Anyone ride western style?

[Shamalamalam]

DD is desperate to learn.

I’ve found someone who does
lessons on their own western trained horses, but obviously DD’s pony is schooled English style

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of teaching their horse the western style aids - is it possible to switch back to English or does it get too confusing all round

Thanks!

Not personally, but I know people that opened a western trail riding centre, and they used regular horses and ponies. It's since closed and the horses seem to have gone back to their previous lives without any issues (although they were mainly hacks). But there are many horses that do dual jobs, ie ride and drive.

Yeah I went to uni in the States so I learnt western over there. Then when I came home I bought my pony a western saddle and bridle and did a bit of western with her. Some things I found:
The horses I was riding in the US were my trainer's horses and were top class show horses. They were ridden one handed in curb bits, you could easily take the bridle off and get a good performance and they were polished in all the advanced movements such as spins, rollbacks and slide stops. My own pony never competed higher then novice dressage, could produce a decent leg yield/ shoulder in and vary her paces but never worked seriously in a double bridle (only for showing for turnout). That's the level that a curb bit is for western and it was therefore most appropriate to ride her in a snaffle western (two handed is correct but the hold is different, like bridged reins). Expecting my pony to do a slide stop was as ridiculous as expecting her to do a piaffe.
The outline that's required of a western show horse isn't the same as a dressage horse. You need to think which muscles you actually want to strengthen and what is more useful given the confirmation of the horse. English was more gymnastically beneficial for my pony.
Horses are smart and know that different tack means different things.
It's easy to sit a jog on a well trained western horse. It's something the horse has to learn though and I've ridden ranch horses (and $200k show horses on the trail) where it's more comfortable for both horse and rider to post to the trot. Just because the show riders sit doesn't mean we always have to sit - Carl Hester sits to the trot in schooling and competition (on his advanced horses) but would rise out hacking like the rest of us.
Green riders can't teach horses so it'd be worth considering professional schooling.

In the end I focused more on English flatwork with my pony with a classical dressage instructor. My pony learnt the basics of western (like neck reining) and we had fun hacking western style. If you want to compete it's probably worth thinking what the goals are for the horse (physical development etc) and focusing more on one discipline, at least that's my experience.

Thank you!

I don’t think she wants to compete, she likes the western trail riding style and stuff like that

She’s not interested in dressage - she likes XC, bloodhounds, etc type of stuff

I’ve booked a couple of western lessons with the local lady but unfortunately she doesn’t do professional schooling so I’ll see if she can suggest anything

Thanks!

It’s easy enough to teach a pony to neck rein (lay the opposite rein against the neck as you give the air to turn) annd do the basics and IMO it does ponies a lot of good to learn to carry themselves without a contact. ( Think carefully about your bit as riding with ine hand can trigger the ‘nutcracker’ action in a snaffle bit...) I started riding western on horses that were originally schooled in the english way and found it easy but it was only when I began riding horses that were only western trained I found a big difference.

In english riding the rider keeps the legs on until they want the horse to do something else- for example leg on the girth to bend. In western the riding gives an instruction i.e canter and then expects the horse to do it until they ask them to stop. Mind you I was lucky enough to be riding a champion reining horse. For me this is the biggest difference between the two and one which I think most horses would struggle to switch between. So whilst most horses happy switch between the two at a low level most would struggle to do the more demanding moves ( although I have found a rollback to be a secret weapon in a tiny cramped jump off course!)

At a hacking level its perfectly possible to do both, but I found that I found it much harder to get my horse into a english ‘outline’ if we had been doing lots of western, I found that my hands ( which had previously been praised by my dessage trainer) were no longer confident at maintaining a ‘proper’ contact. Equally he seemed to prefer going on a long rein too.