Equestrianism, also known as horse riding, has been a common sport for millennia and each region has had its own preferred riding style. If you’re new to horse riding or looking to branch into competitive horse riding, then you’ll need to be introduced to all of the different horse riding styles.
Horse riding can be categorized into 3 general styles: Western Riding, English Riding, and Group Riding Events. Understanding the 3 categories and what they entail will enable you to choose the most suitable style for you.
There’s no horse riding without horses, so as you choose which style will work best for you, you must also consider which type of horse you prefer. Horse breeding is a vast topic, and every horse breed has its own suitability.
Types of Horse Riding Styles
We’ve already categorized the horse riding styles into 3, but what does each style entail? Western Riding and English Riding are the most common types of riding styles. Their difference is mostly attributed to the saddle sizes.
The English saddle is usually smaller than the Western riding style saddle. Group riding is a minor category and mostly involves competitive riding.
1. Western Riding Style
Riders mostly prefer to start with the western riding style because it’s the easiest and mostly focuses on a rider’s comfort. The saddle used inwestern riding is bigger and heavier compared to what the other styles use. It also covers more of the horse’s sides which makes the rider more confident and comfortable because it offers more support to both the rider and horse.
Western Riding was brought to the Americas by the Mexican Conquistadors who mostly practiced it when ranching. The saddle, riding equipment, and style improved over time because ranchers would spend long hours when herding which led them to create more comfortable equipment.
The western saddle looks more like a seat, with a seat rise and a comfortable cantle that was suitable for longer travel and helped to anchor a rider as they corral the cattle. The saddle also contains a wooden saddle horn which was used to steady the rider as they pull cattle.
The saddle seat is essentially strapped to the horse, which was meant to prevent the saddle from sliding off as the rancher worked.
Western Riding Disciplines
For this horse riding style, the horse has more freedom to move because riders use a looser rein. The rider gently guides their horse with subtle leg and body movements as well as a smaller rein.
Because the western style requires less control of the horse, western riders should create a stronger bond with their horses before beginning.
This style has different riding disciplines which include:
Reining
Reining is mostly an easygoing discipline because it showcases the bond between a horse and its rider. This type of riding requires a confident rider who is in sync with their horse.
A good rapport makes it easy for a horse to flawlessly go through patterns, and trust its rider enough to change paces without breaking gait. Reining also includes going through obstacles such as bridges and gates.
Team Penning
Team Penning is a separation sport that involves three riders and a herd of cows tagged with numbers.
The team is given different numbered horses to separate within 60 seconds. This sport requires riders to be skilled at controlling their horses’ shoulders and hindquarters to control their movements as they work. Because it’s timed, riders should be calculating and accurate.
Barrel Racing
Barrel racing includes three-barrel obstacles that a horse and rider have to go through in a clover pattern. This is a speed game and requires an athletic horse and a confident, skilled rider. The arena size for these events isn’t standard and will depend on how big the competition is.
Cutting
Cutting mimics a rancher’s ability to effortlessly separate cows from their herd while on a horse. When ranching, both horses and their riders work together to ensure that a cow doesn’t return to its herd after separation.
During cutting competitions, the rider is provided with around 20 cows and they have to choose 2 to separate. The horse and rider team requires skills such as balance, and the rider needs to trust the horse enough to give it the independence to work.
Trail Riding
This discipline involves working your horse through open lands such as desert land, mountains, and other terrains. The sport is meant to display teamwork between horse and rider through different challenges. Your horse here needs to be calm as you move through natural obstacles.
Western Pleasure
Western Pleasure is quite similar to trail riding, though the former is more of a race that looks at horse paces. Riders here compete in jogging, walking, and loping. This isn’t an aggressive competition, and so most of the activities are gentle and easy.
Pole Bending
Pole Bending is also a timed racing competition that involves 6 poles, each 6.4 meters apart. During pole bending, the horse and rider weave their way through the poles and sharply twist at the final pole then gallop towards the end.
The quickest horse and rider team who goes through the poles accurately takes the win. Because of the twists and turns, this competition requires a graceful and flexible horse and rider.
Working Cow Horse
This skill tests both cow sense and rein work. Cow sense essentially is the ability of a horse and rider to handle cows, cut them, and direct them towards a specific area.
Roping
Roping involves a team of 2 riders, a header and a heeler, who work together to tie a rope on a cow’s head and heels. The art is commonly known as lassoing, and usually, the fastest team to rope both the cow’s head and feet wins.
Endurance Riding
Endurance Riding is essentially long-distance horse racing. During this competition, horses race each other on a 50 – 100 mile run.
Because of how strenuous an endurance ride is, a veterinarian has to check the horse and pronounce a clean bill of health before they begin and all throughout the competition. The distance is quite long, so the horses have to stop for food and water frequently and rest for about an hour.
Gymkhana
Gymkhana is mostly an event that encompasses all the competitions. These competitions gauge the skill level of both horse and rider, their balance, rapport, and speed pattern.
2. English Riding Style
The English prefer more structure and pomp, which cascades down even to their riding style. The horse riding culture is mostly influenced by military horse riding, hence the discipline and rigidity.
The first difference you’ll notice between the English discipline and the Western style is the saddle. The English style mostly uses the flat saddle which is quite lightweight compared to the Western saddle.
Horses barely register a light saddle, and this gives them more freedom to move and more contact with the rider. The English saddles have been modified over time and we are now seeing their range from the more lightweight saddles to the advanced dressage saddles.
English riders use tighter reins to take better control of the horses. The Western saddle works well with riders more concerned with good posture, correct seat, and more balanced horses.
The English riding discipline also has subcategories including:
Dressage
Dressage is an Olympic discipline with a significant audience. Fundamentally, the discipline represents a way of training and riding that involves preapproved movements that depend on a horse/rider team’s level of training and experience. The horses must showcase their gaits, passage, pirouettes, and piaffe.
With dressage, competitors have a 20 meter by 60 meter arena to showcase their moves, and then they’re graded for each move. This discipline showcases a horse’s flexibility, athleticism, and oneness between rider and horse.
Saddle Seat Riding
Saddle seat riding is more American than English and is essentially fancy horse-riding. A saddle seat performance showcases class, drama, and style with the horses showing off their gaits.
Beautiful breeds such as Morgan horses and American Saddlebreds are more suited for these animated events. Morgan horses have long, muscular necks that work well with the showmanship involved. The American Saddle Breeds perform best on the 5-gait walk because of their weight, height, and trainability.
Eventing
Eventing is one of 3 equestrian Olympic sports and encompasses 3 disciplines including showjumping, cross country, and dressage. The horses have to showcase their experience and skills and be graded in all 3 categories.
For cross country, horses have to surpass obstacles such as high and low fences. Your horse needs to be strong and have stamina because these events can be quite taxing.
English Pleasure
This horse riding style emanates from the past where horses were the main means of travel. People in this era would showcase their horses, saddle mounts, and smooth-gaited horses. This category encompasses hunter seat, driving, and saddle seat.
With English pleasure, horses perform a series of trots, walks, and jogs similar to Western pleasure. The difference between the two is that the English version is more disciplined and emphasizes more on cantering and trotting. The Arabian horse is elegant, friendly, and an excellent competitor making them well-suited for this style.
Hunt Seat Riding
Hunting uses the forward seat position that’s quite popular in English riding. This riding technique emphasizes good posture, leg positioning, and weight distribution. When working over fences, the judges also look at the eyes, especially when the horse is jumping over a fence.
Hunt Seat Riding is also a competitive sport and is divided into hunters and equitation. For this competition, judges score the horse and rider separately. Judges look at a rider’s riding gear and their control. Horses, on the other hand, are scored based on their gait, form, and temperament.
Showjumping
Showjumping involves horses going through fences arranged in the form of a circle. These obstacles are arranged in a sequence and the rider has to direct their horse to jump from one fence to the next gracefully. This competition is timed, and the horse that places the fastest timing wins.
Showjumping mostly works best with warm-blooded horses. This is because of their stature and strong legs that keep them upright through the jumps.
3. Group Riding Events
Even though Western Riding and English Riding combine both individual and team events, some horse riding styles are exclusively group events.
These group events include:
Horse Polo
Horse polo is categorized into field polo and arena polo. The difference in these events is the ball type and size. Field Polo’s ball is bigger and made of solid plastic whereas Arena Polo’s is air-filled and smaller. The typical Polo field measures 300 yards.
Polo is the rugby of horsemanship. The game focuses on balance, coordination between horse and rider, as well as rider and team. Each team has 4 members, and this is one of those gender-neutral games.
Players hold a mallet to drive the polo ball towards their opponent’s territory.
Because of how aggressive this game is, riders have to keep safe with protective gear such as the equestrian helmet, riding boots, face mask, kneepads, and gloves. Polo is strict when it comes to dressing, and the universal uniform is a colored t-shirt and white trousers.
Horseball
A Horseball pitch measures 65 meters by 25 meters, enough space for players to pass around a ball without letting it fall while on horseback. During this game, the two teams are either trying to keep the ball or steal the ball from the opposing team.
Each team includes 6 players, 4 active and 2 substitutes, with players being a mix of both men and women. The ball needs to constantly pass between players as the ball can’t stay in a player’s hands for more than 10 seconds. This is quite an adrenaline-fueled, fast-paced game, with each game lasting 20 minutes.
Horse Driving
Driving is an equestrian discipline that involves a horse handling a carriage in different situations. Horse Driving includes dressage driving, obstacle driving, and country driving. As a sport, Horse Driving is mostly carefree because the driver uses flat paths. Dressage driving is similar to dressage with the driver directing their horse to form different patterns and figures.
Country Driving is more of a cross-country event containing obstacles that horses need to surpass such as bridges, streams, turns, and bends. Depending on the competition’s location, the obstacles may either be natural or artificial.
Obstacle Driving is a timed competition at an obstacle course. Horses have to go through several obstacles without touching them as fast as they can. Judges remove points based on things like your horse or carriage touching an obstacle.
Horses are emotional creatures, and at times they can be temperamental and refuse to move past an obstacle. In this case, judges deduct marks from their overall score.
Traditional Driving is yet another part of horse driving. Here, both the rider and horse pass through different obstacles and tasks before driving into open land. Traditional driving helps the audience reminisce about the 1900s where horse driving was the main source of travel.
Choosing the Best Horse for Riding
Despite horses having similar features, some horse breeds are more suitable for some riding styles than others. Features such as a horse breed’s size, temperament, and riding experience play a role in their abilities.
A novice Western rider will need a horse that’s been trained in neck reining. This helps the rider gently direct the horse in the direction they want them to take. A new rider needs a well-trained horse because this way, the horse can preempt a rider’s communication.
Horses also come with different personalities, some of which are teachable and others that aren’t. Some are playful, making it easy to bond with them, and some like rigorous activities such as jumping, trotting, and running. The more calm horses work best with gentle techniques, while the excitable ones do well with activities such as polo.
Where Can I Train for Horse Riding?
You can discover nearby places that offer these classes from social media, especially in horse riding communities or groups. The other way is to find local stables through referrals from friends.
Final Thoughts
Horse riding isn’t just for elite riders, anyone can start training and become better. The important thing is to find a riding style that works for you. We’ve covered 3 types of horse riding styles, as well as their disciplines extensively so that you’re informed enough to make the right decision for you.
The common horse riding styles, Western and English are like night and day, each covering different rider needs so that everyone can enjoy riding. The Western style is easy on amateur riders because of its focus on the comfort of the rider and the horse.
If you’re a more experienced rider looking to go into competitive horse racing, or just returning to horse riding after a long time, you may want to consider going for adrenaline-inducing disciplines such as Hunt Seating and Polo.