05/10/2026
When I was a boy the greatest complement someone on a horse could receive was being called a horseman, and at that time the term was inclusive of women. It was also a vailed insult to be called a rider in certain circumstances, meaning you were not a horseman. For example, in a hunt Field if someone could not control their horse and bumped into you, you might say to them, "You are quite a rider".
To become a horseman, you must learn the fundamentals of horsemanship. Many of these principles are very detailed. One fundamental of balance when riding is the 5 degree rule. A rider must not lean back in the saddle more that 5 degrees.
Why? Because any greater lean than 5 degrees will potentially unbalance your horse. This is because once you lean beyond 5 degrees, you will have moved your center of balance away from your horse's center of balance to the point that your horse will very often have to rebalance themself, which is a disruption to a horse that a horseman always avoids.
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The left image is of Étienne Beudant, a great French horseman and cavalryman. He is leaning back 5 degrees, which can subtly amplify a rider's seat aids. On the right is a modern dressage rider leaning back approximately 8 degrees.
You might say that leaning back 3 more degrees in insignificant. Many people today think so but that is because they are riders, not horsemen. Horsemanship is a state of mind that truly cares for a horse with great specificity in order to make a horse as comfortable as possible when they are doing their job for you.
There is no room in horsemanship for the phrase "close enough". Sure, horsemen fail to maintain this high standard at times, but when they do they try harder. I offer a spoken apology to my horse when I fail and I disrupt their work.
Horsemanship takes years to learn. We cannot expect it of students who are learning. But we can teach them the fundamental principles, including why these principles are important and how failing to apply them makes a horse's life more difficult.
The pictures show longitudinal or hind to front leaning. The same is true of lateral or side to side leaning, in fact leaning more than 5 degrees laterally on a slope with challenging footing can put your horse down on the ground.
I am writing this for all the supposed "caring" riders who will buy their horse a new blanket every winter, purchase the most expensive feed and supplements, and have people like body workers come for their horse all the time, who think that they are showing there horse how deeply they care. But if they really cared, the way a horseman does, they would improve their riding and stop unbalancing their horses, making their work increasingly difficult.
