I swore I wouldn’t yet here I am. First that guy is way too big for that pony. Second, I could do that with my mare any day of the week. Third a lot of us rode our horses bareback, bridleless, and helmetless as kids, often over jumps out in the field. You can see him cuing the turn.
I’d suggest a saddle so that he is not grinding on the spine and to quit gripping with his legs. The pony is irritated, not happy.
Agree pony is irritated and rider has an oddly clenching seat.
Newbies get impressed with tack free riding. Thing is, by the time your horse is halfway schooled it’s already going about 75 per cent leg and seat aids. A good jumper, you look to the jump and turn off the outside rein. A dressage horse, you half halt with weight cues. Etc.
So in a safe space and with no other calls on the horse’s attention, most of us could drop the reins and get our horses to walk halt turn on seat aids. And/or voice commands. There are much better demo videos of people doing this with a more relaxed seat and horse
There’s no way anyone is going for a trail ride doing this. It’s something you try out in a pasture or arena, a place with limits.
Anyhow this pissy horse and clenched up rider are actually lower caliber tackless riding than most of what I see online.
One minute of a clearly unhappy horse.
10 seconds of a horse that is not quite as unhappy.
Actually Scribbler when we used to ride out in the Cool, CA area (lots of public trails) we would often encounter carrot stickers who rode (in saddles) bridleless using the stick for cues. The horses were apparently trained with clarity because they were well-behaved and seemed safe. I know there is occasionally a rider in the Tevis 100 miler who competes bridleless.
You are saying that anybody can do this - this is a horse with no bridle or any other tack, in an open area and the horse does not want to do something. The horse is not trained to do it thousnad times somewhere else - this is not what this gut is doing with horses. Show me a video of somebody doing the same thing - not just words. I could not find anything like this - and I have been looking for it.
Hell Ingrid Klimke could do that and jump a whole cross country course sans bridle and saddle. And the horse would be HAPPY to do that for her. No ear pinning or sour looks either. The only people that would be impressed with that video are people that have almost no experience with horses.
If any horse I rode was pinning its ears and wringing it’s tail like that horse is, I’d know either I was doing something really wrong or the horse was in pain.
sorry looks pretty much like what you get when the 10 yr old kids jump on the broodies in the pasture - annoyed horses but tolerant enough to not buck them off
The rider is trying some lateral work then gives up and rides forward.
I don’t for a minute believe he’s doing this in a place without some natural boundaries.
I know nothing beyond what I see. Many well broke horses can be ridden off leg seat weight or voice cues. Hopping on with no tack and messing around for a few minutes is no big deal. Seriously. It just isn’t. It really really impresses newbies. My adult beginner friends are always going “hey I saw a great video.” But it’s just not that hard if you are already riding mostly off the seat. My beginner friends can’t ride off the seat yet so they are mystified by the whole thing.
The comments you are giving are about completely different situations - a horse that is trained to jump brideless with jump. And a lot of people and trainerd ride without tack.
But this is not what this video is about. This is a horse in an open area that is scared of crossing a channel - so yes the horse is scared and this is normal for a horse on a trail to get scared - the rider with pure body signals - no force, no training - the horse is backing up of riders signal (leaning forwards is backing up as I am sure everyone knows), jumps from side to side and agrees to go into the channel calmly. This is what the video is about. And this is what I haven’t seen anyone doing. It has nothing to do with training - is it pure communicationa and riders skills.
I never heard of leaning forward to make a horse back up.
No horse obeys because of “pure communication.” They obey because they have been carefully taught to respond to a range of consistent cues. You can choose those cues, whether weight voice leg rein. A skilful rider is one who can use minimal cues to get maximum performance.
But none of the cues make sense to an unbroke horse. There’s no communication that makes sense from day one. You need to teach every bit of it. If the horse wasn’t trained he wouldn’t go forward from a leg aid, etc.
Would you have a video of a tackless riding in a situation where the horse is scared/ doesn’t want to do something - not doing it was trained to do by repetion - and it is handled by pure body language?
And this video is an fenced and there more of this on the channel riding in a herd - which can’t be fenced or pasture. So yes - nobody else does it, however this is the case here.
Most herds are kept in fenced pastures. If they are not, they wander onto the freeway and get hit by trucks and die, or end up gorging in a neighbors corn field and get colic and die.
Some reckless teens do jump on their horses in a herd. It’s not the safest but you can use herd dynamics to your advantage, unless of course the horses kick you and you die.
No it is not normal for a horse on the trails to get scared. Not if they see their rider as a leader. Nothing skillful about that rider. If you are a skillful rider you can read the horse’s intentions before it gets to the point of the horse objecting and giving off pissed off vibes like that horse. I am no special fantastic trainer but I have ridden a horse through fields that were on fire with no hesitation from the horse. Because he trusted me. Much scarier than a ditch. I am not going to make videos of training horses because honestly I am not that skillful.
If that is what is considered a scared or spooking horse then I have spent my life riding fire-breathing dragons. Like the Knights!
Weight signals will only make sence if they are in accordance with the natural movement of the horse. You can train the horse by repetition to do practically anything - this is not the case. There is not method it this - unlike in anything else I have encountered.
This video is a proof of controlling a horse in a critical situation where many riders will b thrown off the horse, the horse will run away, or they will give up the path. This takes a immensly high level of skill and trust of the horse is the rider. You have said that there is a lot of riders that would do it better - can you show me one example in a video where is can be seen what we are talking about?
The horse is clearly shying away from the crossing and the only reason it is staying is the signals from the rider - and the horse is choosing to obey these signals. Would you have an example for somethign you would consider similar - it can be with a fire-breathing dragon 
?
Do your own homework. Hang around REAL horse people not some internet carnival barker.
Concerning the herd it is the moving of the herd from the pasture home to the stables. I don’t see the purpose of the comment about the horses running to the freeway - it is surely dangerous but has nothing to do with riding skills.
3min 17 here for example in this video “Amazing Bridleless Ride in Nature - KFH Signal-Weight Riding on the same channel”
Which again shows riding in a herd in fully controlled and responsible way.
Can you show me something like this? Again not of a horse that is repeating and trained pattern.
Other than mocking, can you show me some of these REAL horse people doing this? I would be really happy to find them.
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