Racing saddles are lightweight saddles with a flat seat and cantle with small, short and forward cut saddle flaps and very short stirrup leathers allowing the jockey to crouch over the saddle thus allowing the horse to gallop at high speeds with little wind resistance.
Exercise saddles are used for day-to-day race training and smaller, lighter weight race saddles are used during horse races.
The majority of race exercise saddles and racing saddles are synthetic as synethic materials are lightweight.
