Hunt seat/English:
Western:
Saddleseat:
Dressage:
Sidesaddle
Endurance Saddle
Other saddles:
This style is used for show jumping, cross-country, equitation, hack, disipline classes, trail (sometimes) and pleasure riding. Your horse should move pretty fast (like he's going somewhere) and should keep his head vertical to the ground. If he's a stock breed, he should hold his neck at approximately wither length--which should make a horizontal line perpendicular to the ground. If he's not a stock breed, he should hold his neck above wither height, but not too high. Riding english really strengthens your whole body and gives you better balance in comparison to western. It is more difficult for a beginner to learn on though. There are three main types of hunt seats: Close Contact, eventing and All-Purpose. Close Contact is for jumping and doesn't have a deep seat. Eventing is for eventing (imagine that!). All-Pupose is for all English style purposes and has a deeper seat! Warmbloods, thoroughbreds, trakehners, welsh ponies, shetland ponies, and Hanoverians make up a big portion of hunter-type horses.
Western style is used for trail, pleasure, horsemanship, reining, cutting, team penning, working cow horses, ranch horses, disipline classes, gymkhana and more. It is a comfortable seat because the horse is to move comfortably slow with his head vertical to the ground and wither-length low (Not any lower because that is unnatural and unbalanced.) The horse should move at the jog (a slow trot) and the 3-beated lope (slow canter). Some western horses will lope so slow that their lope will be 4-beated (cantering in the front & trotting behind.) This is also known as cross-cantering. You don't want your horse to 4-beat. Judges will not place you and it is unnatural for your horse. It's just not pretty either! The horse should also have very little knee action. That is, he must move his legs from his shoulders and hips--not from his knees. This produces a smoother ride. Being flat-kneed is 80% conformation and 20% trainable as I once heard a pro trainer say. Western is terrific for beginners because it's harder to fall out of due to the horn and the bigger size of the saddle. There are many different western saddles: Park & Trail, Show, Equitation, Cutting, Barrels, Rough-out (for training), and Reining. Quarter horses & Quarter ponies, Paints, Appaloosas, Buckskins, Pony of the Americas are all stock horses make up a large percentage of western-style horses. Arabs, Tennessee Walkers, and Morgans are also fairly popular western horses, though they are not stock breeds.
This style is used for flashly, spirited, and sometimes gaited, horses. The stirrups are longer than an English saddle's stirrups would be. The back of the saddle is no higher than a Hunt's saddle is. Your horse is allowed to step high with his legs too. You do not have your legs in front of you at all. That's a common misconception that creates bad equitation. From your knee down, there is no contact. Heels are down and your toes are turned in. Your legs should be underneat you and still. You should sit up straight and tall, hold your hands high with rounded arms, sholders back, chin up and come up straight out of the saddle when you post. If you ride a trotting (or, ungaited) saddleseat horse, you ride in a full or double bridle with two reins and two bits. The snaffle rein and snaffle bit is the top one, and the curb rein and curb bit is the bottom one. The saddle is cutback. Saddlebreds, Morgans, Hackney horses & ponies, and Arabians make up a large portion of Saddleseat horses.
This saddle is used to show how disciplined your horse and you are. He should do what you want instantly and with little contact. You cannot use your voice to cue your horse or you will be penalized. Your horse should be able to extend his trot when asked. When you turn corners, your turns should be square, not rounded. If your horse is advanced, he should know how to do special moves like passage, half pass, pirouette and more. I think there's 3 levels of dressage. Warmbloods, thoroughbreds, Lippizanners, Friesians and Andalusians make up most of the breeds that excell at dressage. Check out this site for a full list of dressage moves with corresponding photos.
This saddle is used by women for riding and jumping. You ride the horse sideways! Why? Because back in the old days (the REALLY old days), it was unacceptable for women to ride like a man. It was difficult too, for they wore long dresses. Sidesaddles only have one stirrup (the left one). You've got to have extremely good balance. It is possible to jump sidesaddle, but it's gotta be really hard! I'm not sure which horses excell in sidesaddle, but I am going to assume that the same horses that excell in dressage would excell in sidesaddle.
This saddle is used for endurance races. Endurance races can last a few hours to a few days, so your saddle needs to be comfy for both your horse and you! Arabians excell above all other breeds in endurance races, but that doesn't mean another breed cannot win. Look at the paint mustang, Hidalgo, for example.
