Chapter 7: ENGLISH AND WESTERN
Mother rode Lady home that afternoon, while Sara rode Star.
"Did you buy that saddle, too?" Sara asked. Mother was riding a saddle like the one Mrs. Marilynn had.
"No, Marilynn just loaned it to me until I decide what I want," Mrs. Jordan said.
Suddenly, Lady jumped and started to back up. A plastic bag had blown into the road. Lady was shaking and holding her head high.
"What's wrong?" Sarah asked.
"Lady's scared. Take Star on ahead. When Lady sees that he's not afraid, she may follow him."
Star walked forward, only glancing at the bag. Sure enough, Lady came behind him.
"I think that Lady likes Star," Sarah said.
"I think you're right," her mother said.
"Why was Lady afraid of that bag?" Sara asked. "It couldn't have hurt her."
"Lady doesn't know that," her mother said. "You should always remember that horses don't think the same way that we do. Their instincts tell them to run
away from anything different. To us, it seems silly, but in the wild, this helps them stay alive. To them, anything strange might be an animal trying to eat
them! You, the rider, always have to be on the lookout for anything that might frighten your horse."
"Star doesn't seem to be afraid of very much," Sara said.
"No," her mother replied. "He's a very calm horse, and he's been ridden around lots of different things, so he knows that strange objects won't hurt him.
We'll have to ride him and Lady together, so that she'll learn not to be afraid."
During the summer, Mother and Sara rode every morning together. Sara learned to saddle Lady with the English saddle and tighten the girth. She learned
to run the metal stirrups up the stirrup leathers so that they wouldn't swing around.
One day, mother let her ride Lady in the pen with the English saddle. Riding the English saddle felt strange. The stirrups were shorter and Sara had to use
both hands to direct-rein Lady. There was also no horn on the front of the saddle to hold onto to! It was easier to tighten the girth, though. You didn't even
have to get off the saddle!
"Why is riding on the English saddle so different?" Sara asked.
"English saddles were designed for fox-hunters in England," her mother said. "The saddles are light and make it easier to jump. Western saddles come from
the saddles of the knights, the Spanish conquistadors and, later, the cowboys. They needed comfortable saddles that spread their weight over a larger part
of the horse's back. They also needed to ride with one hand free to hold a weapon or a rope or a weapon."
Sara sighed. “I didn’t realize there were so many types of riding,� she said.
"There are lots of different types of saddles," Mother said. "This afternoon we'll go to the city to look for a saddle for me."
At the tack store, Sarah had never seen so many saddles and bridles in her life. The choices seemed endless.
"This one's neat," Sarah said. "But it doesn't look very comfortable.
"That's a pack saddle," her mother said. "You don't ride those; they help the horse carry loads."
"Here's some English ones," Sarah said as she ran to a section.
"These are for gaited horses," Mother said. "They are cut so that they don't interfere with the horses' shoulders when they move."
"What's that?" Sarah pointed to the strangest-looking saddle she'd ever seen. It was like an English saddle, but it had two wide horns on the left side of the
pommel.
"That's a sidesaddle," her mother said. "Ladies used to ride them all the time, because you can ride them while wearing a dress." She got on the saddle to
show Sarah how it worked. Both of her legs were on one side of the horse.
"That's weird," Sarah said.
"Your great-grandmother rode sidesaddle; some ladies still do."
Sure enough, a lady came out of a dressing room and came toward them. She was wearing a fitted black jacket and skirt-at least it was like part of a skirt.
When the lady turned, Sarah could see that the "skirt" had no fabric in the back; the lady was wearing tan riding breeches underneath.
"What's she wearing?" Sarah asked quietly.
The lady heard her and smiled. "It's an apron for my riding habit," she said. "When I sit on my sidesaddle, the apron looks like a skirt, but there's no fabric
under my legs to get caught on the horns." The lady got on one of the sidesaddles and showed Sarah how the skirt fitted around her legs. "The store
ordered this show habit for me, and I just wanted to see if it needed to be altered."
"Do you really ride a sidesaddle?" Sarah asked.
"Oh yes," the woman said. "Every weekend I meet with a group of women and we ride together. Sometimes we ride in parades or shows. It's a lot of fun.
It's really easy, but your saddle has to fit you and your horse very well, or you can hurt your horse's back."
"Aren't you afraid that you'll fall off?" Sara asked.
"It's not easy to fall off a sidesaddle," the lady said. "You have to be careful that your girths are in good shape, though, so that the saddle doesn't turn
around on the horse's back. Sidesaddles even have special girths to help keep them straight. If the saddle turns around, you WILL go off!"
"Thank you for telling me about sidesadles," Sarah said.
"Come and see us ride one Saturday," the lady said. "Some of our ladies dress in historic costumes and take part in reenactments. They can tell you a lot
about history."
"That would be a fun field trip," her mother said. "Perhaps we will."
The lady went back to the dressing room.
Sara looked at her mother. "You're not going to buy a sidesaddle, are you?"
"No, but I'd like to try an Australian saddle," her mother replied. She had been talking to a young salesman while Sara was visiting with the lady.
The salesman took them past rows of English saddles. There were deeper-seated saddles for jumping, and English saddles with straight flaps for dressage.
"Here we are," the salesman said. He pointed to two rows of saddles that seemed to be crosses between English and Western. They were plain, with metal
stirrups, but they had small horns on the pommel. "We've just gotten in a new shipment of Australian saddles," he said.
Sarah's mother tried several, and finally chose one. "This one's comfortable," she said. "It should fit Lady well, too." The salesman lifted it from the rack and
carried it to the front of the store for them. Then they chose a matching bridle.
"I'd like to try to ride sidesaddle one day," Sarah said on the way home.
"Maybe you can," her mother replied. "Marilynn has one, I think. But for now you have to concentrate on riding your western saddle."
Questions:
1. Why are horses sometimes afraid of strange objects?
2. Are horses sometimes afraid of objects that won't hurt them?
3. How was riding the English saddle different from riding the western saddle?
4. Name the two most popular styles of saddles in the United States.
5. What are some other types of saddles?
Project:
On the internet or in saddle catalogs, find pictures of different types of saddles and write what each saddle is used for. Try to find pictures of the saddles
used at the Spanish riding school in Vienna, Austria (where the Lippizan horses are trained), a knight's saddle, and a modern Spanish or Portugese saddle.
You may can also find a photo of an Indian, Chinese or Japanese saddle.
On a map of the world, indicate the countries where these saddles come from. You might also like to learn about the breeds of horses that are native to
these countries.