Side Saddle - Pics

[Funky MeerKAT]

Does any one else here do side saddle? I picked it up a few years ago and while I am mostly eventing I find this to be a fun hobby!! I just found a piccy so I thought I would post it. It would be great to see other peoples SS piccys too!!

http://tinypic.com/6pvk92.jpg

[Lindsayanne]

Thanks for posting a picture. I think side saddle is so neat! Was it hard to learn? I've head it takes much more balance!

[Funky MeerKAT]

No one else does side saddle? There have been a few posts about it...

Anyway, my story...
When I was about 15 I watched a show on Animal Planet about side saddle riding, it looked really awesome and the things they could do were amazing!! Mum had had a really old side saddle sitting out in the shed for ages, it was a rather tatty one one, but I cleaned it up and put it on my pony and went for a test drive!!

Its really not that hard, my pony took to it straight away and let me do anything, we had a walk, trot and canter and I was like, wow, this is fun!!

SS gives a really different feeling, you are sitting much further back on the horse and up higher too, this gives you a lofty, elegant and important feel, you feel like a high class lady.

It took a couple of weeks to build up the muscle to do it, to start with your right leg gets very sore as this is the legs holding you on. And you have to work how to give the aids with only one leg, you have to supprt the other side with a long whip. My pony was so good a voice comands that I 'cheated' and just told him what to do with my voice and it the ring he would just go off the judges commands, he was such a neat pony.

Our first SS show was Horse of the Year!! We won a novice class and was told that I could go in the title class, which we got reserve in. A lot of the other horses didn't seem to have taken to it like my pony so we got extra marks for manners, plus he had the most gorgeous extended trot!!

Oh and we got a new saddle too, just as we started looking for one we found an add in the newspaper advertising one and it was five minutes down the road from us!! It is a beautiful saddle (the one in the picture) and the lady gave us the habit as well.

If anyone has an old SS hanging around and lots of people do, you really should give it a try!!

[Wally]

I mess about, never do concours, but it's fun to do on a gaited horse, why I ever rode an ordinary gaited horse aside I don't know.

http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48242&page=2&pp=20 there is a pic ss on this thread.

[Tharg]

Do you always feel perched up high when riding side saddle or do you get used to it?.

[Funky MeerKAT]

Wally - What a cute pony!!

Tharg - I wouldn't say that you feel 'perched', but you do feel high, you feel tall, proud and elegant, its great!!

[Wally]

Not sure I have ever felt perched as such, but tall and elegant maybe, if I could ever be described as elegant!

This is our Fjord mare Side saddle, elegant she will never be. She's a bit like a train, she only stops when she gets to the buffers! :D :D :D she would never tank off with you, she's just a bit like an over enthusiastic vicar's wife at the local fete.

[Glider]

This is me sidesaddle, I'm sorry it's so dark

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/feelingfaded/Windsor013.jpg

[Funky MeerKAT]

Wow, very flash, looks so much better with a top hat and veil!! I was still a junior at the time so I had to wear a safety helmet, this year I can wear a top hat.

[Wally]

I'm not sure I'd ever wear a topper, I'll stick to the tweed and bowler. Toppers are for wearing with horses of breeding, M&M need tweed! :cool: :cool:

[mazda]

I'd love to learn ss but there is no where around, the closet place is 2 hours away! Anway is it hard to go from astride to ss and which do you like better and is more fun?

[Wally]

It's not hard, you can swap and chop and change as you please, okay it is different and takes a while to get the right muscles strong enough.

SS is fun, but it's fun because it's exciting, if you don't like exciting maybe it's not for you.

[Funky MeerKAT]

Do you have your own horse mazda? If you do you just need a side saddle. A lot of people just have them lying around, if you ask around for one or put an add the newspaper you are bound to find one, its often non-horsey people that have them too.
And yes it is different, I wouldn't do it as a disapline on its own, but its a really fun hobby. Most of the people that do it in NZ are also into normal showing or dressage, I think I'm the only eventer...

[Glider]

I love riding both aside and astride, but find sidesaddle more difficult, especially jumping!

If you are going to ride side saddle on your own horse (rather than with an instructor) you will need to get one fitted, as they fit differently to a normal saddle and can severly harm the horse's back if they don't fit correctly. There are lots of saddles about (mine is for the 1930s) but it's harder to find ones for wider horses as in the past ladies mainly rode on thoroughbred types so the older saddles tend to be narrower.

[lindz]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/linz123/Felicia3-1.jpg

This is me on a Highland I used to own & do side saddle with. In the picture I was 15 so turned out as a junior (which is why Im not wearing a bowler). Aslo you cannot just put any side saddle on your horse, it must be properly fitted to fit the horse AND the rider!

[Tharg]

she's just a bit like an over enthusiastic vicar's wife at the local fete.

ROFL Wally! :D

[Wally]

..well, she is, she'd wear a big floral dress, with a floppy hat with cherries in it, a smashing handbag with a clasp which makes a reassuringly good "SNAP" as she closes it. Then she'd join in the sack race with the kiddies, one hand on her hat, her handbag swinging wildly while holding up the sack with the same hand....can't you just see it? ...."coming through darlings!" and everything would be "Splendid" and "very worthwhile" always full of enthusiasm , our Kina! :D :D :D

[Tharg]

LOL Wally!, I`m like that with my cat as well, imagine what she is like as a person. She would be very ditsy and most certainly not a lady!, she would be a page three girl with amazing jumping ability judging by the shapes she throws on the carpet and landings. She would also be neurotic and have zero cop on.