Does anyone have a saddle?

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with lead line showing, and could help me work out what saddle i need!?

• My 4 year old daughter has been riding for a few years in my old stock saddle. But I think its time she got her own! I have found a nice 12 inch suede saddle for sale, but wont get to try it out before i buy. Is 12 inches way too small for a 4 year old? 14 inch seems large to me. Anyone got there child riding in a 12 inch english saddle?

• Answer:

  I got my first western saddle when I was about 8, my trainer picked it out so it fit me correctly, I believe it was a 12.5" or a 13" (I'm leaning towards 13") I used it for about 3 show seasons (so until I was about 11) when I finally grew out of it i was told to get a 14", but they didn't carry any nice models or colours in my buget so we went with a 15" that would fit atleast until I was in my late teens, but I sold it and I'm now english, but I kept my little saddle beacuse it's not exactly taking up tons of space, and I can still squeeze into it if I want to ride a pony. So I think you should go for a 12.5", but take her into a tack shop to sit on a few saddles and see how they look and feel.  I just realized that you ment about English saddles so I will leave the other part and try to awnser the real question... I am 13 a 13 year old average sized(kindof on the skinny side) girl. I ride in a 16.5" english saddle. A 14" (I have compared my saddle to one) is pretty small, but probably not small enough. Seeing as your daughter is used to riding western(so used to the horn being there for balance) I would suggest ordering a leadline saddle.  http://greenhawk.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/scstore/p-RIE0024.html?L+scstore+pfgz2858ff754075+1275384506 Sort of like that one. It is a 12" and our barn has 2 of them for the owners son's ponies(there are 3 boys but only 2 actually show intrest in riding only 1 rides because the other is too young to handle the ponies who are only greenbroke and the 3rd one is allergic to horses) So long story short, the owner of the barn(she is smaller) had to train the ponies in those saddles, so as you probably figured she was able to use them aswell as one of the staff, uncomforatbly of course, but still useable, so I'd say go for the 12", but get a leadline saddle beacuse they sent as expensive as a leather saddle, or just start with one of those so that she can transition from having a more secure(horn incase and the swell) saddle incase of a spook( I'm sure your horse is really close to or even bombproof, but sometimes accidents happen) to grab onto, but if you do go with an English saddle you should get a grab/bucking strap for the front of the saddle so she has something to grab for balance. Haha I know my awnser is really long, but once I start on a subject i can't stop, as you can see here :P