Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Saddle / Riding Practice questions

From: Cathy

Hi Jessica, I have two questons for you. 1) At the moment I don't have a horse of my own and probably won't for at least a year. I ride the schooling horses at the stable where I work. These are basic instruction horses, Arabs and QHs, with no dressage type training. The stable doesn't own a dressage saddle but they have some Wintec all-purpose saddles. I use these but still don't feel I am getting myself in the proper position so I am thinking of buying my own dressage saddle. The thing is it will be used on different horses and I know fitting the saddle to the horse is very important. Do you think I should invest in a saddle of my own or wait until I only have one horse that I plan to use it on? I don't want to hurt the horses or ruin the saddle.

2) Since I am riding different horses with no real dressage training I spend most of my time working on my own position and trying to strengthen my muscles. I do alot of 20m circles, figur 8's and transitions My question is given my circumstances what do you think I can do to make the best of this situation (i.e. what kind of plan should I have for my sessions, what can I realistically hope to achieve)? I am just trying to get myself introduced to the sport and get myself ready for the time when I will have my own horse to work with and show. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, -Cathy

Hi Cathy! It sounds to me as though you are doing everything you can to prepare yourself for horse ownership and showing. Keep doing what you're doing -- every horse you ride will help you along. If you can maintain a good position, use your aids correctly, and ride each schoolhorse as though you are training it, you WILL be training those horses, and training yourself at the same time. You can actually achieve quite a lot, but it will help if you can manage an occasional lesson with a good dressaged trainer -- is there ANYONE in your area? Let me know -- I have some suggestions if there isn't.

It's a good idea to make plans for your riding sessions, but I suggest that you begin by keeping a riding journal. Immediately after each ride (take the journal and a pen to the barn with you), write down what you did from tacking up to dismounting. Write down every exercise you worked on, how long you spent doing each one, what results you got -- did the horse become more responsive during the session? Did you feel more in control of your own body? of your horse's body? What was easiest for you? for the horse? What was most difficult for you? for the horse? Write down EVERYTHING -- include which horse you rode, what tack you used, what time of day it was, whether the arena was empty or crowded, what you were wearing, how you were feeling. After a few weeks of this, you should be able to see patterns emerging, and you'll have a very clear idea of what you've been doing, what you haven't been doing, and how well what you HAVE been doing has been working. That information will let you construct better plans for your riding sessions.

As for the saddle.... that's a difficult question. I've been in your situation, and there's a lot to be said for owning a saddle! You already know that it won't fit every horse, but some saddles fit more horses than others do. I would say that you should keep riding in whatever saddles are available, and take notes on those, too -- how they fit, which ones allow you to ride better, and which ones make you ride badly. Take EVERY opportunity to borrow saddles, sit on other people's horses in their saddles -- even go to the local tack shops and sit in THOSE saddles if they have a saddle stand for that purpose (most good tackshops have at least one). Learn everything you can about the sort of saddle you prefer, and then let me know -- we'll figure out how to find you a good used saddle that will be affordable and still see you through a few years of riding.

You might ask whether the stable would be willing to purchase a Wintec dressage saddle -- you may not be the only client who's interested in dressage, so it would be a useful (and not terribly expensive) addition to their saddle collection. It's not easy to achieve a correct position without a proper saddle, but that doesn't mean that you have to go to the poorhouse if you decide you want your own.

There are a LOT of good used saddles in the world, and we can find you one!

- Jessica

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