As long as you have long hair and lipstick and ride real fast, no one will really know what you look like!
Oh my gosh yes. I actually took my western saddle home and have been schooling in my dressage saddle, even though we show western dressage. I got tired of lugging it from the tack room all the way down to the other end of the barn where the cross ties are. Plus getting it back into my tack locker was a huge hassle. I also kind of hate tacking up with it. My mare is 16 hands, and I can never seem to to get it in the right spot, or not have the girth and stirrups end up under it on the first try.
For carting a saddle around, have you considered one of these?
We have one in the wash room and one in each tack locker, that also serves as a saddle stand in there, along with a regular stationary saddle stand:
https://www.statelinetack.com/item/r…ck-cart/BRL30/
Those make carting saddles around so, so much easier.
We like the ones with solid rubber tires best.
They have all kinds of those out there.
No flats in them.
omg that’s exactly how I feel! Lolz
- Saddle is too heavy
- The horn gets in the way ( as mentioned above)
- its bulky
- Unlike English, you feel less of a bond because you can’t feel the horse under you that well
but other than that, I really like western:)
So…why are y’all riding western? Don’t be all hat and no cowboy. 
It’s part of the job, but even there, I use my English saddle every chance I can.
Don’t necessarily have to look punchy to work cattle and caps don’t blow in the wind like cowboy hats do.:lol:
For those having an issue with saddle weight and swinging it up onto your horse:
Try taking your cinches off when you unsaddle and don’t put them back on until you’ve got your saddle up on him.
I know it doesn’t seem like the front and back cinch would make any difference but it does help a little bit in weight. And it’s one less thing in the way even if you lay your cinches over the seat or hang them on your offside keeper.
I ride dressage, just now in a Western saddle because Fella was so challenging to fit an English saddle to. The first Western saddle I tried I had exactly the feeling you are describing. However, over time, I’ve learned that Western saddles are very different from each other. I ride in one now where the fenders are right under my hips, the contact is close, and I ride with a long dressage leg.
Paula
I went Western after, having thought I’d finally found Fella an English saddle that fit, I tried a friend’s endurance saddle hoping to participate in some Western Dressage, and got a thoroughly new horse. So I said, “I guess we’re Western now”. Did that about 2 years ago. I couldn’t go back to traditional dressage tack now anyway because he absolutely loves his one-ear, no noseband, no throat latch headstall, and I adore my split reins.
Paula
I don’t have room for one of those. 
Its a large boarding barn, and each of us have a locker that is just wide enough for our saddles with one saddle rack in it.
It seems the weight of the saddle is the biggest problem. Hard for me too and I think he would freak if the saddle came flying out of nowhere and thumped down on his back! Jeezus, WTF was that??? The saddle horn saved my butt last year when he did a duck, spin and mini bolt. I was the most surprised of all that I stayed on. Went on to ride for my best score to that date!
