What Is Western Dressage? (Find Out!)

Dressage has become a recent interest of mine.

I’ve always loved going to the races and to show jumping events, but I’ve only in the last few months become interested in dressage.

I’ve been steadily growing my interest in dressage and getting to grips with all the rules, how the scoring works, and all that sort of stuff.

To my dismay, though, I just learned that there are in fact several kinds of dressage: I’d been watching English dressage, and I then learned of western dressage.

So, I decided to find out what it was.

So, what is western dressage?

Western dressage is a form of dressage that involves barrel racing, pole bending, roping, trail riding and reining. The essential goal is the same: to demonstrate the discipline and training of horse and rider. Western dressage simply achieves this through different movements.

These distinctions between English riding and Western riding are often found in many disciplines of horse riding, and dressage is obviously no exception.

Given the history of the two nations, the U.K. and the United States, different traditions of horse riding arose.

So, let’s look at the differences in a bit more detail.

What is the difference between western and English dressage?

There are many differences between the two.

The first and most obvious is in the equipment.

Just like in English riding in general, the saddles are much smaller.

English saddles consist simply of a seat, two flaps down the side of the horse, and a strap underneath.

Western saddles are much bulkier, consisting of a more plush, more comfortable seat, with a horn on the for the rider to hold.

In English dressage, the rider will generally hold on to the reins of the horse instead.

This means that English dressage has a closer contact feel.

Western horse riding in general has been more about multitasking, and has been more associated with the tradition of horse riding in that part of the world.

Western horses tend to be endurance riders, long distance horses.

The saddles reflect how long the rider is expected to stay on the horse.

The point to remember, though, is that western dressage as it exists in the English riding world does also exist in western riding.

That is to say, you also have these demonstrations of a set of movements by a horse and rider within an arena.

However, the fundamental differences between western and English riding have indeed led to very different traditions of dressage.

Can you post in western dressage?

Posting is a common occurrence in English dressage.

Posting is when the rider raises up out of their saddle to stand up in the stirrups with every other stride of the horse’s forelegs.

This makes riding more comfortable both for you and the horse. Is the same thing done in western dressage, then?

It certainly is done, although not as commonly. For example, a working jog is often trained into the horse through posting, although it may also be done seated.

However, at higher levels, posting is prohibited and the rider must remain seated.

This is simply because western saddles are not really designed with posting in mind.

They can be stood up in, but posting involves constantly standing up and sitting back down.

Too much of this could be bad for the horse’s back when it is wearing the much bulkier western saddle, and this is part of why posting is prohibited at higher levels.

English dressage is really more heavily reliant on posting

Is western dressage easier than English?

First of all, it seems like most people agree that western riding, generally speaking, is easier than English.

The larger saddle provides a more secure, more comfortable seat for novice riders.

In English riding, you have to constantly coordinate multiple factors, like legs, reins and balance in order to keep tight control of the horse.

While the answer is essentially subjective, it does seem fairly safe to say that western dressage is going to be easier than English dressage, then.

It involves a lot less coordination, and the rider can sit much more comfortably on the seat.

From the professional’s point of view, though, they would not be able to achieve the great feats of English dressage without these smaller saddles.

It gives a greater connection between the horse and the rider, and allows the rider to issue a lot more non-verbal commands and instructions.

This couldn’t be done with a western saddle.

So, the answer is a bit tricky, but for the novice, western dressage is certainly easier.

Dressage can seem like a strange tradition to the untrained eye.

It’s often hard to understand just how much training and discipline goes into dressage, and how difficult it truly is to train horses to this level.

English and western dressage are very different in many ways, but the essential goal is still the same.

It’s about showing how perfectly horse and rider can communicate, and how the horse needs only the barest of instructions to carry out its movements.