| Appreciating the wide variety of saddles available | | | | riding disciplines, including so-called "cowboy" activities |
| today is all the easier once one learns a bit about this | | | | as well as the kinds of equestrian events seen in the |
| fascinating and extremely useful tool for riding a horse. | | | | Olympics and other competitions. |
| Basically, the saddle is a supporting device for a | | | | If a saddle is properly cared for and maintained, it can |
| horseback rider. It's fastened to the animal on its back | | | | last for literally decades. There are many examples of |
| and is kept there by what's called a girth, for starters. | | | | the Western saddle (first pioneered by Mexican |
| These days, the most common type of saddle is the | | | | vaqueros in the 19th century) that are still being written |
| one intended for equestrian use, and which is also | | | | by men and women who received the saddle from |
| called an equestrian saddle. While not intended for use | | | | fathers who got them from their fathers who, in turn, |
| on a horse, there are a wide variety of other riding | | | | received the saddle from their own fathers. |
| tools made for other animals such as camels, making | | | | The modern saddle as people know it today is the |
| this simple yet versatile device extremely common | | | | result of a segmentation into two different general |
| throughout the world. | | | | types; the English and the Western saddle. A variation |
| Historically, scholars believe that the first rudimentary | | | | of the English saddle came into being as a means to |
| saddle made its appearance somewhere around 800 | | | | improve the equestrian discipline of dressage, while |
| BC. These were crude devices and generally | | | | certain variations of the Western saddle developed |
| consisted of nothing more than a pad or two that was | | | | into the classic US Army cavalry saddle, the McClellan. |
| attached to the back of a horse by a kind of strap | | | | Saddles are as ubiquitous to the American West and |
| known as a surcingle. Over time, this saddle was | | | | Southwest as Roy Rogers or John Wayne is to the |
| gradually improved. By 200 BC a saddle tree was | | | | old-time Western movie, it would seem. They come in |
| added, with stirrups appearing about 300 A. D. | | | | a wide variety of styles and purposes, including the |
| For the most part, the many different versions of the | | | | classic Western, or "cowboy, " saddle as well as the |
| saddle seen today date to the 18th and 19th centuries. | | | | purpose-built equestrian saddle seen on the backs of |
| Nowadays, a wide variety of these useful horse riding | | | | many horses ridden by Olympic equestrian |
| implements are purpose-built for specific kinds of horse | | | | competitors. |