Western and english riders have a variety of mounted activities from which to choose from. 
Both english and western riding have their different activities, or disciplines. If you already know that you want to barrel race, or to jump, you’ve got a head start in knowing which way you will ride.
Being english myself, I’ve always been biased towards english riding. But as my knowledge has grown, I’ve learned that there’s more to western riding than throwing a leg over the horse and hitting the trail.
For example, western riders can participate in western pleasure, barrel racing, roping and cutting, reining, competitive trail classes and more.
Western pleasure is a showing class in which horses are shown in a group in the arena, performing changes of gait and direction as requested by the judge. Horses are judged for their appearance, style and movement.
In barrel racing, horse and rider enter the arena at high speed and negotiate a pattern of three barrels, turning tightly around each barrel without going too wide (and wasting precious seconds, or cutting in too close and possibly knocking a barrel over and losing points. This is a speed sport and the fastest across the finish line wins.
In roping events, the rider follows a steer out of the chute, aims and throws the lasso while riding at speed. He then secures the lasso around the saddle horn and the specially trained horse comes to a quick halt to hold the steer. The rider quickly dismounts, grounds the steer and quickly ropes its legs. Another speed event, the quickest person to get his steer roped and raise his arms to signal to the judge that he has completed the task, wins.
Cutting takes a very special horse. In cutting events, horse and rider enter a group of cattle and single one out. The horse moves the steer away from the other cattle and then prevents it from moving back to the herd for a preset period of time. Since the steer is determined to join his herdmates, the horse will have to continually face the steer and anticipate which way it will go, moving himself quickly left and right to block escape. 
In reining classes, horse and rider perform a preset pattern of movements, involving circles, spins, slides and turns. Reining has been called the “western dressage” and is always a crowd pleaser and each horse’s performance is accompanied by whoops and hollers from the audience. Horses and riders are judged on the obedience of the horse to the riders aids and on accuracy.
In competitive trail classes, horses enter the arena separately and work through a series of obstacles, such as gates, patterns of poles which they must reverse through etc. The idea is to simulate in the show ring, such obstacles as may be found out on the trail. Horses are judged for their obedience to the rider’s aids and the willingness with which they perform each task set them.
So get out there and try Western riding for yourself and let me know what you think!
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