English and western riders! help please!!?

Question

what are the differences between english and western horses? Like what are the characteristics that someone would look for in a horse used for western riding or a horse used for english riding?

sorry for my ignorance on this topic, this is for a school paper and i know nothing about this topic!

:D

Answer 1

Western riding originated in the West with long days on your horse on the ranch.  The saddle and the horse are meant to be comfortable.  Western horses will generally take shorter slower steps.

English riding developed in England as trasportation.  people then wanted to get to their destination quickly so they had horses with long strides who could cover ground quickly.

So the major difference you'll notice between English and Western horses nowadays is how much faster the English horses look like they're moving.  English is a lot more forward than Western.

English uses a much smaller, more forward saddle.  The western saddle was for utility...  you sit back deep in the saddle (comfort, relaxation) and the thing is super big so that you can attach all your gear to it... if you're a cowboy going out on the frontier, you have to carry your home and supplies with you...  the Western reins are split (not buckled together like english) and very long...  it's so that if one breaks you can use the other one (tie both ends to the bit) or so that you can cut pieces off if you need a piece of leather.  Western riders ride with 1 hand on the reins and one hand free...  the horse knows to obey by neck reining (when one rein touches his neck he moves away from it)... that way the rider has their other hand free to do other things like rope the cattle.  the horn of the saddle is nowadays a nice thing for beginners to hold onto, but was originally a place to tie your rope (you've lassoed the cattle, you tie the rope to your horse, jump off and run over to secure the cattle...  that sort of thing).

English has a smaller saddle with a more forward seat.  English horses move with bigger strides and it's easier for them to move if you're off their back...  like how jockeys ride crouched atop the horse.  The forward seat was designed because riders had to be ready for anything they should encounter on their journey... the horse may need to jump a log or a fence and you need to be ready.  English riders do a bounce when the horses trot... it's called a post... on every other beat of the trot, the english rider will rise himself out of the saddle, then sit on the opposite beat.  It's called posting because the Postmen in England created it...  they needed longstrided horses to take them across country delivering the post as quickly as possible, but long strided horses tend to be very uncomfortable to sit on at the trot.  the post men found that it was more comfortable and helped the horse move better if they bounced up out of the saddle and sat back down in rhythm with the horse's legs movements.

There's really a lot of differences and I could go really in depth about them but I've got my own homework...  that should give you a good start though.  good luck

Answer 2

There is no difference between horses per se for riding...English riding is usually done w/a smaller saddle and used for show and jumping etc. Western is a full saddle and you would use western for leisure riding,rodeo,trail,etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestriani...

Good luck.

Answer 3

Any horse can be trained to do Western or English riding, and so can any rider.

The main difference between Western and English riding is that the Western saddle is designed for comfort as cowboys would have spent all day in them whilst rounding up cattle.  Western riders sit deep in the saddle and do not "post", or rise to the trot.  It is also near impossible to jump in a Western saddle!  Western horses are steered by the riders legs and "neck reining" this is where the rider lays the rein across the horses neck in order to tell it which direction to move in.  Western riders will also wera their stirrups very long - for all day comfort.

English riding has evolved to be much more stylised.  The saddle is cut to allow maximum contact between horse and rider.  English riders will either sit or rise to the trot and jumping is easy in an English saddle.  The horse is steered by the riders legs and by maintaining a constant contact with the horses mouth (i.e. the reins are kept fairly taught, but NOT tight).  English riders will wear their stirrups shorter than a Western rider and will shorten them even more in order to jump fences.

Hope that helps!

Update - I'd just like to add to kmnmiami, that we do not call it "posting" in England, only Americans call it that!  We call it rising (the instructor will call out "rising trot" or "sitting trot" to make the difference clear).  I'm not disputing that the "postman" story is true, but we just don't call it that over here!

Answer 4

i am a horse lover and i use western as my style of riding.

well umm english is a formal way of riding dressage jumping

western trail , barrel racing you can kind of tell but not really jaust ask the owners or you can tell if you were to put an english saddle on a horse and it was better with the english but you cant tell by looking at the horse but seeing how well they perfore with the corect saddle

Answer 5

western horses(pleasure) usually have their heads lower to the ground w/ a slower gait. English horses are more collected and round in their necks, like rounder i should say. and the saddles r different. if u go to google and type in the horse types it can help u.