Tack reference Tuesday, part two

Today's first post focussed on the old style saddles at the Akhal Teke World Championship, which was held this past weekend in the Netherlands. In this post, we're looking at the newer, Western-influenced Turkmen saddles. All photos in both posts were taken by my friend and fellow model horse hobbyists, Anne Veeneman–van der Weel.

Anne sent me a link to her pictures before she wrote the post. This was one of the first I clicked on. It opened, and I thought, "Wow! That's a Western saddle."

As Anne describes in her post, a closer look reveals several differences. The horn,

the swells,

the fenders...

and all the various accoutrements are different, 

But underneath all that?

It's basically a double rigged Western saddle.

I had no idea this was a thing.

Now I'm obsessed.

Someone needs to make a Western style Akhal Teke tack set stat!

Here's another saddle that Anne photographed in the village.

Decoration and horn aside, this one is all Western.

I have one more "Akhal Teke" saddle to share in the next post.