People I know who have switched from Western to English remark that they feel like there's nothing to hang on to... I don't know if they just mean fewer handles or if they also mean there is less cantle and less to 'grip' with for the leg and seat.
I'm gonna guess that at first it will feel foreign, but that you'll get used to it in time. You know I'm a chicken, I don't want to fall off, and I feel like I stay pretty balanced in it. You may have to use your seat differently to arrive at security.
My personal preference, having not ridden western much is that in a Western saddle I felt the horse was stiff and plastic, like a merry-go-round horse. I'm not saying the horse actually was stiffer, only that I couldn't feel the horse as closely, which includes feeling the coiling of developing tension before a horse moves, in order to anticipate the next move. I also felt like the horn was in the way of leaning forward or even petting the horse on the neck.
'My personal preference, having not ridden western much is that in a Western saddle I felt the horse was stiff and plastic, like a merry-go-round horse. I'm not saying the horse actually was stiffer, only that I couldn't feel the horse as closely, which includes feeling the coiling of developing tension before a horse moves, in order to anticipate the next move. I also felt like the horn was in the way of leaning forward or even petting the horse on the neck."
That's why I use a bareback pad on Tuffy and always rode bareback growing up. It's so funny that you said that, I was just talking about that exact thing last night with Mandy.