Horse Care For Beginners

There’s been a lot written on the subject, but I have never before stopped to really think about just how extensive the list is, and just how dangerous some plants can be to horses. Obviously the list of plants will vary according to a number of factors such as which country or territory you’re in, the climatic conditions including the temperature range and rainfall, and the condition of your pasture. I’ll not try to cover them all (Wikipedia lists over 80 species) but just those that probably the most significant.

I’ll talk about what I see as the benefits in more detail but I think the core benefit is that it gives riders the opportunity to learn and progress in many riding disciplines under the guidance of qualified instructors and at relatively low cost.

My first experience of horse loneliness was about nine years ago. A year prior my partner, Jill, and I moved from the mainland to a property in Tasmania bringing our horses with us … plus two dogs and a cat! We’d been here roughly a year and where just driving out to meet a friend in Hobart. Our horses were in our front paddock and as we drove past I had a feeling that something was wrong.

I’ve often wondered, if had I know about them, whether I’d have been better off had I gone for one of the numerous versions of a Western Saddle. So purely out of interest I recently did a little research on this form of saddle. Not being a teenager any more, I thought that perhaps the western saddle would have given me more security when riding, particularly the horn which I felt I could hang onto if I suddenly felt insecure (I was accustomed to using a martingale which was always there for me to grab in an emergency).

Horse transport or more specifically, floating or trailering.
Have you ever seen a half-frightened horse surrounded by a number of people who are flapping their hands in the air and shouting in an effort to get the poor horse into a horse trailer? It does happen, but it need not. To load or unload your horse into or from a trailer just requires a lot of patience and time spent on training. In this process the most important thing to avoid is giving your horse a bad experience.