I normally ride western and have had several people tell me I should try English with my stallion. These photos were of 'fitting day' as I had just bought him a headstall and girth so we could start practising. I don't normally ride in tennis shoes so please don't go there. I am aware of the safety issues and I only hopped on for few minutes. There are a few more on my website (link in siggy). Thanks for looking.
Thats so cool. English riding is so different than western. I rode some of my smaller mules in english. It worked out great. Went thru some pretty tough mountains. Good luck. You look great.
Your horse is gorgeous! I love that color. I've only ever ridden English. I get on a western saddle and flop around like a dummy You may want to shorten your stirrups another notch? The look like they may be a little long for English
Beautiful stallion, and I'll bet you love English. When you learn to ride western you learn to balance, when you learn to ride English, you learn to RIDE. There is a great amount of contact you never get in a western saddle, it is my favorite way to ride.
I switched from western to english. It really is a huge difference and made me a better rider, I honestly could ride better bareback then I could in an english saddle. Very pretty stud you have there, he looks like an english natural.
Thanks for the compliments. As a kid, I learned to ride bareback as I wasn't tall enough to get the saddle on my 16 hand horse. Which is fine because I did learn balance. When I attended college, I learned English from the kids at a boarding (hunter/jumper) barn where I lived/worked while going to school. I will still ride primarily western but made the switch for this horse as he does seam more English. I also have plans to do other events when him as he just wants to please and is sired by a horse has many AQHA points in SEVERAL events across the board.(halter, barrels, English, WP, Reining and currently Reined Cow Horse). I did try to ride this saddle with the stirrups up a notch but my knee couldn't handle it. I just need to work on getting my heels back down and will easily be able to do that where they are now. I know I still have a few things to polish with my equitation (been training too long and NOT worrying about my 'form'). I am going to try to hit the summer series shows here in SW Fla and will keep ya posted on how we do.
Its nice to see a healthy, shiny horse! We are in North FL if your ever up this way we have nice shows. You will def get mareked down for your stirrups, work on shortening them up.
Oh, he is STUNNING! What a beautiful boy! I ride English (and Saddleseat with Saddlebreds, I've actually ridden quite a lot of Saddlebreds!), I just can't do Western! I did it one on a trail ride (in Honduras, of all places) and then I came back to the States and started riding English... I was like "wow, how could I have ever ridden western?" Now I now lots of people love Western and wouldn't have it any other way, and three cheers for you! But it just seems that English requires more precision and training. Plus, then you can go into dressage and jumping! (I'd like to do dressage...) I'd like to try Sidesaddle one day too... In a great whopping skirt.
Here's a handsome dude and looks nice with english tack. I checked your website quickly, I like his bloodlines. I also ride with a longer length stirrup leather, it works better for me and improves my balance and seat. OT, but how do you like your treeless saddle that is pictured on your Arabian? Got two short backed AQHA horses here that I am think of getting one of those for, but I wondered about the length.