Horse Care For Beginners

Irrespective of what you may call them: equestrian bridles, horse bridles, or just plain old ‘bridles’, bridling a horse is not as easy as it may seem. If you do something wrong, it may be do long term trauma to your horse. And you may may be affected or injured as well.

I’d like to begin with a little story, not about horses, but about dogs. Just an example of what the right type of exercise can achieve. For many years I was the proud owner of a German Shepherd (Alsation to some), named Valli, who was with me when I lived on my own in a large suburban house on a small land block. Being self-employed I also worked from home. My Shepherd was with me night and day and, by necessity spent much of her day inside.

Grooming is an important part of dealing with problem horses.
This may sound simplistic but I can assure you it’s true. I’ve talked about the importance of grooming before, in particular with regard to communicating with your horse. However it’s probably one of the easiest things to do when caring for a problem horse. A horse will often find love for and trust of his owner through the grooming process.

Just as you mature, so does your horse. But don’t under-rate him. He’s probably been a great companion for you, possibly for many years, and he deserves your continuing love and attention. I was asked the other day what I considered to be “old” for horse. My brief answer was “any horse of twenty years or more”. When you think about it, a horse of 20, in human terms, would make him around 60 year.

My first horse. I was in my early 50’s when I first started riding. I was full enthusiasm and keen to get really involved. I’d just bought a 10 acre property with lush pasture and so had plenty of space to keep a horse. The fencing was excellent as the property had formerly been a deer farm and was fenced accordingly. So I decided to buy a horse.

This is my story about how I went about changing a racehorse, actually a steeplechaser, into a horse that felt comfortable about being used solely for pleasure riding, primarily trail riding.

Easy Horse Care:  Part 3
All horse lovers know that one of the greatest things about owning your own horse is getting to ride him. You wake in the morning, the sun’s shining, so you decide on a before breakfast ride. But there are occasions when you wake feeling really down and out. So what better [...]

Get to know your horse.
Now that you’ve got your very own horse, it’s time for you to get to know him. And to learn how to teach him to get to know you.
Horses really are beautiful and sensitive creatures. Be aware, however, that horses observe the herd system. Their instinct in the wild is for [...]

 
You can probably feel it in your blood. Why? Because the warmer weather is coming. Spring is in the air. As you wander around out of doors you notice that, at last, the grass is starting to grow and the paddocks are recovering their lush, green look. At this time you can vividly imagine yourself [...]