Making sure that equipment is clean and well-fitting for the horse is essential. Learn other tips on how to choose proper horse riding gear from a horseback riding instructor in this equestrian video.
Saddle should fit rider & horse
Choose comfortable pad
Choose clean girth & bridle
Kathy Kentala has been a horse enthusiast since she was six years old. Kathy owns the Bee Cave Riding Center in Texas and specializes in training youth groups.
We're going to select the equipment or the gear that we'll use to go out and ride this horse for and practice riding the hunter arena or the discipline of hunter riding. I'm going to start out making sure my equipment is clean and well-fitting to the horse, that would start with the saddle. The saddle has to have the size that would fit the rider where we want clearance of at least four fingers here in the back, a proper flap size for the length of the leg as well, stirrups that are going to fit the rider comfortably in their position. For the horse, we're going to look for the clearance between the pommel or what we call the "tree." There are sizes designed for high-withered horses, low-withered and shoulder-withered as well. On this horse, we look at the size of the wither here, as well as the size of his shoulder and then we try a number of them until we come up with the perfect fit for both horse and rider. We have several types of pads we can choose from. We've selected two that just highlight the fact that we can go to something that's a little more therapeutic with a natural lamb's wool kind of lining that will give the horse, with a more sensitive back, a little better comfort and then there is the kind of classic school saddle pad that is just the synthetic fleece that works really well for most conditions. I'm going to select a girth that's going to be the proper length for the horse, that's important, as well as keeping it clean and comfortable to make sure we don't create any chaffed areas or discomfort to the animal. Then we also use kind of the standard schooling girth here with the fleece lining but if we were to go the show, we'd probably select a higher quality leather girth that we'd use there. We also have to consider their bridle. We want to choose a bridle that's appropriate to the horse's performance. In our hunter world, we're going to choose a simple today O-ring snaffle that's determined by the shape of the size of the bit. The bit itself is...
Member Comments