USA v UK horse-keeping

You mean like the barn I was at? ;) It was anything but a fancy show barn.

It is true that lots of people who primarily trail ride use a western saddle, but to say that English riding is 'uncommon' in CO is simply not the case. It obviously depends on who you know and where you ride. I could say that reining is uncommon in CO, as I don't know a single person who reins, but I know that is patently untrue. I just didn't run in those circles.
 
I wasn't suggesting it was fancy, and I knew other english riders. Obviously someone had to teach me, though she has since quit riding english as well. My mother happens to live next door to a woman who is a top rated dressage rider/trainer so I got to take a few lessons with her (and that was an eye-opener). And for a brief period there was an eventing instructor who gave lessons at one of my barns, but she moved on because few people could afford lessons or wanted to show.

However, if you don't show in Colorado you will be extremely unlikely to meet an english rider. Which is exactly why I added the disclaimer about my riding experience. I had to go out to Parker to see any of this when I was growing up. This isn't the case if you ride western though.
 
I trained out of a barn in Larkspur in the mid 80's and it was the only "english" barn in the area, but there were plenty of dressage and eventing riders around. I used to board my horses over near Monument and got laughed at for riding in that "itty bitty saddle": they were sure I would fall off going uphill for some reason.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top