Horse Quiz - What Comes Next?
Saturday September 5, 2009
Do you know how to safely bring your horse in from the pasture, saddle up, and then cool out and put your horse away after a ride? Test your safety and horse care knowledge with the What Comes Next Quiz. Good luck!
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Comments
I just took the quiz and I got 78%. I disagreed with two questions.
First, I never tie down my horse when I saddle him. Tying a horse is unsafe for the horse and and the handler. A horse must always have a way to escape if they become scared. It is safer to teach a horse to stand still for saddling a bridling.
Second, before I do anything with a horse, I like to make sure I have his full attention on me. That means that if a horse needs a little training done before I warm him up, then I will do a little ground work first.
In fact, the safest way to catch, saddle, ride and turn out a horse is to make sure the horse’s full attention is on me at all times. If that requires training as soon as I walk into the pasture then so be it.
Most horses will have to be tied while being saddled. Many of keep our horses at boarding stables, or often we’re at events, or out on trail, where it wouldn’t be allowed or it would be inadvisable to not have a horse tied. There are ways of tying safely. But you’re right in thinking that your horse must be paying attention to you at all times.
I just took the What Comes Next quiz and missed only one question. I agree with Deanna Kerr about getting the horses attention before warming up. The ‘correct’ answer looked like the person and horse were already out for a hack. Everyone I know including myself walk and trot, ride figure 8’s and circles as a warm up. Riding up and down hills is a ride not a warm up. However when it comes to having to tie a horse to tack it up, I agree with Katherine. Slip knots, safety knots, quick release knots whatever you want to call them is what people use to tie a horse. It’s nice if your horse will stand but tying is not necessarily any more dangerous than a potential loose spooked horse causing havoc with other horses. It works both ways.
Just to clarify, there is no mention of hills in the question about warming up. There are two answers that are obviously wrong, but I don`t want to give them away here!
You’re right, it is advisable and, in many instances, required that a horse be tied at boarding stables or events. But it isn’t for the horse’s safety, it is for the people’s safety.
A tied down out-of-control horse is unsafe. They can kick fences, their handlers or walls. They can pull back and break their legs or necks and in the process spook all the horses around him.
If tying the horse is the method being used to make a horse stand still for grooming, saddling or whatever, then it is unsafe. A horse should be taught to accept these things, not be made to endure them.
It’s not that I think tying is bad, it isn’t. All horses are taught to be tied. But it is merely a means to communicate to the horse that they should stay put. It isn’t what keeps them there. A horse should stay because they are paying attention to the handler and are trained to stay put.
When I learned that the most basic principle for whatever we do with our horses or whatever method we use to train our horses is to make sure the horse is paying attention to me at all times, everything else became easier.
When discussing safety, I believe making the horse pay attention to the handler should be the first rule.