Re: RC: children's saddles

[EquesB@aol.com]

Sadly, my girls are approaching the teenage years whereby they are abducted 
by aliens, taken to another planet and their bodies are left here on earth 
inhabited by a monster. <vbg>  However, all 3 of my girls rode as youngsters. 
Michelle, now 21, had a pony saddle (which worked quite nicely on our horses) 
made by American Saddle Co., which I would have thought to be cheap, but I 
still have it and use it for other children after 16 years! It seemed to be 
designed more for Western Pleasure as it has a very nice seat and a square 
skirt.  One of my other girls rode in a youth size barrel racing saddle by 
Double R.  It has a very deep seat, high cantle and stirrups placed a tad 
further back than the smaller pleasure saddle.  Even when we were just 
pleasure riding and camping for family fun, we all moved out at speed and 
covered 10 - 20 miles. I think because both saddles have a narrow twist it 
was much easier for them to post, just an observation, of course at that time 
they ranged in age from riding at 5 yrs to still riding at 14.  Currently 
Alice, the 14 yr old, has been riding in a Stonewall, the standard size for a 
Stonewall is 15" seat, I added a fleece seat cover and it worked great for 
her.  The Stonewall is very lightweight.  It is important for me and 
consequently my girls, that they be able to saddle their own horses, even as 
small children, it just seems to instill a greater confidence. As it turned 
out the Stonewall works better on my horses, my OF works better on her Arab, 
and she is now bigger so seat size is not much of an issue. 

Hope this somehow helps. 

Jackie Baker