# Saddle Seat vs. Hunt Seat



## raywonk (Jan 9, 2011)

saddle seat is for gaited hotse. They ride with a long sturp. They do not post.


----------



## Countrylady1071 (May 12, 2010)

You actually can post in non-gaited saddleseat, and saddleseat is definitely not just for gaited breeds. Go to YouTube and search saddleseat.. You'll see how different it is from hunt seat!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## aneternalflame (May 25, 2009)

raywonk said:


> saddle seat is for gaited hotse. They ride with a long sturp. They do not post.


Not necessarily true. While some gaited breeds do ride under saddleseat tack, many trotting breeds do saddleseat on a large scale, such as Morgans, Saddlebreds, Friesians, Arabians, National Show Horses, Dutch Harness Horses, Hackneys, etc.

When riding saddleseat, your horse shifts back and gets under himself while raising the neck and freeing the shoulders to lift higher. Saddleseat has several divisions (within trotting breeds, and I will explain the ASB divisions as well), in Morgans, these divisions are Classic, which is in general, the least knee action and is limited to amateur riders. The class is nearly the same in ASBs, but these horses can only be keg shod, and it is not limited to the amateur rider. This is called Country Pleasure. Same name in Arabians. 

The middle division, in Morgans and Arabs, is English Pleasure. These are the the mid-level knee action horses. This is comparable to three-gaited pleasure in ASBs. 

The gaits called for in Classic and English Pleasure in the Morgan world are the walk, trot, road trot, and canter. The walk is a flat walk.

The highest stepping division in Morgans, Arabs, and ASBs is Park. These horses are powerful, high trotting, and hot. The classes called for, at least in Morgans, are the park walk (it is not required to be a flat walk), the park trot, and the canter.

There are also driving classes that are saddleseat-type. In Morgans, these are Classic Pleasure Driving, Pleasure Driving, and Park Harness.

ASBs also have a 5-Gaited division, which is walk, trot, canter, plus slow gait and rack.

Equitation in saddle seat is fairly simple in concept, but often very difficult to learn when you are used to hunt seat. A saddleseat rider sits at the back of the saddle, often leaning slightly back or perfectly straight up. The knee and toe of the rider should be aligned. Hands are held higher than they would be in hunt seat.

Here is a video of a Morgan classic pleasure class:






And here is a saddleseat equitation video:


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Saddleseat is much harder to do than it looks!


----------



## CountryJay (Apr 7, 2010)

Thank you all a ton. aneternalflame, thank you so much. That post was very helpful. The horse that I am would be showing is a Paso Fino. Are there special divisions/classes for Paso Finos?


----------



## aneternalflame (May 25, 2009)

CountryJay said:


> Thank you all a ton. aneternalflame, thank you so much. That post was very helpful. The horse that I am would be showing is a Paso Fino. Are there special divisions/classes for Paso Finos?


I personally have never shown a gaited saddleseat horse, so I'm not sure. If you're showing in breed shows, they'll probably have class lists on specific show websites. If you're showing at open shows, many of them just have an 'english pleasure' class, which encompasses all english seats, be it hunt, dressage tack, or saddleseat, so I would guess you'd show in that? But don't take my word for it! As I said, I don't do gaited horses and have no experience with them.


----------



## CountryJay (Apr 7, 2010)

Ok, thank you anyways!


----------



## KBailey13 (Jul 10, 2011)

CountryJay said:


> Thank you all a ton. aneternalflame, thank you so much. That post was very helpful. The horse that I am would be showing is a Paso Fino. Are there special divisions/classes for Paso Finos?


I used to show gaited horses saddleseat, but now show arabians saddleseat...
Some shows, like local ones have just a regular english class..which means you can show huntseat or saddleseat in that class. When you get to a little bigger of shows, they split saddlseat and huntseat. You would enter the saddleseat class, even if you have a gaited horse. Some judges however, might not recognize the gaited brees (which has happened to me before) and will not place you. I know its not fair, but it does happen. Bigger shows however, have an actual paso fino class, arabian class, TWH class, etc. But if you are showing saddleseat and you find a class that just says english or saddleseat, you can enter it. There is no rule that you cant. It just depends on the judge. When you go higher up in showing, some shows have specificly a flat class like only gaiting (gaited horses are not very well known for cantering)..soo if you enter a normal english class, you will most likely be asked to canter.


----------

