Living in North Central Florida (after spending 18 years in West Palm Beach) I noticed that there still is a discipline bias when it comes to different riding styles. So many visitors to The Oaks of Lake City are hesitant to come, ride or sign up for lessons because their child has ridden western, for example, they are afraid that the staff will be prejudice against them and will not teach them enthusiastically. They drive up to The Oaks and see our beautiful 11 acre cross country course and think that if they are not English riders or jumping riders they will not ‘fit in’. Frequently, I will hear potential students or home site buyers describe their riding experience as ‘not that type or riding’, or ‘we just ride western’.

To me, the basic goal of riding a horse is pretty simple…keep one leg on each side of the beast and keep him moving forward and stopping and turning left and right on command. When I got my first horse, she didn’t come with a saddle and my parents told me that I would get one eventually. That didn’t stop me from climbing onto the back of that Quarter Horse bareback (using a fence or rain barrel) with a halter and exploring every arena, every trail that I could find through the woods of Marietta, Georgia.

When I did get to ride in a saddle I really didn’t notice what kind it was, and I didn’t think to ask. Some were flat, some had deep seats, some had a funny thing sticking up in the front (a horn). They all had stirrups and they were all held on by a girth. I learned the parts of the tack lingo later, much later after finally getting a riding lesson.

Now, I am not going to get into the history and science of each discipline (don’t get me started as this is one of my favorite subjects) but I will try and share with you my experiences of riding each discipline (or seat) and let you come to your own conclusions.

Western riding is done in a saddle that has a horn and lots of straps. The idea being that the western rider can strap useful things to the saddle for working with cows (like a riata and hobbles) or carry a bedroll or a water canteen. The western rider usually wears jeans that are tighter and long enough to cover their western boots. Baggy or slouchy jeans are not usually comfortable when riding in this saddle. Riding this seat the rider learns the walk, jog, and lope (which in English is called a walk, trot and canter). Western saddles are also used on gaited horses like Missouri Fox trotters as well.

Hunt Seat riding is done in an English saddle that has flaps that the rider’s knee rests on. The rider’s leg is bent unlike in the western saddle for the purpose of getting higher out of the saddle when jumping over an obstacle. This rider learns the walk, trot, canter and hand gallop (which in western is called the walk, jog, lope, and gallop). The hunt seat rider will wear riding pants and boots that go up to the knee (or boots and half-chaps).

Dressage seat riding is also done in an English saddle that usually has a longer, straighter flap so that the rider’s leg hangs longer underneath the rider (resembling the western rider’s leg position). The rider usually wears tall boots and snug fitting riding pants so that the pants are not bunching up around the rider’s legs. The dressage rider learns walk, trot canter and collected and extended versions of these gaits.

Saddle seat riding is also done in an English saddle that is called a cutback and is relatively flat compared to all the other saddles. This seat is used on horses that have a high stepping or elevated trot. The horses used for learning this seat are usually Saddle breds, Arabians, Morgan horses and gaited horses. These riders usually wear slightly flared long pants (or jodphurs) that cover short boots (jodhpur boots) and have an elastic band that goes down under the riders boots to keep the pant leg of the rider down.

The different disciplines throw in a few new moves that one may have never thought of like spinning, pirouettes , changing canter leads when going a new direction (or not), trotting in place and moving the horse sideways.

All seats are fun to learn given that the horse the student is learning on is a patient and kind teacher (called a school horse or schoolmaster). All kids and adults that are horse crazy should be given the chance to learn each of these different seats. This will give the rider a well rounded education and an even broader love for the different types of horses that exist. The passion born skills for riding evolve out of timing balance and feel. Riding takes very little talent but a lot of hard work (and a lot of practice) to be good at it.

Any good barn manager or horseback riding instructor (and the workers in a training/boarding barn) should also have an appreciation and working knowledge for the different seats used to ride different styles and breeds of horses. Some barns or training centers specialize in one seat or type of riding, while other’s embrace all disciplines of riding. A true lover of horses should also be open to learning all disciplines and should appreciate every breed of horse.

Shelley Van den Neste
General Manager and Riding Director
The Oaks Equestrian Center - an O'Connor Signature Facility

Posted by jenniferd at 10:52 AM | Link | 1 comment