Your mother was right: Sit right and spare your back. And now scientists at the equine behavior research center at the University of Rennes have confirmed it: Poor posture can be a real pain in the back–not just for you, but for your horse.

By comparing certain riding positions of amateur equestrians and the neck positions of their mounts to the kind of back pain those horses experienced while in the stall, the researchers concluded that how you ride makes a big difference in equine welfare.

"Our data infers that improper riding postures have a strong effect on horses' postures at work that also lead to chronic vertebral problems," said Clemence Lesimple, PhD candidate, researcher at the University of Rennes in northwestern France, and primary author of the study.

Lesimple and her colleagues studied 19 horses in two riding centers as they were exercised during beginners' riding courses. The positions of the riders' hands and legs, and those of the horses' necks, were recorded, as well as the kinds of corrections given by the riding instructor. The horses' back pain at rest was evaluated by two independent equine chiropractors (whose conclusions were 94% consistent with each other)