Following on from SS thread... who has tried western riding?

ldlp111 said:
oo where you going barrel racing to? Would love to try this with mine but doesn't seem to be much in south west :(
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Are you on a yard with a decent sized school, we organised a fun one just for the yard and it was hilarious. not surprisingly a games pony won, but all the horses mostly in English had a great time? We had to reduce the width between the first 2 barrels as our school wasn't wide enough to use the correct width, but the run down the far barrel was correct!
 
Do love a bit of western riding! I discovered it 6 years ago and have trained a few horses to it too from ex race horses to my current youngster. All my horses neck rein and I taught my welshy to spin and do sliding stops which were great fun(She's pretty good at rounding up sheep now on the moor! lol) It's not everyone's cup of tea but really recommend just giving it a go. Its a shame a few people look down on us who do western but I always find western riders are the most friendliest bunch who are always up for a laugh! We are all normally very laid back too :D Here's a few pics of my welshy in her western tack and my cleveland bay X youngster who has taken to western training brilliantly! She has lost weight since that pic though!!



Hoping pics will work, been struggling uploading pics in the last few months!
 
burtie said:
Are you on a yard with a decent sized school, we organised a fun one just for the yard and it was hilarious. not surprisingly a games pony won, but all the horses mostly in English had a great time? We had to reduce the width between the first 2 barrels as our school wasn't wide enough to use the correct width, but the run down the far barrel was correct!
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Not on a yrad i'm afraid but I am on the riding club committee so trying to see if they think other members would be interested :)
 
I have :) spent 6 weeks on a farm in canada and we had full use of their 5 horses to play on!! Fantastic time!! Although i did bottle it on one of their horses... A 20 yr old english tb who thought 2 legs was better than 4 and i wasnt sure just how much i could handle in a western saddle had i have been in an english saddle i would have carried on!! But riding the quatre horses in the western saddles was awesome!! We used them to round up a head of 200 loose cattle one day aswell soo much fun!! Would love to go back!!
 
I switched to western riding last year after loosing my confidence and now own a quarter horse gelding who is by far the best horse I could have ever hoped to have. I have been riding near market harborough for the last year riding on hacks, having lessons and attending clinics. I love it! I enjoy the seat position with the long leg, I love having a contact that is light in the hand and Charlie pony is so chilled and relaxed riding is always enjoyable. We are now working on improving his jog (a lovely slow trot that is easy to sit to for hours) so that we can do some western dressage competitions this winter. I would certainly recommend trying it for yourself! :)
 
Looking over the Great Continental Divide in Montana.

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A very bitterwseet memory for me, as I had just found out the day before that ride that my dad had succumbed to the leukaemia he had been fighting for the previous 18 months (it was his wish that I didn't cut my "holiday of a lifetime" short if anything happened while I was away).

I loved trail riding in the US. The saddle really gave me confidence to canter when I hadn't had much experience of cantering in the past (this was prior to me getting my own horse)
 
I did some in the USA. Went to ride with Mark Rashid a few times, then went to stay with a friend, then went back to do some clinics, and was then invited to ride some cutters. This was in a cutting comp, where as a professional horse trainer in England I had to enter the pro class for cutters too.

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I did look for somewhere in England to continue cutting, but was told that we don't do it in England as people are too scared that the cows will get hot.
 
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(My chap in his tack )

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I'm the one on the left of the photo chasing cows!

I've done it a few times in Arizona and really enjoyed it. So much so that we accidentally bought a saddle which came back in our luggage (oops!). I much prefer to ride western as I naturally sit with a straighter leg. I want to do more western with my chap as he is much more suited to western than English trouble is there doesn't seem to be much around my way in deepest darkest south devon! :0(
 
I rode western while on holiday in Bulgaria this year. I felt that the saddle was very secure, good job too with some of the terrain we rode on, it was tricky enough to dismount intentionally so I'm not sure if I could have left the saddle unintentionally.
I didn't find the saddle very comfy though, it felt too wide in the twist for me. Mind you I was in the saddle for 6 - 8 hours a day.

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