Science VS tradition: Level riding CONTEST

Do you ever have the problem when riding your horse.

The feeling like you are off balance.

Leaning to one side more than the other.

What is the way to fix this?
Ride with no stirrups, have a coach yelling at you to lean over to the other side, just try, try, try so hard to sit strait only to still lean on your dominant side. Impossible right?

For most people this is the right. A larger percentage of people are right handed and thus right sided so they lean on their right leg when given a pair of stirrups.

The remedy that does work is riding bareback. Bareback will give you a sense of balance, and if you are young and learning to ride you'll learn a sense of the ground too but not all of us want to risk falling off, especially on a horse that might be prone to spooks, jumps or taking off.

These are the traditional ways of learning centered riding. Sure it works but not everyone wants to ride bareback or has a pair of eyes on the ground ready to shout the second you start leaning.

There is one simple solution to all this and one lucky winner will get it.

It is this neat little invention called the Level Rider. I recieved one a year ago and boy let me tell you this is a neat little invention. I have any new rider take a spin with this baby. Even older experienced riders. They all say the same thing "I lean to the ______"

Essentially it is a level, like one you would use on a construction project, for your saddle. It is so accurate you can press one seat bone down in your saddle and the bubble will move.

It comes in Western.

Image belongs to levelrider.com

Or hornless/endurance.

Image belongs to levelrider.com

At first I found I wanted to look at it all the time. I started sitting straiter in the saddle and had a similar balance to when I ride bareback. The second I place my feet in the stirrups of a saddle I tend to lean just a bit to the right, my more dominant side. When I thought I had myself corrected I looked at the level rider and oops, I was wrong.

After a wile of riding with this neat invention I found I looked at it less and less, eventually only having to glance down after a bit. I really did ride straiter. My vice is leaning a bit forward from riding bareback so much I got sloppy. It's the muscle memory that is hard to break. The level rider helps me break that

See I think we all have vices when it comes to riding. Some are more extreme than others.
I know I have ridden in friends english saddles where the stirrup leathers were noticeably longer than the other, but were on the same hole. They were stretched from leaning to one side.

The show last weekend that I was taking these pictures at, every single rider leaned to one side. Some were worse than others. Some were hardly noticeable at all. I got it all on camera.

So get to the point right? How do you get entered to receive a neat little piece of riding science like this?

1. You must be a follower of this blog
2. Tell me what your physical riding vice is. It could be your seat, hands, heels pop up? where you look, do you hunch over or fall behind the horses center of gravity? Lets hear it! (1 Entry)
3. Make mention on your own blog about this contest and the level rider because it's such a neat piece of equipment I don't know why someone hasn't thought of it before. We need to spread the word. Make sure to leave a link to the post (1 entry)

So hear that, two ways to be entered into this contest.

CONTEST ENDS MAY 27th 2010 AT MIDNIGHT
I will select a winner via random generator.

So get cracking, tell your friends. We need to get this neat, new product out there in the world.

Oh and if you have any ideas for an English version of the level rider please do send them into the level rider site. The creator would love to hear them.