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Conference noted::equitation

Title:Equine Notes Conference
Notice:Topics List=4, Horses 4Sale/Wanted=150, Equip 4Sale/Wanted=151
Moderator:MTADMS::COBURNIO
Created:Tue Feb 11 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2080
Total number of notes:22383

559.0. "Saddleseat explained for Euro readers" by CHEFS::GOUGH () Thu Apr 14 1988 07:16

    Please could someone enlighten a confused UK reader.  What is
    Saddleseat?  What is Hunt Seat?  What other styles of riding do
    you have?  What do you/ the horse wear for all these various styles
    of riding?
    
    What show classes do you have?  I was just reading the notes on
    Show Hacks, and your Show Hack class sounded totally different to
    the UK version.
    
    Helen.
    
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559.1hope this helpsUSMRM2::PMARKELLThu Apr 14 1988 10:2651
    Hunt seat is a forward seat style of riding, the seat that you ride
    in the Hunt field.  There is no difference to the US style and the
    UK seat.  What do you call it?
    
    Saddleseat is still "english" but the horse moves in a completely
    different frame.  The gaits are still walk, trot and canter (for
    a three gaited horse, rack and slow gait added for a 5 gaited horse)
    However, instead of a long low frame, the horse carries his neck
    upright.  His shoulders and legs do not reach out they go up.  There
    is much motion in the front, the higher the better.  The horse is
    very much off of his front end and carries much of his weight on
    the back end.  The hind legs must have action too which leads to
    either English Pleasure or Park.  English pleasure is a horse that
    you would like to take down a trail, supposedly.  He does not have
    to have extream action or behave like a dragon (a lot of steam!)
    This is penalized.  A Park horse on the other hand is all show horse
    the higher and more powerful the movement the better.  These horses
    often look like they are ready to explode (they sometimes do to)
    The controlled energy is achieved with finesse on the riders part,
    and makes for a very exciting class.
    
    5 gaited horses are also exciting, but I do not know if they are
    divided into pleasure and park. The rack and slow gait are very
    smooth gaits with legs on the same side moving in the same direction
    very much like the pace.  The rack covers much ground and is
    specifically a gait down by Saddlebreds.  American bred, this horse was
    developed in the south to be a large stylish but extreamly comfortable
    horse (it is!)  They have good free moving shoulders and they can
    really move out.
    
    The saddleseat style itself is very different.  The rider sits farther
    back to help the horse get the weight off of his front end. Long
    toes and weighted shoes encourage the horse to pick up his feet.  The
    tail is "set" by either severing the muscles in the tail (now illegal)
    or using a false tail called a fall.  The saddle is low with no
    deep seat and is cut back at the withers.  The dress of the rider
    is formal with long coat with matching pants, derby hat, gloves
    and boots.  
    
    Show Hack classes here will hopefully follow along the same lines
    as what you have in the UK.  This is what it is supposed to do,
    and it probably does in the Hunter world.  However hunt seat in
    the Arab world is a small section and that's where the difficulty
    lies.
    
    Hope this helps, if anyone out there can fix my mistakes or add
    to please do.
    
    regards,
    stephanie
    
559.2MAJORS::QUICKYorkshire 3, Suffolk nil.Wed Aug 05 1992 08:347
� I rode hunt seat, not saddleseat

I hate to display my ignorance, but can someone explain these terms? They're
not words I've heard used in the UK.

JJ.
559.3MPO::ROBINSONlet me hear you whisperWed Aug 05 1992 09:2014
    
    	Hunt seat is a working seat for jumping and flat work.
    
    	Saddle seat is Park riding, horses who have sometimes
    	flashy gaits but are not used (in that saddle) for jumping.
    
    	The saddle seat saddle is bigger and flatter, often with 
    	a cut back pommel.
    
    	I wasn't offended by the cow-poo remark, I thought it was
    	funny, so I threw in the remark about side saddle.  :)
    
    	Sherry