Anyhow, this book discusses the personalities of a trail horse and also how to work with a horse you already have to get them trail savy. One chapter discussed neck reining in depth and a lot of things mentioned made complete sense to me from the trail riding side of things. A lot of times having that free hand is vital while riding on a trail and I can see that while trail riding or endurance racing I might want to take on that approach. Can one train a horse to learn neck reining but yet still do direct reining for dressage?
I definitely see me owning a western type saddle in the future, one that would be a good trail or endurance saddle with a horn to hang things on, lots of rings and surface area to attach thing and certainly the horn is good to grab onto during a steep part of a ride or an unsteady step. Many endurance riders use a hackamore on their horses since it’s a long ride and then they don’t have to worry about a bit when it comes time for hay and water. It seems to be the track I would go myself, no bit means a horse may be more willing to drink water at rest stops and then I wouldn’t have to worry about a dirty crusty bit from a horse eating with one in its mouth. Will my future horse be able to be trained in English/dressage and yet go Western and bit-less on the trail?
Being out in Colorado there is definitely a lot more western riding here. I’ve never liked the show type western pleasure or been much into real big cowboy rodeo stuff. I think cutting could be fun, learn how to get a cow out of the herd and moving into a pen or some such thing. I don’t see why I can’t ride both disciplines but my question is do I need two different horses? I’ll have to run these questions by Laurie. No matter the discipline though, I’ll be wearing my helmet!!!
4 comments:
my dressage/eventing horse is neck rein trained and we go out on trails all the time. We never use a western saddle since I hate them, but he does go in a western bridle and neck reins. It is definitely possible to do both.
Good to know!!!!
i cannot really remember how we taught baasha to neck rein but it never interfered with his direct reining. i never had a western bridle, and you kind of have to neck rein if you ride a horse that is only wearing a halter and lead rope.
i'm with you - i like english but i would sure love to chase cows someday. my last two saddles were wintec endurance pros. i like them because they're affordable and adjustable. and skito makes a perfect match saddle pad for it.
i'm trying to find a horse sport that i might like here in germany and i'm forced to consider western because it is the new cool thing in germany. every western barn i ask says "sorry we don't have any cows." *sigh*
My horse both direct reins and neck reins, as do many of the horses in my barn. Neck reining is definitely a good skill for a horse to have...
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