10/15/2026
When we casually look at the left image, we see a well turned out horse with a rider posting at the trot. However, when we look closer with the eye of critical horsemanship, we see violations of both the principles of unity of shared balance and shared movement with the horse. The result is we see disunity.
The horse and the rider are moving and balancing separately. The result is the horse must compensate for the rider's separate balance and movement. This causes the horse to focus on coping with the external force of the rider's imposed actions instead of focusing on their own movement and balance. This is how riders burden and ultimately ruin their horses.
This rider is overposting, meaning pushing their body upward with excessive force. Observe the distance of the rider's seat up out of the saddle. The rider's posting movement is separated or out of sync with their horse's movement by this over posting. The great Henry Wynmalen's axiom of "Let the horse move you" should apply here and every lesson barn should have a sign with this saying.
Over posting is a post that is far beyond the degree a horse would naturally "toss" the rider upward in the trot. Worse yet, over posting is often accompanied by other dramatic and unnecessary arm movements that can make the rider look like they are "rowing a boat". Horses are commonly forced to waste their energy compensating for this kind of disruptive movement from riders.
The rider is ahead of the blue line and over the pommel, which is the unified center line of balance. The blue line should go right up though the center of the rider's body, but it does not because the rider is ahead of it. Rider should be centered over the saddle, where unity can be achieved.
This pictured over-post launches the rider's body ahead of the blue optimal centerline and it places the rider's body mass and weight onto the horse's forehand. Additionally, the tilt of the rider's head (purple line) adds to this imbalance. This is how a rider's over-posting causes rider disunity of balance with their horse.
As the rider disrupts potential unity with their over-posting, we can see the shortened reach of the horse's hind leg illustrated by the yellow line. With the rider's weight shifted onto the forehand with each post, the horse must compensate by limiting its hind reach. If the horse did not shorten their hind reach, even more weight would be shifted forward making the horse even heavier on the forehand. This is so unfair to a horse.
What we see here is a cascade of issues that begins with over-posting. The imposed imbalance of over-posting is rarely addressed in lessons as trainers teach more style than effectiveness. This can lead to an unbalanced stumble and sometimes fall. If this is how a horse is regularly ridden, this chronic imbalance imposed by a rider can permanently ruin a horse's natural balanced striding.
Unity of balance and movement is essential whether we ride English or Western. Everyone from the casual walk trot weekend trail rider to advanced competitors can benefit from increasing their skills to achieve greater unity.
