It's a matter of balance, I hear....

The other day the stable owner took a couple of us out on some trails behind the barn ... we were trying to use this beautiful weather to our best advantage. One part of the trail involved crossing a ditch and going up a small but quite steep hill. Hank did fine, but I nearly lost it - one foot out of the stirrups and a lot of muffled screeches as I tried to maintain my seat.

So today, I tried to work on my balance. The only way I know how to do that is ride bareback. Do you know of any other exercises that will keep me balanced? I like bareback but I'm not too comfortable trotting bareback - I can feel his spine flexing under my behind and it feels like a bamboo pole - it's probably just me being neurotic, but I feel like I'm going to hurt him, bouncing up and down like that without a saddle to even out the weight over an area of his back.

Go ahead, tell me I'm neurotic...