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Saddling up

© Sally White

There's a painting hanging in the Tate Gallery, in London, by the artist, George Stubbs, which I've never been able to look at without wincing. It shows a lion leaping on a white horse's back and sinking his teeth into its spine: the look of agony and fear in the horse's eyes stands your hair up on end. It is, quite clearly, a horse's worst nightmare.

The great horse whisperer, Monty Roberts, believes that when you put a saddle on a horse's back, it triggers those primaeval fears again. To a horse, a strange object landing suddenly and without warning on his back is the equivalent of being attacked. Not, as you can imagine, a relaxing experience!

That's why it pays to take your time over introducing a saddle for the first time. A horse will get over his fears and learn that this strange-smelling leather thing isn't something to worry about - but only if his fears are never realised. A saddle that pinches, is roughly banged down on his back, or puts pressure on his loins or withers is biting him just as surely as that mountain lion would have done.

A familiar object, which a horse sees around his stable every day and has good access to, is clearly not going to be as frightening as a lion. So it's a good idea to get a young horse very familiar with saddles before you try to introduce one on his back for the first time.

The trouble is that a saddle is an expensive thing! If you have an old saddle, or can borrow one from a friend, this is best to start with in case it does get slobbered on or chewed. A saddle can be introduced in a controlled way - perhaps by sitting it on your horse's stable door for half an hour, letting him sniff it and snort at it until he eventually gets bored and takes no notice. Once he is familiar with the smell and the look of a saddle, you're halfway there.

I also find it helps if a horse is already used to wearing rugs. I was rugging up my thin-skinned Anglo Arab from about a year old, using the same approach to introducing her to rugs as I've outlined here for saddles, and so by the time I put a saddle on her when she was three, she was more than used to having things put on her back and even having straps passed under her belly - a sensitive issue for most horses as this is another vulnerable area. With native pony types who are not usually rugged, this may not be so easy, but even putting on a sweat rug or light day rug regularly would be useful.

"Lion attacking Horse" by George Stubbs

A Wintec saddle

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