The Mystery Sport by Lindsey Bailey
All the time I get the same question, what is it like to ride and own a horse? Instead of continuing to get this question, I decided to write this article in hopes of answering a few questions that many people seem to have.
Before reading any further you need to become familiar with some “horse talk.” If you see the word “fresh,” it means that a horse is acting hyper; for example “my horse was fresh yesterday” simply means that my horse was silly, naughty, or misbehaving yesterday. Another important word is “lame,” which means that a horse is limping; another term for this is “not sound.” The last important term you need to know is “a hand.” which is about four inches in length and is used to measure a horse’s height. A pony is under 14.2 hands and anything taller than that is considered a horse.
The first thing you need to know when you own or ride a horse is how to groom your horse properly. Before and after, or anytime you get on a horse, you must groom it. Most barns provide brushes for grooming, so you don’t have to worry about buying any brushes until you buy a horse. If a horse is well-mannered, you can tie it with a quick- release knot to a ring or bar on a wall. This knot is special and will come undone if a horse gets scared and pulls away from the wall. The first brush that you use is called a curry comb ; you brush the entire body of the horse except for the legs, face, mane, and tail. You rotate the curry comb in a circle while pressing on the horse to remove any excess hair and dirt. Next, you use a hard brush to remove this hair and dirt from the horse’s body. You brush in the direction of the hair in short, swift motions. Again you brush the entire body except for the face, legs, mane and tail. After the hard brush, you use a soft brush and you use it to do the face, body, and legs. To groom the mane and tail you can use a regular human hair brush, but always put a de-tangling substance in the tail first though! The most common forms of de-tangle are called “Show Sheen” or “Cowboy Magic,” both of which you can buy at your local tack shop. Finally to finish grooming the horse, you use the hoof pick, which is an absolute must! Sometimes hoof picks come with a brush, sometimes they do not. Either is fine to use and they both get the job done. When you “pick out” a horse’s foot for the first time, you’ll want to ask for help because it can be difficult. You want to get all of the dirt and manure out of the horse’s feet, and you don’t want to dig on the frog, the part of the hoof highlighted in yellow, because you can hurt the horse. Picking out your horse’s feet is very important because, if you don’t, it can become lame. Grooming is one of the most important aspects about having a horse because a keeping a horse clean is essential to its good health!
There are three more essential aspects that you need to know about horses. First, you need to know how and what to feed them. Horses vary in size. What a horse needs to eat depends on how big he or she is. If a human being works a lot and is tall, he or she needs more food than a little kid who doesn’t work very hard. The same goes for a horse! If a horse gets work on a regular basis and is big, you’ll need to give it more food than a little pony that just lazes around. There are many different kinds of grain. You can get special grain for older horses or special grain for ponies or special grain for horses that gain weight faster than others. Another main ingredient in a horses’ diet is hay. Hay is dried out grass that comes in bales that are split into approximately twelve flakes. Once again the size and amount of exercise a horse gets has to be taken into account in deciding how many flakes to give a horse every meal. If you ride a little pony, chances are it only gets one flake of hay. If you ride a big horse that gets ridden a lot, it probably gets three to four flakes. Most horses need to get fed twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. If a horse is very skinny, it might be fed lunch. After you ride a horse, it is good to give it a carrot or a treat to tell it how well it has performed!
The third thing you need to know about owning a horse is how to exercise it. A horse should be exercised at least four days a week and should go outside in a fenced field or paddock at least six times a week for a few hours each time. “Turning out” your horse can help you when you ride because it gives your horse a chance to get its energy out. When you ride, if you are a beginne r, you’ll want to ride as part of a lesson every time. You probably won’t be a beginner though because, when you get a horse, you should have been riding for a few years. When you ride, always make sure you wear a helmet and that there is someone else at the barn in case you get hurt. It is very important to exercise your horse because otherwise it might become lame or it might become rude or fresh when you aren’t riding it, and it will undoubtedly get fat if you don’t.
The last thing that you need to know about horses is how hard it is to own one. Many people buy a horse, thinking that the horse will take care of itself; it will not!!! Neglect results in horses getting very sick and thin. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to take care of a horse properly. You have to groom, feed, exercise, and love your horse all the time! If you do not take care of your horse properly, it can be taken away from you by an animal control and abuse center, and you can get in very big trouble!
Hopefully you have finished this article with more knowledge than you possessed when you started reading, and you will want to ride horses and learn even more. Remember that horses are unpredictable; that no horse is “bombproof,” totally safe, unless it is dead, and that you must always love your horse!
