Teaching a horse western style?

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MyBoyChe

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How easy is it to do. Also, if you teach them the aids for western style trail riding can you still ride them English style or do they find it really confusing to switch back? I have always fancied riding in a western saddle and have a lovely Highland pony who is a fabulous hack. We dont do anything more technical than in hand showing and hacking out so he would only need to learn the basics for safe riding but if Im going to do it, I want to do it properly, correct saddle and bridle etc. Anyone any experience they could share please?
 
Yes, it is possible, or so I am told. You wouldn't get to the heights with Western Riding, but I think I am right in saying that the Western Equestrian Society include English dressage classes at their shows. My horse was broken and ridden English style but I have tried Western and have the tack (and a saddle I want to sell! It is a bit too small for my 16.00). The horse didn't seem to have any trouble understanding what I wanted when ridden Western although I haven't done more than a few clinics and lessons.
 
Based on my experience with my horse, I found it very easy to teach him - I always said if I could teach him, any horse can learn; he's quite *difficult* and is 23 now. I found western seems more logical for them - pressure & release, weight transfer etc, although he never did like being ridden with a constant contact so not sure if that makes a difference? - not sure about the going back to english style though, as I tend to ride him western all the time now, and also have another western trained QH horse on loan.
 
I'm the opposite. Bought an American saddlebred who was ridden western. I tried her in an American saddle and bridle. She is being re schooled to English riding and am having dressage lessons. Her canter is still awful as no collection. The walk and trot felt appalling as it was almost a shuffle with high head carriage. On the plus side she was very supple due to the western riding and can do a super rein back!
 
The canter should be collected if done properly, as the horse has to respond instantly, and the collection is the weight of the reins. I have posted before about a wonderful picture I have of a horse being ridden western, with loose reins, doing the most perfect collected canter - but I guess that horse is being ridden by a wonderful, very famous american horseman.

Saddlebreds have a naturally high headcarriage, so be careful you work with that conformation and ask for stretch rather than long and low. I have made that mistake with an upheaded breed and found that I ended up with a horse on its forehand, rather than being allowed to develop with its own natural frame.

Extra racehorse - Sounds as though the previous owner of your horse wasn't getting the basics right. Saddlebreds have a very good reputation in the USA as being really trainable, and one USA trainer said she couldn't understand why more people didn't use them for pure dressage as they are althetic and co-operative.
 
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Thank you. Orangehorse, whereabouts are you based (pm if you prefer) You seem to know your stuff and I cant find anyone local to me who teaches or knows where I could go. Maybe you would know someone?
 
I have trained a few horses to neck rein which is what I assume you mean? (there are different types of western riding, I went to try one western trained horse and was shocked at how much work I had to do! I am used to the more 'working equitation' types) If the basics in English riding are correct there is no reason your horse won't get neck reining, in fact I believe in English riding it is correct to start horses with neck reining (indirect rein) and progress to direct rein (like when you turn left for example in English riding you touch the horse on the right of the neck with the indirect rein) and all horses should understand weight aids so it's simples :)
 
Start on youtube looking at Buck Brannaman videos. You need to connect the reins to the feet and this understanding takes time (or did for me) to get your head round it. There are plenty articles and videos online but without someone to guide you, it may be a little trickier.

Problem is with very good western riders, it is very difficult to see what they are doing as their aids are near invisible and their control of their horses feet is far, far superior than any english (including top level dressage riders) that I have seen.
 
I'm just starting to teach my Highland western as he responds well to weight aids and I do ride both western and English.

A well trained western horse is a joy to ride. I'm planning on doing both with my hipo as I'm also teaching him to jump and that isn't good in a western saddle, lol.

I have always ensured if I want to ride english I use English tack and in western I swop into western tack. I find my QH responds accordingly and his gait changes.
 
MyBoyChe said:
Thank you. Orangehorse, whereabouts are you based (pm if you prefer) You seem to know your stuff and I cant find anyone local to me who teaches or knows where I could go. Maybe you would know someone?
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Sorry, I am not an instructor, just been around a long time! The WES has a very good system for trainers, look on their website for local instructors.

As for schooling Upheaded horses - this isn't only the American breeds, but also applies to Arabs and there was a very good article in a magazine once by some very successful producers of Arabs, and they said that too many people tried to ride an arab like a TB or warmblood, but you have to work with their conformation. I have learnt to my cost that the "upheads" should be ridden in a slightly different manner - but then hardly any UK instructors would know that.
Of course, if you are doing Western the main horse there is the Quarter horse and they like to have their ears level with their withers!.
 
Yes it's possible to have a horse who rides both ways. My horse is western trained, trained that way because it suited his conformation and paces. He never got on with the traditional English style of riding where most instructors want you to pick up the front end and send them forward into the bridle, with the emphasis of lessons being on "outline". So he went western all his life and I schooled him well, you only have to think of a movement and he will do it. My friend who rides classical dressage on her horse hopped on him, gave him some weight aids and light leg aids to collect him up and had him trotting round the arena looking like a lusitano, all on a loose rein. Wish I'd had a camera. Nobody else I've let ride him can get him to move much at all, so I'd say the classical and western riding styles are very similar with the same end result - a light, balanced, responsive horse in self carriage - just with a different frame/outline. With his build and the low headcarriage, my friend had been expecting him to be heavy and on the forehand and was pleasantly surprised to discover he wasn't.
 
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