TIPS FOR BEGINNERS
For all you true beginners - if you have never been around a horse, but are excited at the prospect of owning one, first do your homework. A good book to start with is "Horsewatching" by Desmond Morris. This book will tell you how to read the body language of a horse, why they whinny, do horses have facial expressions and much more.
There are several magazines out there with wonderful educational articles - Horse Illustrated (for the English rider), Eqqus, Western Rider (for the Western rider).
If you want to know how to reach any of these magazines, just e-mail me and I will get this information to you.
I strongly advise taking a few lessons from a local trainer. They can tell you the basic steps of taking care of a horse, safety tips and possibly get your feet wet by riding a few times.
Training ignorance can hurt both you and your horse. Take this senirio for instance:
My neighbor has a 6 month old filly that is not halter broke yet. They decided they would break her themselves. They tied her to the back of a truck aand drug her around the yard for an hour.
When that didn't work, they took 3 grown men and drug her around for another hour. Now keep in mind this is a 6 month old baby. When working with babies they should only be worked maybe 20 to 30 minutes a day, no longer. They tire very quickly. This baby had been worked about 2 hours and falls down with exhaustion, they try kicking her and pulling her up, this is when I find them.
After hearing there explanation on what they were trying to do, I told them to bring the baby over. I was riding my horse at the time, so I explained the procedure to them over the fence. To put a little pressure on the rope, never pulling, when she runs backwards, go with her, but always keep the pressure on the rope. When she takes a step forward, let the rope loose and pet her.
They did this about 5 times until the baby figured out what was expected of her - to give to the pressure, not pull away. This filly was halter broke in about 10 minutes of non excitable confusion.
A little knowledge makes the difference between enjoying your horse or having a nightmare experience.
Any training questions, or horse questions, e-mail me with the question and I will get back to you with the answer.
Make "horsing around" fun!!
Music: Deep In The Heart of Texas by:
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