Different types of horse saddles include those made for Western riding, trail riding, jumping and competitive sports, and each type is available in a variety of sizes and seat types. Discover the many varieties of horse saddles with advice from a riding instructor in this video on equestrian living.
We're going to discuss types of western saddles. Every saddle has a particular function and therefore when we go to purchase a saddle, it's best if we know what direction we're going to take in our horse riding world. There are saddles that are very nice for your western pleasure and or trail riding but then they can also get extremely specific for some of our competitive sports. We have a synthetic variety of saddle that might work really well for your western trail riding type of sport, it's going to be lightweight, comfortable to lift and easy to use but I prefer to move in to my western saddles that consist of leather materials and construction. This is a used saddle but it's very traditional of the barrel racing variety. It has a deeper seat, it's got a little bit of a raised pommel here. It has us where we've got the little bit more confinement through our seat to help us stick in with those tight turns of barrel racing. Then we might move to what would be considered a western pleasure saddle. Western pleasure saddles cannot be very ornate. As you shop around if you thought you were going to become competitive in the western pleasure competition, you'd want to consider how much can you afford and how ornate do you want to have. This one has a little bit of silver in places, it does have your deeper seat, it might lend itself well to what we also call equitation where the rider is being judged but some of our equitation saddles will also have a bit of a rise to the front of their saddle to give you that more secure seat. We look at somewhat where the stirrup is positioned a little further back might be considered a good place for a cutting saddle or for a barrel saddle so that we don't interfere with the horse's shoulders as they do their job. We also then can go to an adult size cutting saddle. This is my favorite saddle, it's well worn but used a lot and it has the flatter seat, the lower cantle, it doesn't hold me in as tight but it allows me to get that movement that I need when I'm working cattle doing my sport of team hunting and ranch sorting. It still holds me secure enough, I find it very comfortable and I'm in my saddle for long days at those events. Then we can go to another type of cutting saddle or working western saddle, maybe you might call it a ranch saddle. This is also an adult saddle, it's a larger seat, a 17 inch. Accommodates a larger person. It has the square skirt, it's got a high cantle so it helps those people who feel like they want that little bit more security as they do the quick sports and the ranch work or western cutting. So we've got this type of a saddle where the rider will get a little more security for the same sport that a rider who likes to be a little bit more able to move with their horse might like some other type. These are your basic western saddles. You can always bump up and get pricier with different kinds of additives like the silver, the lacing, the rawhide that you'll see on some of them. But when it gets right down to it, your choice ought to be for considering the discipline that you're going towards, how much you can spend and certainly the comfort of the seat of that saddle. Some come with more padding than others and people prefer those for different reasons.
