Dressage saddles - do they improve your marks?!

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Broomsticks

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Hi all,

Just a musing really for those have you that have gone from a GP to a dressage saddle.

Did you find you instantly got better DR marks, just from being in a more correct position? Or even just for looking the part?

Also, do you always sit trot in a test once you had a DR saddle? even if it is only prelim / BE100 level?

and finally, do you think it improved your horses paces / way of going?

thank you :)
 
I think if a horse is going well and the rider is riding well the type of saddle is irrelevant however, a dressage saddle does put you in a better position hence the reason everyone uses them!
I personally wouldnt expect to see anyone doing a prelim test in sitting trot - its not till medium that you have to do sitting trot so its fairly unnecessary unless you are far more comfortable sitting.
I dont think the dr saddle directly improves the horse but certainly improves my leg position which in turn improves the way of going for dr purposes.
 
I would like to think that a judge wouldn't give you marks just for having a dressage saddle but...
When I was do a bit of writing for a judge she did mention that the rider was riding very short, incorrect, blah blah...
the rider was a very good rider but was riding in one of those event saddles with blocks so couldn't have really long stirrups and got marked down for position.
 
In dressage, riders are marked on their posture, position and style of riding. So, yes....to a degree, moving to a dressage saddle will get you better marks as it will allow you to sit in more of an appropriate and correct position but the better marks are due to a number of knock on affects IMO.

If you think about it, a jumping saddle helps the rider into the correct jumping position and a dressage saddle vice versa. Dressage saddles help you sit to the gait and wrap your legs round, and help clarify your aids (whilst the position it gives you means they are subtle to the eye).

As for a saddle improving your horses way of going, I would say it is a snowball affect from the improvement and correcting of the riders position. I would find sitting in anything other than a dressage saddle very difficult (and not just due to a 34" leg!), GP & Jumping saddles push your hips and pelvis up in order for the knees to be brought up and forward.....
 
I have done a lot of writing for Dressage Judges and the majority of them comment that the horses would go a lot better if their riders rose to the trot especially as it is still permitted in the lower levels.

If you are getting a Dressage saddle do check that it is not so extreme that you have to take your legs off and put them back on the wrong way :D.

Sometimes people treat themselves to a really good saddle but are not able to keep their seat in it and end up with a very intermittent contact and throwing marks away.

It seems that horses will often give a much freer canter transition in a dressage saddle
 
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I think they def help!! I don't think I could go back to riding in a GP now, I have really long legs so the dressage saddle really allows me to lengthen them and use them properly which I could never do in a GP as it just didn't offer enough support. I am very spoilt though and have a lovely jumping saddle as well which I also use for hacking. Def worth the investment- you can pick really good second hand ones up really cheap too! :)
 
I think it depends on the horse, the rider and the level you are working at! Oh and the saddle! I bought a dressage saddle for my little arab when I had to have a year off jumping and we were really focused on his flatwork, however budget only allowed a fairly old fashionned saddle that didn't really offer any support. Its fine, but I don't think it helps my position much really. Our marks improved that year but that was probably more due to working on our flat rather than the saddle! Eecently that saddle isn't really fitting him any more so I am selling it and rather than replacing atm I am doing dressage in our albion XC saddle - not being funny but we are eventing all summer at BE80/90 level and the tests are so straightforward that I really don't think it makes a difference to our marks. My instructor is a dressage judge and she said she only really notices the saddle at prelim/novice level if she thinks its a problem eg rider not sitting straight, stirrups too long/short etc. But that can equally happen in either style of saddle. My youngster is also in a GP all the time at the moment, as we are only prelim level with him.
In the autumn I am hoping to get a better dressage saddle (interested in the wintec isabel werth) for my arab, and then come next spring may look to change the youngster's GP for more specific jumping/dressage saddles too but right now I don't think the quality of dressage saddle I could afford would make any difference at the level of test I am riding, if that makes any sense?! Sorry have waffled on loads! In summary I guess what I am saying is in my opinion for me and m horses, my big moving youngster will benefit from a dressage saddle once we move up to novice tests hopefully end of this year, and my older one will be doing novice/elementary over the winter and will want a dressage saddle again then, but for prelim level I don't think its really necessary!
 
I now ride my mare in a dressage saddle and she seems to be alot better in it, more relaxed and really strides out and stretches, personally i think its because it gives her shoulder more freedom - she has alot of shoulder, and it helps me as am tall with long legs it helps my position. Problem is my GP is not cut forward enough for me for jumping so i may have to invest in a jumping saddle too for hacking purposes aswell as jumping :rolleyes:
 
To a degree. I tend to ride better in a dressage saddle so my aids are more precise and thus my effect on the horse is better, etc ...
However I have one horse that I rode with a fitted dressage saddle, but for some reason I didnt gel with the saddle at all. My lower leg actually destabilised and it felt very odd (doubly odd as I have the same saddle model for a larger horse and love it, hence going dor that one!) ... Our dressage was okay, but our marks went up as soon as I got him a GP, because I was riding that much better. Weird.
 
I think if its a toss up between lessons, training or a saddle - lessons are going to get ur basics right which are where alot of people struggle and for lower levels - BE90/BE100 I think a dressage saddle isnt essential IMO. I have read WFP book where he went to his first european champs as a jnr with only a snaffle bridle and a jump saddle - good enough for him, good enough for me!! As much as trends have changed the basics of a well schooled horse havent.

For being a dressage writer for BE - a lot of marks are actually lost by inaccurate riding of the test. I think thats an area where alot of marks can be picked up.
 
Im the opposite to all you very very lucky ladies with long legs!! Im only 5'2 and my lad is a 17hh dutch warmblood, complete lump!! In a GP saddle i did manage OK but because my legs are so short i couldnt really use them, they were too far up hes sides, now i only ride him in a Dressage saddle and because it allows me to have long stirrups, my legs are in a much better position, he is 100% better. Cannot ride him in a GP at all now! Or any other horse for that matter! Will be funny when i start jumping the new boy is hes GP :o Sore backside springs to mind! x
 
My GP is quite forward cut and I find riding a bit longer in it quite hard. Sitting trot is also hard. I like to ride quite short and the GP incourages me to do that so I end up tipping forward.
 
Make sure the DR saddle really does fit YOU as well as the horse. I had a DR saddle that I got worse marks in than my XC saddle because the twist was too wide for me so I found it uncomfortable and didn't ride as effectively as I did when I was in the XC saddle
 
A dressage saddle, if correctly fitted and comfortable for the rider, should put you in a better position and free up the horse's shoulder to let him move more freely. If you have never ridden your horse in one before, when you put a well fitting one on him, you should be able to feel the difference on the shoulder area and his paces should feel a bit 'bigger' i.e. he can move with a bit more freedom in the front legs (hence why they help for lengthening the strides in medium trot/medium canter).

However if you dont get one that is properly fitted - that will do more harm than good. And if you get one that fits the horse well, but you dont feel comfortable sitting in - again that will do more harm than good. Dressage saddles are all slightly different depending on what brand you go for, and what size seat you have (the gullet part is what fits the horse, the seat size e.g. 17.5 does relate the size of the horse and length of its back, but also how big your bum is and how much 'seat' you want!). The knee rolls vary massively, some riders love big knee rolls to keep them in place, others (like me) find big knee rolls quite painful/uncomfortable and are better with a smaller knee roll. The cantle height also varies, some are shallower whereas others are deeper giving you a deeper seat and putting you in place more.

So you need to try lots of them to be 100% sure you are comfortable in it - you will feel funny at first in any dressage saddle, you do sit quite differently to what you would in a GP - but you get used to that after a while. I cant actually ride in a GP anymore as I feel like I'm tipping forward, I'm so used to DR saddles I cant sit properly in anything else!

And as everyone else has said - dont feel just because you are in a dressage saddle that you need to be in sitting trot all the time. I see that mistake a lot at the competition venue where I work, you get people showing up with their new dressage saddles thinking they look fancy doing sitting trot! Sitting trot, in a horse that is fairly new to dressage and working at a low level (i.e. Prelim/Novice) needs as much help as it can get with allowing the back to swing and giving them the freedom to move, they dont need a slightly bouncy rider on top blocking their movement! If you watch professional riders, they all do rising trot as much as they can, the warm up will always be in rising trot then if they are at a level where they have to sit in the test they will, but now the rules have changed to allow rising trot for the medium trot movements at certain levels they will always take advantage of that where possible as rising trot opens up the movement.
 
Mark Todd still rode his dressage at 4* in a jumping saddle! For eventing the advice is often get a good jumping saddle for everything rather than a GP of 'Event' saddle, and progress to a dressage saddle when you can afford 2. I do think it helps put me in a better position and makes my aids clearer though. I have an Ideal Jessica and I love it. I tried some more modern ones with huge blocks and it felt like my hips were being pushed out of their sockets! I wouldn't go as far as to say they improve marks though.
 
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