The newsletter of HorseHobbyist.com October 3, 2002 In This Issue: *From the Editor *Fall Horse Trivia in the Equestrian Tavern *Fall Tips and Photo Contests! *Tack, Part One Message From the Editor Here we are in our new home! Please come by HorseHobbyist.com and check us out! Our weekly hosted chats are held in the Paddock. We have lots of fun at the Saturday Night Barn Party from 9-11 PM Eastern. And if you're a big fan of spots, you won't want to miss Appaloosa Chat every Monday from 9-11 PM Eastern. And of course, we all need to spend some time Horsing Around on Wednesday evenings from 10-11 PM Eastern. All these chats are in the Paddock! You can join us at that link, or if you are already a user of IRC chat, just visit us in #thepaddock on server irc.webmaster.com. Also, be sure to visit the Horse Photo Gallery, which has a great array of horse photos already, plus places for you to upload your photos and comment on those others have uploaded. The message boards are providing a home for our many communities now, and we'd love to hear your suggestions for changes - lots are planned, but we always want to know what our users would like to see! I hope everyone stops in and says hi! Janelle/PH Cody HorseHobbyist.com Site Coordinator PHCody Equine Trivia Contest Known as "da Tavern" to its denizens and fans, the Equestrian Tavern is the place where horse lovers kick back and have fun. Right now, you can play weekly rounds of Fall Horse Trivia, or just pull up a hay bale and hang out! Come on by! Fall Horse Tips and Photo Contests! Brrr! It's getting cold, and it's time to get our horses ready for winter. Check out HorseHobbyist.com's Fall Tips for Horses, then come inside, make a big hot cup of cocoa, and curl up with your computer and enter our Fall Photo Contest and our Halloween Photo Contest! Check them both out in the Living With Horses Forum! Even if you don't have any photos of your own to enter, you can comment on other people's entries in our Photo Gallery! Tack, Part 1 By PH Piaffe Welcome to the first installment in a short series of articles about equine clothing. Wondering what I’m talking about? Simple! Tack! A lot of people think that tack is just the saddle and bridle. Not true! Tack is anything that comes in contact with your horse – saddles, bridles, blankets, halters, saddlepads, schooling equipment, even grooming tools and boots can be considered tack. Saddles There are two basic types of saddles, English and Western. Within these two types are several different categories, each designed with a specific purpose in mind. Western saddles are typically much heavier and bulkier with a trademark horn used for dallying a rope when working cattle. Even though they are heavy, they distribute their weight and the rider’s weight over a relatively large area of the horse’s back when compared with an English saddle. There are several different types of Western saddle, these principally being: Pleasure saddles, which have a flatter seat and smaller horn, and are often tooled or have silver adornments for the show ring. Roping, which have a deep seat and tall horn, and are often double rigged to provide additional security when working cattle. Endurance, which have no horn and are usually built on a plastic or light fiberglass tree for less weight and ease of maintenance. Barrel Racing, which are also very light and typically have rounded corners as opposed to the traditional square rigging. Parade saddles, which are a variation on the pleasure saddle, often in black leather and heavily ornamented with silver. English saddles are a whole different kettle of fish entirely. They are made to place the rider in direct contact with the horse’s back, and thus are much smaller and lighter than Western saddles. They fall into three basic categories, all of which have a more or less specific use. These are: Jumping and Close Contact, which have a very flat seat and flaps cut far forward over the horse’s shoulder to provide a forward balance for the rider jumping or doing work at speed. This enables the rider to sit directly over the horse’s center of gravity as it shifts forward and back to jump, or forward in galloping cross-country. All Purpose saddles are a variation of the jumping saddle without the extreme forward cut of the flaps. They are a good compromise for the beginner, or for a person who does several events with one horse, as they can be used for flatwork and jumping smaller obstacles, but for the advanced rider, they are a bit too restrictive of the seat to allow truly effective riding. Dressage saddles have a very deep seat and long, straight flaps. They cannot be used in jumping because they place the rider in a position where the seat and legs are deeply in the saddle, over the horse’s slightly tilted back center of gravity. The weight is used here as a very effective aid, hence the deep seat of the saddle. Most dressage saddles have long billets, so that the bulk of the buckles of girth and stirrup leathers are not under the rider’s thigh, allowing more sensitive communication with the horse. Saddleseat saddles are large and have a very wide cut back head, often called a “cow mouth” configuration. They are used exclusively on park horses and gaited horses such as Saddlebreds, Arabians, Tennessee Walkers, Morgans, National Show Horses, and the like. They place the rider in an extreme rearward configuration, which allows the horse to lift its front end and encourages maximum action from the shoulders. Bridles Similarly, there are several different types of bridle. The purpose of the bridle is to hold the bit in place and allow the rider to influence the horse’s mouth, nose, and poll. To keep things simple, for now we will only discuss two different bridles, the snaffle (or simple curb), and the full (or double) bridle. Snaffle bridles: typically are very simple, consisting of a headstall, to which cheekpieces are attached for holding the bit in place, browband or ear loop, noseband, throatlash, bit, and reins. Western bridles often don’t have many of these parts, indeed some consist only of a loop holding the bit, and a pair of reins! A simple snaffle or one-piece curb (depending on discipline) is placed in the horse’s mouth and the rider uses the pressure of a single rein to guide the horse. Full bridles are more complex, using the action of two bits, both a snaffle, in this case called a bradoon, and a curb, to influence the horse. They allow more complex communication, as the snaffle is used to raise the head and neck and soften the jaw, while the curb is used to determine the degree to which the horse will flex at the poll. In a dressage horse, the communication remains primarily through the snaffle, with the curb only used as a fine-tuning device. In the park horse, the curb is the primary agent of communication, with the snaffle being used to pick the horse up if it leans on the bit, as many park horses do. Join us next month for more discussion, this time of halters and schooling equipment. Hoofbeats is copyright 2002 by OnlineHobbyist.com unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.
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