These Boots are Made for Walking (and so is other stuff)

     There's an awful lot of equipment that goes along with walking horses. Today's post  is all about the shoes and saddles you need to for a walking horse.

This is a Western saddle. This what most people think of when they think of a saddle. The original purpose of western style saddles were spread the rider's weight over a larger area of the horses back. This is to make things more comfortable for the horse for long rides. It also has a little more equipment to help the rider stay on the horse (keep reading, I explain this later), 

     The other kind of saddle is an English style saddle. It is much smaller than the western saddle, and is made to hold the rider closer to the horse. This guy scares me a little bit, because I feel like nothing is there to keep me intact if things get a little rough.

     In the walking horse world, the different kinds of saddles are in divisions of horse shows (such as the Celebration). Divisions are called "classes."

      You guys should know that I like to make stuff. I feel like making models of things gives me such a better understanding of what things are and how they work. So this is my model of a western saddle (originally, it was going to English, but I just like western better). To break down the parts of a saddle, I have color coded arrows. The yellow arrow is point to the saddle horn. The red points to the part of the saddle that holds you in. This is much more pronounced in western saddles than in English saddles. Purple points to the seat of the saddle. The light blue arrow shows the leather flap, which protects your leg from the buckles and such that attach to the girth (the thing that goes under the horse and ties on the saddle). The light brown arrow shows what I call "The Oh No Handle." It's pretty self explanitory, if something happens that makes you want to say, "OH NO!" then grabbing the oh no handle, might be a good idea. Last but not least, the pink arrow points to the saddle pad, which is not actually part of the saddle. Its job is to protect the horse from the saddle's buckles and such (much like the leather flap goes for the rider). It also absorbs sweat, like a sock.
    Much like people do, horses need shoes for walking. There are LOTS of different kinds of shoes. I'll show you pictures, but I'm not going to bore you with all the different purposes and uses for them. (Partially because you would loose interest, and partially because I don't remember everything, and I don't want to tell you guys the wrong thing) It really surprised me that there were so many more kinds of shoes other than just the typical horseshoe shape.

Cowgirl Out.