Help..Help..Help...Help!!Balance Problem

I have been having a lot of trouble with my balance!!! I have just stated setting up some tyres that I am going to weave in and out of to help my balace and to help with me with my "steering"...... ........ ........ ...... ....
So I was wondering if anyone has any good balance excercises???

I would greatly appreciate it

I assume you are talking about your balance mounted, not on foot.
What is actually happening? Are you almost falling off?
I think most of those problems ususally are connected to not sitting up really erect over your hips. Are you curling forward into the "fatal position" (that's a play on the word "fetal position").
Would be fun if you had some video to show us what is going on.
I think if I wove in and out of tires, I might have some balance problems, too.

Hahaha yes I mean on a horse not on foot!!!! I'll give you an example of what was happening!!...........the other day my mare bolted and kept going for about 800 metres. The whole time I never felt I was balanced enough to try to pull her up ....the whole time I was just trying to stay on!! Another example.........i was trying to jump my mare and she jumped to one side of the jump I went completley off balanced and then she jumped the jump!!! I nearly fell off in both these instances!!! And I feel that if I don't improve that I will make it really hard for my mare and also it could result in me getting hurt :( ..............hopefully that helped a bit (sorry about my bad explaining) also sorry I don't have any videos!!!!!

So yeah I am just looking for some balance helping excercises!!

Go without stirrups...It will help a lot. I have bad balance too.

Thankyou Sarahandlola I have have people tell me that before but I havn't taken much notice ........but now that you mention it sounds right!!!!

First of all...sorry for my english..i'm not english mother tongue :) but I hope I will make myself clear :)

Well, I had and have your same problem. With the big difference that the horses I rode were really sensitive to changes in balance of rider...What do I mean? I mean this: if you are not right balanced, your weight on the horse changes easily: sometime you can weight too much on the left side, other time on the right, back or ahead. Some horse forgive the rider's errors; some others exaggerate them. My horse exaggerates my mistakes! I didn't understand I was wrong because I feel my body not balanced.....i understood I was wrong because the horse walked too fast, too slow, turned on the left/right instead of going strenght ahead ......
For more than 1 year what I did during every lesson was just to walk!!! I cried a lot of times because the horse didn't walk on the rail :(
The problem was this: I "communicated" to the horse something by my hands or my legs, and something totally different by my balance! I pulled reins for stopping the horse. But my shoulders were ahead of the barycentre and this means "go"...and the horse walked faster instead of stopping!!!

I think your horse is a good guy who forgive you and understand you even though your balance is not correct...but in this way it is more difficult understanding in which way your balance is wrong. This means that you really need an instructor who can correct you!! If you don't have him, ask someone to take a movie of you while you are riding. A movie and a lot of photos :) :)

Go without stirrups, without spurs (i don't know if you use it usually), and without reins (it means that some1 has to hold the horse, of course!) and try moving (=communicating) the horse just by your balance. When you will do this walking, you can try trotting :)
It is not easy to do :)

Bye and sorry me again for my mistakes in english :( tell me if you have understood what I meant

Bareback would probably help a lot.

Do you have someone who knows enough to be able to lunge your horse while you are in the saddle? If so this would help you just concentrate on yourself and not controlling your horse.

Agreed with the comment about doing a lot of work without stirrups it really helps you establish your seat. If you have not done this before in trot it would be better to have someone running along side your horse or have someone lunging him as you may well need to hold the pommel of the saddle to help balance until you get used to it.

And I don't think it is too great of an idea to be jumping until you have better balance, it really isn't very safe for you and unnerving for the horse.

Bareback help a lot the rider, of course.
But if your weight isn't well shared on the horse back, the horse can became nervous (obviously, it depend on the horse and on the ratio "rider's weight/horse weight" )

The saddle help you to share your weight on the left and on the right, and it is more comfortable for the horse because when you bareback all your weight is just on its spinal column.

Some people say that it is not a real problem for the horse because the horse is always heavier and heavier than its human rider. Well, I don't think so. Usually, when we carry on something heavy, we prefer to share the weight a bit on the left and a bit on the right, doesn't we? I think the same is preferred by our friend horses :)

I think that a beginner, or more in general a person who has balance problems, shouldn't ride bareback.

Person who started the topic (i'm sorry, I don't remember your name :) ): have you got a good instructor or are you a self-made rider?

In addition to things already said, try doing some leg and core strengthening exercises when your off the horse. Good core and leg strength helps hold you up on your horse. If your horse lunges, do no stirrup work with your arms held straight out to your side. This will help you gain an independent seat and make sure you don't balance on your horses mouth.

As for balance problems over jumps, practice doing your jumping position at all three gaits. But my guess is that your problem is that your heels aren't flexed as much as the should.