How to Ride Western

Preparing a Western Style Seat

Purchase a Western saddle. A Western saddle is larger and heavier than most English riding saddles. English saddles provide a closer contact with a horse's back, while a Western saddle can distribute the weight of a rider more evenly on the horse's back. Most Western saddles also have a horn in front to help with herding cattle. In general, Western saddles are deeper and more contoured than English saddles as well. If you want to ride Western, be sure that you are using a Western saddle and not an English saddle. You may want to use a Western saddle for trail rides that last longer than 4 hours since you may be more comfortable.

Saddle your horse. Place the Western saddle on your horse to prepare your ride. Be sure that you place a saddle pad on your horse's back and secure all loose straps before attaching the saddle itself. Make sure the distance between your horse's elbow and the front cinch is about the width of 3 fingers to ensure a proper placement. Then you can connect the cinches and breast collar (if used) to secure your saddle.

Use a Western bridle. There are many different kinds of bridles, used for different kinds of horse activities. However, in general, a Western bridle is less complicated than an English bridle and has fewer components. Western bridles often do not have a noseband and instead have a component that fits around the horse's ears or underneath the chin. Western reins can be split or connected with a handkerchief, but all Western reins can be held with a single hand. English bridles tend to use a snaffle bit, whereas Western bridles can involve either a snaffle bit or a curb bit.

Sit deeply in the saddle. When you mount the horse, sit deeply on the saddle. You should sit immediately in front of the cantle (the back of the saddle that curves upward) but not be pressed tightly against it. Sit up straight and let your legs hang freely down the sides of the horse. A properly fitting Western saddle should have the bottom of the stirrups hitting your ankle bone. It might feel more secure to sit on the cantle. However, this is uncomfortable for your horse and you should move up a couple of inches.

Sit up straight with relaxed arms. In order to be sure that your horse is comfortable and able to interpret your signals, be sure that you have good Western riding posture. Sit up straight with your legs securely in the stirrups. (Cowboy boots can help you remain in the stirrups properly.) Keep your legs hanging straight down from your hips--do not push them forward too far. Hold your reins with the non-dominant hand and keep your other arm loose at your side. Both arms should be at lap height or so. Do not raise your arms too high.

Steering Western Style

Hold the reins in your non-dominant hand. Unlike English style horses, trained Western horses work without much contact. They have bits with longer shanks which work by placing pressure on the polls, rather than their mouths. You can therefore steer with light touches from the reins with a single hand. Hold the reins with your non-dominant hand so that you can use your dominant hand for other tasks, such as tying cattle or lassoing highway robbers.

Use neck reining to steer. Neck reining guides your horse to move in the direction you want using a gentle touch instead of a pulling motion. Think of the motion as a gentle push (in the opposite direction) instead of a pull (in the same direction). This means that if you want the horse to turn left, gently touch the right rein to the horse's neck. If you want the horse to turn right, gently touch the left rein to the horse's neck. One helpful hint to do neck reining correctly is that you should steer your horse in the direction of the inside rein. If the left rein is inside, the horse will turn left. If the right rein is inside, the horse will turn right. The Western-trained horse is always trained to move away from the direction of the rein touch.

Give steering signals with your hips and seat. Western-trained horses interpret even the subtlest of signals from a rider. If you look to your left and shift your hips accordingly, a trained Western horse will follow suit and turn left. English horses are steered much more actively with their reins, but if you want to ride Western, you will have to rely more on how you shift your weight and carry your body. Make sure that you do not lean your body, however. You want to remain upright and centered at all times. Use gentle shifts in your body weight to guide the horse.

Using Western Style Gaits

Know the difference between English and Western gaits. Both English and Western-trained horses have four gaits, two of which overlap. The English gaits (from slowest to fastest) are the walk, trot, canter, and gallop. The Western gaits (from slowest to fastest) are the walk, jog, lope, and gallop. A jog is a slightly slower version of the trot, and the lope is a looser form of the canter.

Walk a horse. A walk is a slow, 4-beat natural gait. The Western walk is basically identical to an English walk. A proper walk involves the horse moving its legs forward in the following order: back left, front left, back right, front right. When you want your horse to walk, relax backwards, put your legs forward, and allow the horse to stretch its head down and out. In English you sit tall, but in Western you should round your back out slightly to keep you in your seat and keep your horse relaxed.

Progress your horse into the jog. The next fastest gait is the jog, which is a 2-beat diagonal movement. A proper jog involves the horse moving its legs forward in the following order: back left and front right (simultaneously), back right and front left (simultaneously), etc. In order to get your horse to move from a walk to a jog, apply more leg pressure. In general, a jog is a trot movement that happens to be slower and cover more ground. Like a trot, a jog must be a two-beat movement where the horse moves one pair of diagonal legs, then the other. However, you should sit deeper and back a little further in the saddle than you would for a trot. If you like, you can post during a jog. Posting is when you move your body up and down in time with the horse's gait, and it is more common in English riding. However, there is a special posting trot in Western riding as well. Most of the time Western riders jog in the sitting position, however.

Progress into a lope. Like the jog, a loping gait should be correct and flowing. It is a complicated gait, so it can take some time for your horse to learn it properly. It is a 3-beat gait in which the first beat is the outside hind leg, the second beat is the inside hind leg and outside foreleg simultaneously, and the final beat is the inside foreleg. Encourage your horse to lope by shifting your weight to the horse's outside hind leg (for the first beat) and use your leg to apply pressure to the outside of the horse. Keep it slow and controlled. If you need to shorten your reins in order to have more control, do so.

Progress into a gallop. Galloping is not necessarily a gait you will use in Western horse shows. However, if you want your horse to move at great speed, you can use a cue to encourage your horse to gallop. Depending on how you've trained your horse, you can move your hand further up the horse's neck, make a purring noise, or squeeze your legs together slightly to cue a gallop.

Use noise signals to change speeds. Some Western trained horses can speed up and slow down using noise signals. Many riders use the "kiss and click method," in which you click your tongue to ask for a jog and you smack your lips together to ask for a lope. Other horses might recognize voice commands. You can train your horse to respond to any simple sound as long as you remain consistent and ensure that the sounds do not resemble one another.

Stop your horse with a gentle rein motion. Pull gently back on the reins while giving a voice command for stop, usually drag out "Whoa." At the same time, apply gentle leg pressure and sit deeply in your seat to encourage your horse to slow down. Do not ever yank on the reins. That can hurt the horse's mouth, especially with a Western style bit.