Horseback Riding Lessons


by John White - Date: 2007-01-26 - Word Count: 657 Share This!

My daughter's desire to get involved in horseback riding became a life-changing experience for me. I was about to learn about things I never wanted to know, and find out what it takes to care for an animal weighing in excess of 1,000 pounds! Fortunately for me, "Little Guy" was a great quarter horse, and was quite happy to let me learn.

After we had acquired the first things we needed for horseback riding (saddle, bridle, tack etc), secured a locker and a few grooming tools I thought we were in good shape. It turns out flies love horses, and in particular what comes out of the rear end of horses. Speaking of that stuff, it comes out in great quantity and often, and needs to be removed from the horse stall daily. You use a shovel, fork and wheelbarrow to take it to a pile which grows exponentially. At least it was not my job to get rid of that pile!

OK, so now we have the horse, we have a stall, a few necessities and have learned the basics of caring for the horse. Now it is time to get on with horseback riding, right? But, hold on a minute, now the horse has a medical problem. Fortunately for us, vets make stable calls. The Vet examines the horse and then asks my daughter and I to join him. We are informed that he needs to give the horse a sedative in order to complete his examination, and that we need to make sure the horse doesn't fall over while sedated!

Using one wall of the stall my daughter (remember, this is a little ten year old girl) and I pin the horse up against one wall of the stall and place our shoulders on him so he will not fall over; however, he does sway quite a bit. There I am … thinking, what to do if this 1,000 pound plus animal begins to tip over on us! But, my luck held, and we got through the procedure. So, after the vet finishes his examination of "Little Guy ", he calls me over to talk with him. My hope is we will be told to just get on with the horseback riding lessons. Nope, it was not to pay the bill, but rather to show me what my little daughter and I would have to do twice a day to medicate this horse.

The vet hands me this huge syringe consisting of a large tube, long needle along with a bottle of something, (I don't remember what it was), and instructs us to give the horse a shot twice a day! I stood there for a few moments gathering my thoughts, trying to figure out how in the world we were going to accomplish this! I thought we were in this just for the horseback riding!

Once again I was grateful for "Little Guy". As it turns out it was not a problem. You simply pick out the spot on his rump where you want to insert the needle, slap it really hard, jam the needle in and give him the shot. Piece of cake! Soon my daughter could resume her horseback riding lessons.

Next we needed to get the horse to the veterinary clinic and we discover that "Little Guy" has an aversion to trailers. So, with my daughter hauling on his halter and good old dad pushing on the rear end (I always got the raw end of the deal) we work for thirty or forty minutes until the horse gives up and gets in the trailer. Of course the horse needed to relieve himself in the trailer and, you got it, another cleanup job. Ah the joys of horseback riding.

Do not misunderstand me, it was a great learning experience for both my daughter and I. We got to spend a lot of quality time together, learned a lot, and grew to respect anyone who is involved in horseback riding.


Related Tags: horseback riding, horse riding, horse back riding, horse training, horse training secrets, horse ri

John helped his daughter with her horseback riding lessons and learned a lot. His website is at horseback riding lessons

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