# Western shows in England UK



## gigem88 (May 10, 2011)

I'm not in England, but I'll give my 2 cents worth! While at the show, I would take to some of the trainers (at least the one/ones willing to listen) and see if they would give you some advice. They might know someone closer to where you live that can help with lessons. Good luck and let us know how you liked the show and post photos. I would love to see English western horses!!


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

gigem88 said:


> I'm not in England, but I'll give my 2 cents worth! While at the show, I would take to some of the trainers (at least the one/ones willing to listen) and see if they would give you some advice. They might know someone closer to where you live that can help with lessons. Good luck and let us know how you liked the show and post photos. I would love to see English western horses!!


I am planning to empty my phone memory over the next week so that i can take lots of pictures. I'm hoping i may get to see some quarter horses but would be nice to see some english breeds that are trained western, may give me something to aim to with my girl. Thanks I will try to get to talk to some of the judges/trainers etc although i'm not sure how accessible they will be. I'll try take a little video so that you can compare the classes too. Would be great if you could compare the western classes over here to over there. I'm sooo excited! I think i grew up in the wrong country where horses and riding and music in fact are concerned.


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Me to Netty which is why I now live in Canada, instead of the UK. Now I'm here though I've gone back to riding English style, how crazy is that?

Hope you enjoy the show, I rode in one Western show in the UK, there were a few QH's, a Fjord, a couple of Welsh Cobs, one beautiful Section D who did really well, and the usual random mixed breeds. I had a great time and people were very friendly and helpful.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Have a good time and do take some videos that you can share with us, ok?

If you ever come 'cross the Pond, come see me and we'll ride western !


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

Golden Horse said:


> Me to Netty which is why I now live in Canada, instead of the UK. Now I'm here though I've gone back to riding English style, how crazy is that?
> 
> Hope you enjoy the show, I rode in one Western show in the UK, there were a few QH's, a Fjord, a couple of Welsh Cobs, one beautiful Section D who did really well, and the usual random mixed breeds. I had a great time and people were very friendly and helpful.


That's really strange! I think maybe it's because it's different. So in UK western is not normal and in my everyday life i like to be a little bit different from the rest of us. Now you are somewhere where western is everywhere you probably enjoy the english riding more. I ride a pure bred section d in my lessons i am taking she is amazing! I love her to bits but i would really love to experience the gaits of a true western horse.


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

tinyliny said:


> Have a good time and do take some videos that you can share with us, ok?
> 
> If you ever come 'cross the Pond, come see me and we'll ride western !


 I would absolutely love to come to US and just have a week long of everything western. I sometimes think about saving to go to the calgary stampede? I have some money saved but i have a two year old daughter so right now it isn't an option but i'm hoping when she starts school that i can convince my mum to have her for the week while I visit and ride ride ride! You never know i might end up on your doorstep. If you see a stranger one day arriving trying to look like a cowgirl but clearly very english that will be me come to hunt you down to ride with me! You ask how would i track you down? If horses and western are together in the same sentence oh don't you worry i will find you!!!!! :lol: I think no matter how many western shows i go to here in the UK i will never be truely satisfied until i have done the real thing!


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Well if it's the Calgary Stampede you want them I'm closer :wink: True rodeo can be found in towns and cities all across the US, a lot cheaper than Calgary and a lot more fun. Calgary is so big and most people are visitors themselves it is a great event, but you don't feel so involved.

We went to a rodeo in Homestead in Florida and I enjoyed it far more, you got to sit on real bleachers, you could nearly touch the action, and the people we spoke to were mostly locals, far morefun.


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## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

Netty, Speaking from memory from my armchair:

There is a very active Western Riding Club somewhere in the Quantock Hills in Somerset - but my memory escapes me where exactly - try the internet.

There's an outfit which trail rides Western on the western edge of Dartmoor near Tavistock. Superb scenery.

About 5 years ago I rode an English horse on a Western saddle down in Pembrokeshire near Narberth. The wife of the owner taught Western riding. As you wrote, an Englishman riding English on a Western saddle.

But much of what I have heard suggests to me that the main interest in the UK of the Western riders is in showing rather than working and riding the horses in a Western fashion. But that can be fun.

There's a farmer who breeds and sells QHs in Caldicot, Monmouthshire.

There's a chap in Ferndown Dorset who rides, breeds and trains QHs & Paints.
I am fairly confident he could teach any young Welsh Cob D to lope and jog.

But Netty to be honest I am not sure what you are looking for will be found in the Western clubs, especially if locally to where you live there is not an active club. 

A well schooled English horse can trot slowly and anyway you could always sit in to a slow trot. It will hand canter if schooled to do so but don't try it on tarmacced lanes. 

Likewise, just because a horse is called a QH, that doesn't mean the horse moves 'Western'. 

Even without buying a QH, most of the smaller English horse breeds can be schooled to lope but you'll need to be taught to ride Western ie one handed,on a loose rein, uncollected, weight on the stirrup bars, on a Western saddle. True the saddle is more comfy than an Englsh cut saddle

But please pursue your interest - I am sure it will be fun.


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

Barry Godden said:


> Netty, Speaking from memory from my armchair:
> 
> There is a very active Western Riding Club somewhere in the Quantock Hills in Somerset - but my memory escapes me where exactly - try the internet.
> 
> ...


Thank you for this information. The people that train and teach that you mentioned above are at the other side of the country to me i'm estimating 8-9 hours south and that's just one way but i appreciate the contacts and will look into them maybe they can recommend someone they know. The nearest active club is about two hours away one way but the show i am attending shortly is around 20 miles away so i'm hoping if there is a great turn out this might make a change in the area. What i would really like to do is work the cattle on the farm where i have my horses but i'm not nearly a good enough rider nor do i think my horse has 'cow'. I'm not talking moving them thousands of acres i would just like to do it for fun from field to field. As there is no opportunity here right now i will take anything i can get so i thought the show might be a great place to start. I already ride on a lose rein the one handed thing i can work on along with the rest i'm in no immediate rush to get started I'm just having fun with my mare right now. so is it worth just sending my mare for western training? She is a veteran mare who isn't all that well schooled english she has been used for many years as a driving mare and then was a broodmare before she came to me.


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## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

Netty, teaching an older horse might prove difficult, from what you say she is set in her ways. I'd certainly suggest that you sent both the horse and yourself to learn the American way together.

Yes the show is a place to start - put yourself about and ask a few questions.

Whenever I have been around Western riders in the UK - and there are quite a few - I have usually come away with the feeling that the social side of things is as important as the horsey side. And they do like dressing up.

As for herding up your cattle, well, I tried it once and nearly died laughing.
We eventually went and got the tractor. Our British cows aren't exactly American steers but luckily they don't have horns either. 

One thing Netty. There is no reason why an English rider can't sit on a Western saddle and ride the horse. The saddle makes it easier. 
And remember any horse you ride will pick up on your nervousness. 

It sounds to me as though you need to meet a placid pedigree Dales pony - that's just down the road from you.

Mind you they can be expensive but one might look after you. Don't worry about the height - they were bred to carry lead across the mountains.

B G


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

I had a Quarter Horse in the UK and he was originally born in Drumnadroichit, although I bought him in Somerset where we were then living, so they are around. 

Here, this is a good place to look, I used to scan the sale ads religiously

aqha.uk.com

and this one, I haven't come across it before http://www.westernridinguk.co.uk/


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

It sounds to me as though you need to meet a placid pedigree Dales pony - that's just down the road from you.

Mind you they can be expensive but one might look after you. Don't worry about the height - they were bred to carry lead across the mountains.

B G[/QUOTE]


I have just that! My mare is a pure bred dales who is around 18 years old. She is a confident but gentle mare who really looks after me and isn't phased by anything that i have come across just yet. I love the native breeds for their hardy, steady and caring natures, although i am sure that there are the exception to the breed just is in any breed. She is 14.2hh just the right height from me to mount from the ground being 5ft2in and when i went to view her she bought me not the other way round we have an amazing bond and when i get nervous or a little unbalanced she automatically slows down until i ask her to go again. I wouldn't trade her for anything. I like the sentence about getting the tractor out that would be me I do enjoy riding in a western saddle and to be honest i don't really have a riding style. I'm not really english as i never have short reins and am always moving my hands around to where i need to be whether that be low to encourage lowering of the head or one hand over towards the other to pick up the shoulder. I'm a very free rider and just do what i feel naturally that would probably make me a bad rider in some peoples eyes but that's how i ride. I always ride on a loose rein although i have to have more contact than i would like with my mare right now as she is used to having that contact there. I like to think i have amixture of the two styles but heck myabe i have no style I'm going to have to get a video up here so you all can see and decide what style i am.:?


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

Golden Horse said:


> I had a Quarter Horse in the UK and he was originally born in Drumnadroichit, although I bought him in Somerset where we were then living, so they are around.
> 
> Here, this is a good place to look, I used to scan the sale ads religiously
> 
> ...


To be honest i don't think i would invest in another horse at the moment and i certainly wouldn't sell my mare. I do scan the sales ads quite regularly and have seen a relatively cheap QH/lusitano for sale but i have to shut my eyes to them kind of ads as my brain doesn't think rationally about horses i just get all excited and want them all. I then have to go to my trainer and she tells me not to be so silly:lol: I'm really looking forward to the show and i hope i can learn alot and decide if any of the western classes are something that i could realistically aim for. If not i will go back to riding my own style in a western saddle


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## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

Netty, you've got the horse - go find a cowboy


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

Barry Godden said:


> Netty, you've got the horse - go find a cowboy


 oops!

I'm really trying i may need to move! is that a little insane??


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

Golden Horse said:


> I had a Quarter Horse in the UK and he was originally born in Drumnadroichit, although I bought him in Somerset where we were then living, so they are around.
> 
> Here, this is a good place to look, I used to scan the sale ads religiously
> 
> ...


Did you do any western classes with you QH?


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

netty83 said:


> To be honest i don't think i would invest in another horse at the moment and i certainly wouldn't sell my mare.



LOL I was just suggesting it as a research tool, that's why I used it, as well as drooling over the ads, but I am a window shopper..

Oh, and the horses I have here I ride English and Western, the spotty boy in my signature pic, I bought him to ride western, but he is equally good at English. My arab mare goes well in either style, and the big mare Bert who I have just restarted, and has always looked like an English horse me, has the best jog I've ever ever sat to, I'm hoping that the lope will be as good, and then I will be happy to ride her either style as well.


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

netty83 said:


> Did you do any western classes with you QH?


Only trail and Western pleasure


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## netty83 (Sep 21, 2010)

that's what i would like to do have the choice to ride either or. Sounds like you have some great horses!


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