Western Horse Saddle Types

Video Transcript

"These are my school saddles that work well for the variety of riders that we have. We have riders who like to experience the sport of team penning, and ranch sorting so we look for the cutting variety as well as we have those who go to speed and sometimes performance classes. We're going to start here with your generic youth saddle, this is a nice sturdy saddle that could go to any show ring and any discipline based on the smallness of the riders size. When we bump up and get a little more specific in our desires, this is a barrel saddle. This is light weight, it's got a nice deep seat, it's a small size for a youth. It's got stirrups that will go up real high with an easy to adjust Blevins buckle, and that would work well for a rider well up and through probably their age of ten or eleven. We then go to this is kind of a nice generic saddle; it could be used for the sport of barrel racing. It's got a nice deep seat; it's got a square skirt and a little added silver. My riders could take this to your play day where they might compete in the morning in the performance western pleasure equitation, and then move on into speed in a comfortable way. A very good all around saddle. This is designed, it's a little bit older in style, but it is designed for equitation. It's a name brand circle Y, it's got a high area right here in front of the pummel, and it puts that rider in a very deep seat, secure against the front and a nice heavy fender that holds that leg securely for the sport of equitation riding. Where it's the rider's position that's being judged. It's got a low horn so it doesn't have a lot of function in the way of the use of that horn. Then we move on to our cutting saddles that we use often in our team penning and ranch sorting. It's a nice big seat, relatively flat, it gives the rider room to adjust and keep their balance as that horse is moving quickly underneath them. The fenders aren’t extremely large, they're meant to just position that rider's foot just a little bit forward than many of the others. You can see this is a bit more forward than this equitation saddle that keeps the leg back underneath. We still want the good, correct position, but this allows for the rider to be just a little bit more careful in cuing their horse distinctly at the girth line. It's got a high horn, something we often use in our cutting work, and so that's another feature that makes this saddle different."