English-to-Western riders . . .

[Pocket_Pony]

So for those of us who have ridden english and now are interested in western, what have you liked/disliked? What challenges have you faced versus what has been easy for you?

Challenges for me:

• Saddle fitting - it is really confusing and difficult!
• Getting used to riding in an western saddle
• Finding the type of trainer/instructor I'd like to work with (but I did find one and I'm inspired and thrilled)
• Changing things about my riding - it is hard to change old habits! (but again, this is a good thing)

Likes:

• I will admit, I think my horse looks pretty cute in his western tack and it "fits" him more than my english tack does
• Learning ground work and how to develop feel and timing - it has really improved my eye for many things
• Going to fun clinics where I can work on all sorts of stuff, not just riding (obstacles, trail stuff, cows!)

• Learning how to work with the mind of my horses, to get them mentally in a good place

Does anyone do both? I go back and forth between riding my mustang western and riding my pony in my jumping saddle. I did try my western tack on my pony once and she looked cuter than a bug’s ear, but alas my saddle didn’t fit her, so I’m sticking with my jumping saddle for now. If I can get a saddle or two sold, I might look for a used western saddle for her.

[js]

Actually, Western to English to both now.

Likes of Western - I can wear jeans and cowboy boots. I will forever be a jeans person.
I’ve had far less saddle fitting issues with Western than English.

Dislikes of Western - saddles are so heavy, my poor old worn out shoulders and wrists cannot take the heavy saddles, even the barrel racing saddles. Heck even the saddle pads can be heavy.

English Likes - saddles are so light weight!

English dislikes - breeches do not flatter my shape and my shape is not made to wear breeches. Tall boots, quasi uncomfortable no matter how broken in.

For riding, I really don’t care which I ride as long as I get to ride. I feel a bit more “safe” riding western, a little more saddle to hold you in and a horn to grab but have loved riding English both H/J and dressage.

[Foxglove]

I foxhunt and ride a reiner --actually, I foxhunt on my reiner. He and I both go back and forth depending on what we are doing. However, I no longer work with instructors or trainers being too much of a fossil to care about how I ride as long as I don’t fall off. I prefer the comfort of my western saddle, but prefer the weight of my English saddle. To the horror of my DD, I ride my English saddle with my western bridle (snaffle bit) because I like the reins better (thick rope). I ride both English and Western (at home or on the trail) in breeches, Ariat all-terrain, and gaitors --with a helmet. I foxhunt in formal attire. It’s all good. I always wear a helmet and use gloves. My horse is a boxy little QH who looks good in whatever he’s tacked up in.

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/foxgloveweeks/P9210018_zps39af4944.jpg

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/foxgloveweeks/P8300306.jpg

Foxglove

[NoSuchPerson]

I ride both western and English (H/J).

The thing I most dislike about western is the heavy saddle. My mule is pretty big and I’m pretty short, and I can just barely manage to toss that thing up there.

The thing that I most love about western is the lightness, responsiveness, and general “handiness” that my western-trained mule has, both on the ground and under saddle. There’s a real joy in riding an equine with a “handle” like that.

The thing I most dislike about riding English is the difficulty of finding a trainer who isn’t batshit crazy and can support my personal goals. :lol:

The thing I love most about English is jumping. I love the feel of my horse, moving underneath me as he canters across the jump field on a light contact, and getting the strides and timing just right as I come down a line (because that almost never happens ).

[NoSuchPerson]

[QUOTE=Foxglove;8704096]
To the horror of my DD, I ride my English saddle with my western bridle (snaffle bit) because I like the reins better (thick rope). [/QUOTE]

Good thing she can’t see me in my western saddle and Micklem bridle.

[sorrelfilly721]

I show dressage and barrel race on the same pony. My riding career started out “hunt seat” and I found dropping my reins and lots of leather a bit challenging when I started to ride western. Later, when I began riding dressage, I remember an instructor saying “are your pinkies inside those reins?” to which I replied “of course”! “Get them out of there!” she replied. Also, learning to cue for canter with the inside leg was a challenge. I now feel discombobulated when I get on a western horse and have to ask for canter with my outside leg

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

Challenges:
Dismounting without hooking something I"m wearing on the horn (thanks to COTH I now know to put a hand over the horn).
Mounting without a block. Yes, I know it’s possible to use a mounting block when riding western. But apparently no one on the ranch horse circuit I show in has ever heard of one.
Learning to ride a horse who uses a curb and expects me to use one hand.

Likes:
Who knew? Men actually ride horses. And show horses. And lots of them are pretty easy on the eyes.
If you can’t find a mounting block you can usually substitute one of the above-mentioned and have him heave you into the saddle, er, I mean, assist you in mounting your horse. :lol:

[SendenHorse]

I have a western trail saddle, but I don’t really ride western per say, but I have had a terrible time getting the right western saddle pad for my short backed dressage pony.

[Pocket_Pony]

Love your horse, Foxglove!

NSP, I also notice the “handiness” about western horses. In my so-far limited experience, there’s a difference in contact and the idea of self-carriage. In a clinic I recently rode in, the clinician was saying to the students (I wasn’t in that group) that he wants to be able to do all his work on this contact - which was with a big ole loop in the reins! He wants to set his horse on a course of action and have the horse stay on that course until the rider tells him otherwise. So for a circle, start the circle, but let your horse do the work to finish it. In my english experience - especially dressage - there’s more micro-managing and contact going on and managing of every step. I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that is one of the differences I’ve noticed.

In some other lessons I’ve taken, we’re working on things that are so slight that have never before been discussed with me in my 30 years of riding english. It is changing the way I ride and I’m seeing interesting results.

SendenHorse, I like the Toklat barrel shaped pads for my western saddle. They are shorter than a square pad and have nice wither relief and are flexible enough that if they are a bit long for your short-backed horse, then won’t be rubbing the flank.

[SendenHorse]

thanks, I’ll have to see if I can do a round pad since I have a square saddle.

[HorsesinHaiti]

Learned in hunt seat, rode Haitian ponies in a mixed-turned-western system, now a re-rider in English.
But the county barn I returned to now has all horses that go both ways. So I’m riding English in breeches and tall boots and laced leather reins but the horses demand that even two handed contact be Western looped rein light- in light English leather reins!

So my biggest dislike is getting just plain confused at the mishmash feel of a different mishmash from what I’m used to.

[Palm_Beach]

Western is much harder and also superior to English. The horses are much better trained and more responsive. The Western disciplines rely on a more logical and progressive training program, from the ground up, whereas the English tend to just move forward without breaking down training into building-block types steps like Western riders and trainers do.

[NoSuchPerson]

[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8706057]
Western is much harder and also superior to English. The horses are much better trained and more responsive. The Western disciplines rely on a more logical and progressive training program, from the ground up, whereas the English tend to just move forward without breaking down training into building-block types steps like Western riders and trainers do.[/QUOTE]

If I buy you a box of wine, will you go over and post that on the dressage forum? :lol:

[Pocket_Pony]

[QUOTE=SendenHorse;8705921]
thanks, I’ll have to see if I can do a round pad since I have a square saddle.[/QUOTE]

They make square pads, too . . .

http://www.ridingwarehouse.com/Toklat_WoolBack_Western_Saddle_Pad_Contoured_28X28/descpage-TW28SSP.html

[Pocket_Pony]

[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8706057]
Western is much harder and also superior to English. The horses are much better trained and more responsive. The Western disciplines rely on a more logical and progressive training program, from the ground up, whereas the English tend to just move forward without breaking down training into building-block types steps like Western riders and trainers do.[/QUOTE]

Don’t know how those in the upper levels of any english sport would agree with that, but I do understand what you are saying about responsiveness and the level of training and behavior that is expected.

When I was riding h/j, I was at a training barn and there was one western rider there. He had a bunch of reiners but for some reason kept just one at this barn (no other western riders there) - maybe he was friends with the BO, I don’t know. Anyway, he was going to have surgery and asked me if I’d ride his reiner a couple times while he recovered. I was flattered and jumped at the chance. He put me on the horse and gave me a lesson and it was so much fun! One day when I was riding the horse in the arena - bareback, no less - I said “whoa” and boy did I get a WHOA! I forgot that on a horse trained like that, whoa actually means something, not just “could you maybe please slow down or at least think about it.” I nearly went flying over his shoulder, but did manage to stay on.

Now that I’m working with a western trainer, I am finding more of a progression for the specific thing we are working on. He wants the horse to follow a thought and then move his feet toward that thought. Just a thought. It is a building block. Then under saddle, he wants the horse to again follow the thought . . . my thought as expressed through my rein aids. So we’re working on flexions (and it isn’t about bringing the nose to my knee, it is just enough flexion at the poll so that I can see that eye). But just a flexion isn’t enough. The horse can turn its head but still not be following a thought, so I wait on it until I get the feel to come with it. It is a prick of the ears, a look in the eye. My rein aids aren’t pulling to create bend (a simplified way of putting it), they are opening forward to follow the feel I’m offering. I’m sure it looks very odd as we iron out the kinks (just started this on Saturday!), but it is working to make my horse softer and straighter.

Anyway, that was a bit of a sidetrack! I’m enjoying the change of styles very much and am so happy to have been given this person’s name by a fellow COTHer.

[sirbeastmom]

Likes:

• The clothing is so much more comfortable and practical!
• Fun show attire.
• Working cattle. I miss jumping, but omg working cows is so fun.
• Riding Western has made me a stronger, more balanced, more thoughtful rider. (This has nothing to do with the discipline in general, just my experience).
• I was surprised by how well horses behaved in Western show environments, where a meltown would go down if the same thing happened at an English show (people tying horses to arena rails, looping reins over horns and simply walking away because the horse was expected to not move, parking horses >thisclcose< togehter, etc.)
• Western becomes a total lifestyle.

Challenges

• Very difficult to find a lesson program. There are trainers, but very few have programs similar to English lesson programs. There aren’t schooling horses; you can only take lessons if your horse is in training.
• Saddle fitting is a PITA.
• Ridig with one hand. It’s difficult for me to be as sensitive with one hand (and no pinky leverage) as I am with two.
• Learning to ride with little contact. This was ultimately a pro, as it taught my horse (and me) better self carriage, but it was a difficult transition!
• Getting rid of my hunter butt and learning to with my tailbone tucked under. Similarly, learning to shift the majority of my weight from my heels and lower leg to my seat.

[rainpants]

[QUOTE=sirbeastmom;8706651]
Likes:

• I was surprised by how well horses behaved in Western show environments, where a meltown would go down if the same thing happened at an English show (people tying horses to arena rails, looping reins over horns and simply walking away because the horse was expected to not move, parking horses >thisclcose< togehter, etc.) [/QUOTE]

This is a big one. At a reined cow horse show, a horse pulled back and snapped his halter. Ran around like an idiot, wouldn’t be caught. Instead of people yelling “loose horse” and ineffectually trying to help, one of the riders says “I was roping last night, rope is in the truck.”

So he ropes the horse (owner okayed it) and the loose horse was caught no problem.

Every loose horse situation like that I’ve seen at an English show has been a shitshow.

I switched early - rode english from 8-12, then switched to Western as a teen. Now as an adult, I’ve started foxhunting (and like another poster - on my reining horse, she doesn’t rein anymore though, foxhunting and Extreme cowboy for us!) and now my 5 year old gelding is showing jumpers this summer… and probably some Extreme Cowboy.

The biggest change wasn’t English to Western from me… it was Western Pleasure to reining. OMG was that eye opening.

[Palm_Beach]

[QUOTE=NoSuchPerson;8706410]
If I buy you a box of wine, will you go over and post that on the dressage forum? :lol:[/QUOTE]

Feel free to do it for me! I just would not feel like following the thread once I posted it. BOOOOOORRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

[Pocket_Pony]

One could title that thread, “Palm Beach says western is superior to english” and then copy /paste her quote. … and then duck and run for cover!

[Quelah]

[QUOTE=SendenHorse;8705921]
thanks, I’ll have to see if I can do a round pad since I have a square saddle.[/QUOTE]

You can custom order Toklat fleece pads in any dimension you like