn without demanding perfection from them. We have to create an environment where both horse and rider can learn safely.
So when you see a photograph of one of our lessons, you may not see the entire lesson plan, the goals for that particular rider, the conversations happening between instructor and student, or the skills we are intentionally developing.
You are seeing one moment in a much bigger educational process.
At Blazing Star Stables, our goal isn’t to put every rider into a saddle, hand them reins, and make them look like a finished equestrian as quickly as possible.
Our goal is to build HORSE PEOPLE.
That means learning:
Groundwork.
Riding and driving.
Stable management.
Healing.
Communication.
Body awareness.
Problem solving.
Confidence.
Horsemanship.
And yes—eventually, that includes developing a proper riding position.
But proper position is a progression, not a photograph.
So if you see one of our young riders on a ba****ck pad without stirrups, know that there is a reason.
There is always a reason. ❤️🐴
We don’t teach every rider the same way.
We teach the rider in front of us.
And sometimes, the best way to teach someone to find their seat is to take the saddle—and the stirrups—out of the equation.
