Lesson 1: Grooming and Tacking up
Explains how to groom and tack up a horse; explains what equipment is needed, what it is used for and, when applicable, how it developed. Explains parts of the saddle and bridle/bit and their effect on the horse. Also includes, most importantly, choosing a suitable horse to learn on if doing it on your own, or choosing a reputable riding academy/instructor if you plan on taking lessons.
Choosing a suitable horse
If you are planning on teaching yourself English equitation, or hunt seat, you will have to have the proper horse. If you have no riding experience at all, it would be best for you to begin by attending a riding academy or taking lessons with a reputable instructor at his or her barn. If you have some experience (but are not yet an expert), it is still advisable to seek expert help, particularly with buying a horse. There is a reason 'horse traders' have a bad name; when I bought my first horse as an adult, my trainer told me to 'count my fingers' if I shook hands with a certain seller of horses. I took that to mean the man was not honest. He wasn't.
The cost of a horse The price of a horse can range from a very low point of $500 for an older horse without many useful years left or for a horse with serious injuries, to multiple thousands for fine horses of any popular breed used for hunt seat: Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses, Morgans, Friesians, European warmbloods, and the 'niche' breeds, such as Akhal Tekes, a breed which sells for a minimum of $25,000.
Horses that are fully trained, or in hunt-seat parlance 'made', are generally between five and ten years old. At those ages, they will command the highest prices likely to be paid for them in their lives (except if they are fancy show horses and win a lot in the next few years, in which case the price can go up.) But if you are a green, that is, inexperienced, rider, you MUST have a fully trained, calm, forgiving horse or pony.
The age of the horse you buy The first thing to decide in buying the horse on which you will learn to ride is this: How dedicated to learning are you going to be? If you are going to ride five days a week, you will progress faster, obviously, than if you ride only once. If you are looking for rapid progression, avoid an older horse nearing the end of his career; as you get more capable, he will get less capable and you will be sadly faced with retiring him just when you could do the most with him. If you want to progress slowly, you may not catch up to the horse's decline; then, when you are ready to move up to a more capable horse, he may be ready to retire.
In general, though, a beginner rider should not buy a horse younger than seven or eight, nor older than about 12.
What breed should you buy? What about the breed? In general, the 'hottest' horses are Thoroughbreds. They will be, generally, least forgiving of your inevitable mistakes. The are faster and more touchy than other horses. Where other breeds may show displeasure by slowing down, they tend to go faster, which need not necessarily be dangerous, but can be very frightening to a beginner.
CAVEAT: Any generalization made about horses will be proven wrong in ten minutes. But take the generalizations to heart anyway, because they will work 90 percent of the time,and at this point, you have no personal experience to draw on. But don't completely rule out exceptions, either, as long as you get good advice about those exceptions.
Quarter Horses and Morgan horses tend to be good choices for people beginning hunt seat. They are the Steady Eddies of the pleasure horse world, and generally not too pricey. Quarter Horses do not mentally mature until they are about ten, believe it or not, so buying one of those at 10 or 11 can work well for a beginner rider. Morgans mature mentally somewhat earlier, as do the other breeds mentioned above.
A word about Paints and Appaloosas: In terms of temperament, they are about the equal of the Quarter Horse. In fact, many people just call them colorful Quarter Horses, or Quarter Horses with spots.
What about size? Horses are measured in hands, and a hand is four inches. So a fifteen hand horse is five feet high at the withers.
The withers is the place where his backbone becomes neckbone and is a little raised bump where you can feel the vertebrae quite well with your fingers.
If you are an adult buying the horse, you will need to consider two things; your height and your weight. (Your weight will also influence which breed you should buy; even though a Thoroughbred may be tall, they are generally fine-boned and 'slab-sided' and could have trouble carrying the weight of a man of 6 feet and 210 pounds, for example. A large man would want to consider a very large, 16+-hand Quarter Horse, or a warmblood (quite bulky horses) or, if he is really heavy, a draft horse cross. These are most often Percherons or Clydesdales crossed with Thoroughbreds.
(A height of 16 hands is still considered tall for a Quarter Horse, as they are usually found at about 15.2 hands. But they have been bred for Quarter Horse racing for many years, and those tend to be taller and generally more Thoroughbred-like in their conformation. But they still behave like the old-fashioned Quarter Horse type.)
For most women between 5'3" and about 5'6", a horse of about 15 hands to 15.3 hands or so is adequate. Women under 5'3" are not too big for all but the smallest small ponies, as far as carrying them, as long as the woman's weight is in proportion to height. But an adult woman cannot show a pony in horse shows, so if she intends to show, then she should not buy a pony.
Junior riders, those who have not reached their 18th birthday, can show ponies. But, of course, most girls, especially, who are 14 or so have reached most of their adult height and would be a problem for a small pony to carry, or even some medium ponies.
That's why, when buying a pony for a child to ride and especially to show, it is often wise to buy a bulky medium or a large pony so the child can continue to show that pony all the years until he or she is no longer a junior rider. Little kids do look cute on little ponies, but that choice should be an option only if you plan on buying new ponies each time the child outgrows one. And then there's the bonding issue to contend with; families often end up with more ponies at home or on board than they intended because they cannot bear to sell the outgrown ponies who have become family members by then, especially if the pony 'taught' the child to ride.
A pony is any horse that measures less than 14.2 hands at the withers. They can be of any breed. NOTE: A Connemara Pony is not a pony per se, but a small, sturdy horse from the west of Ireland. These are now bred in the U.S. as well, and can be a good choice for beginning riders, as long as they are well-trained and old enough. Because they are a very tough breed,they can carry a larger person than one might suppose at first.
Do not buy a horse for its color. Palominos are striking. Grays are elegant. Chestnuts can gleam in the sun. Paints are cute. But none of that matters in your first 'learning to ride' horse. What matters is the forgiving temperament, and complete training.
Seek good advice When you look for a horse, it would be best to take an experienced horsewoman or horseman with you. Have that person ride the horse and tell you whether it would be suitable. But be sure the advisor or reputable and knowledgeable and not prone to taking horses for granted. One of my adult beginner students bought a horse on the advice of a life-long rider who was her neighbor and claimed to know horses. My student was tossed by that horse at least 100 times in the first year she owned him. Why? The horse was a wilfull, green Thoroughbred, and the rider had never--that's NEVER--ridden before. She came for lessons after that, and was just lucky she hadn't gotten seriously hurt in the time before lessons, and was plucky enough to continue with horses anyway. No one needs to go through that.
Try before you buy When you do find a horse that is suitable, make sure the seller will allow you to take it to your farm or to a reputable boarding stable/lesson barn for at least 33 days before you have to purchase it. Why that long? Because if the seller is going to drug the horse, it takes 30 days for some painkilling and/or calming horse medicines to fully wear off. You need to see how the horse is when it is fully itself. And you need for your advisor to see that as well.
A physical for your (maybe) new horse If that all works out fine, then you will need to have the horse vetted. This generally costs about $125, or a little more, and includes the vet giving the horse a general physical, including: palpating its belly, listening to heart and lungs, taking its temperature,looking for signs of disease or injury in its eyes and mouth, ascertaining its age by various physical signs such as the grooves in its teeth, and, very importantly, assessing its legs and how it moves. The vet will have someone jog the horse--lead it at a walk and then a trot--in both directions. And she may want to see it lunged--asked to canter on a 25-foot lead. If she sees something in the horse's gait she doesn't like, she will do a flexion test; she will hold the lower part of the leg in question in a cocked position for a few minutes and then assess how long it takes the horse to recover from the 'flexing' and resume a normal gait when it trots away.
If she is still not satisfied, she may ask if you want to go ahead with a portable x-ray, which will, of course, add cost and also time as vets do not carry the equipment with them as a rule and must make a special trip.
A vet will not tell you, "Do not buy this horse," or "Do buy this horse." She will describe her findings, and a good vet will also have asked you what you plan to do with the horse in terms of riding and sport, and what your own capabilities are. Then she will tell you the probable effect of the horse's condition, whether perfect or compromised in some way, on those things. Then it will be up to you to make the buy decision; again, having a trust-worthy, experienced rider/trainer with you is very, very valuable to help properly interpret what the vet is telling you.
