The Importance of Using the Right Horse Equipment

Using horse equipment that is both suitable and well-fitting is a crucial prerequisite, creating the right conditions which allow you to form a trusting connection with your horse.

It is easy to forget the significance of the fact that we are working with another species, and communication is not direct and not always easy. We are hopefully improving our communication skills every time we interact with our horse, but at the same time, anything we have misunderstood, or missed in terms of his comfort and requirements will be eating away at his trust in you.

Trust is everything. If you have your horse's trust, you will also have his respect, and this widens your horizons right out in terms of what your horse will do for you. He can't trust you however if every time you work with him he is uncomfortable or sore. Imagine every day someone came and put a pair of shoes on you that pinched your feet, and not only that, when you told them that it was sore, they didn't seem to hear. You would start getting a bit annoyed after a while. Fitting horse equipment is exactly the same.


Identifying the Sources of Discomfort

The problem can be further complicated by the nature of what we are doing when we are training a horse. It is not always a straightforward process. We are addressing issues of physical crookedness, and in the process all kinds of physical restrictions and problems will come up to the surface. Go to Horse healing for more on this subject.

For example, during engagement, which is the cornerstone of our training process, a horse must lift his spine and tuck his pelvis as a result of a ring of muscles which come into action. Sometimes horses have difficulty doing this because of restrictions in the spine, and in the process of activating the spine in this way, it becomes sore. This must then be addressed therapeutically, otherwise the horse will find some other way to respond to your training demands which will protect the sore area. This will certainly not be correct engagement, so your training progress will ultimately be limited.

There are often times during these processes with horses when it will be beneficial and necessary to continue your training work, despite the fact that it may be uncomfortable at times for the horse. In the above example of a difficult period, rest will be important at the acute stage of a spinal problem, but often work is the only way to fully rehabilitate the muscles in the more chronic stages, either to bring issues to the surface or to fully resolve them.

If a horse is a bit sore in his back it is not always easy to tell if he is protesting because of this or because the saddle really is hurting him. As well as this complication, there is the problem of whether or not a horse who has once had a bad saddle in the past will ever forget this experience when he sees the saddle coming.

The answers to these questions are that the more you trust your intuition and improve your awareness through learning about the whole subject, the better a judgment you will make. If you really want to find a solution to a problem, involving your horse equipment or anything else, the answer will find you. The most unhelpful thing you can do is bury your head in the sand because you are worried about money or hassle, because that is the best way to end up with more expense and more hassle.


Saddle fit: one of the most important horse equipment concerns

In terms of your horse equipment fitting well, the saddle is especially important.

We have been using Strada saddles (above) for more than 10 years, and we can say, insofar as we are able to say, we have never had one case of these saddles causing a problem for one of our horses.

We decided we wanted to find a saddle suitable to invest in, because we need about six or seven saddles. We had quite a list of criteria which had to be met, and as there are many different saddles for sale, we did go through quite a few different makes and types of saddle before we found our present one which we have been using for over ten years now. We were looking at english saddles and in principle dressage saddles.

Our criteria were:

• The saddle fit must be right for our horses, not by chance but because of the design and therefore shape of the tree.
• The saddle fit must be right for us. In other words that we could sit unhindered in the correct posture. Neither in discomfort or pinned into place by the high pommel and cantle common to many 'deep-seated' dressage saddles, nor the outsized knee and thigh rolls!
• To be able to feel the horses back, and likewise the horse would be able to feel us with as little interference as possible while the saddle would still have a structure to support and distribute the weight properly.

These were our main criteria, and in fact when we found the right saddle through a synchronous meeting, it had many more design features we couldn't do without now. Go to Fitting a Saddle for more information.

Other horse equipment

The saddle fit is the principle tack fitting concern, but every bit of horse equipment you use is important. We have found that simplicity always pays because you will never solve any problems with tack, you can only cause them. The best thing it can do is to be comfortable.

Horse equipment is only a way of contacting horses in order to communicate with them, and should not, except for perhaps side reins in the right circumstances, be used to channel or in any way shape them, let alone force them. For this reason we have no time for gadgets of any kind. Bridle fit is important, as well as knowing how to introduce to the bridle to prevent bridle problems, and of course the bit is a whole subject in itself. Click on the links for more. The lungeing cavesson is also an important piece of tack.

As far as the horse equipment usually considered indispensable for dressage riding is concerned, we have tried to understand the significance of the double bridle, and other than to cut corners or mask problems, we have not been able to find a genuine function for it. Likewise for spurs, we don't believe there is a correct way to use spurs, when the basic concept of them is flawed. Our double bridles are all covered with mildew and the spurs went in the bucket long ago!!

One piece of horse equipment that has become indispensable to us now is the crupper. It is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of saddles are significantly too far forwards on the horse's back, not only damaging the horse but hindering good riding.

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