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Western Riding Basic Equipment

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If you don't want to show, you can use whatever you're comfortable with. It's not the equipment that makes the western rider, it's how his/her horse performs. If you want to show, you need a western stock saddle, a blanket or saddle pad, a western bridle and bit, western boots, and a western hat.

Other useful but optional equipment are leg boots, spurs, and chaps, and in case you want to barrel race, a running martingale or/and a tie down.

Western style riding includes trail riding, show classes such as pleasure and reining, and competition such as barrel racing, pole bending, and rodeo.

Trail riding, a popular pastime, as a show class can be very formal with great attention to detail. Moves made with a horse can be a little different than those taught to English style trained horses. The Western competitive horse is taught to do a rollback and possibly reining where the horse slides to a stop.

The Western horse is also taught to neck rein, to move left or right depending if the side of the neck that the rider applies pressure with the rein.

The quality of the pace is central to the training of the Western horse. The paces are the jog and the lope, which are the trot and the cantor with a shorter stride.

The Western spin is carried out at full speed, pivoting on the inside hind leg, and carried out smoothly. All of these moves were originally developed for working with cattle.

While the Cutting Horse is the standard for real cattle ranch work, the Quarter Horse is superior in Western show class competition.

The Western saddle has a horn at the front (pommel) that can carry a rope or fix the rope when lassoing cattle. A curb-bridle or bitless bridle is used, along with long stirrup leathers that encourage a straight-leg position.

Next Page: Reasons To Learn To Ride A Horse Western Style

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