Dressage Saddle Focus

In this month’s blog I’m taking a closer look at dressage saddles, including why people decide to invest in them, the different styles you can choose from and what you can expect from an AMZ dressage saddle. If you’ve recently started focusing on dressage with your horse or you’re keen to move up the levels in eventing, you might just find this a helpful read.

Dressage saddle focus

The main reason why most people choose to buy a specialist dressage saddle is the unique design that promotes proper rider alignment. Dressage saddles feature a deep seat and long, straight-cut flaps that allow your leg to hang straight down, enabling very effective leg aids. This position also enables you to maintain a deep, secure seat and an upright posture, and that helps with stability (which in turn helps you give more precise aids). The straight cut design also gives more freedom to the horse’s shoulder, helping them extend and elevate under saddle.

Dressage saddles are also designed to offer very close contact and are usually monoflap. As I detailed in this AMZ blogearlier this year, monoflap saddles have one flap (hence ‘mono’!) which lies against the horse’s side. Your leg goes on top, and instead of the girth billets sitting between the two saddle flaps, they hang below the saddle flap. Monoflap saddles give a superb close contact feel - there’s a lot less leather between your leg and the horse - which again helps the rider give precise aids and get excellent feedback from the horse. You can buy dual flap dressage saddles if you prefer that style, but our dressage-specific designs here at AMZ are monoflap.

AMZ dressage saddles

I have created three different dressage saddle designs here at AMZ - the Avicii, the Blackton and the Platinum. The latter was unveiled last year to mark the late Her Majesty the Queen the II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and it’s a gorgeous, sleek saddle that utilises all my knowledge gained over the years. The Avicii is a classic design with smooth curves, a super deep and padded seat, and the Blackton is a more contemporary style. I can send images of all three saddle designs if you are interested and would love to know more about each! You can learn more about my saddles here.