Posts Tagged ‘working horses’

Natural horse training involves the training of a horse by using it’s natural body language and movements. Practitioners are using a wide variety of different techniques to yield the result horse owners are after: a bond of trust being present between the horse and it’s rider. The bond of trust which develops between the horse and it’s rider during natural horse training is applicable across all disciplines namely: working, eventing, dressage as well as riding for pleasure.

Natural horse training and working horses

Working horses still plays a huge role in farm operations such as herding cattle and other farm animals. A horse is still the only safe method of transportation to the most remote areas as well as unstable or dangerous terrain. It is very essential that a horse traversing such an area knows how to remain calm throughout the journey. It is also essential for the rider to read subtle signs from the horse as to advert danger because horses have the ability to sense a change in conditions much quicker than humans. Only a rider that is best in-tune with his horse will be able to pick up any cues from his horse.

Natural horse training and eventing

Horses trained for eventing including dressage, show jumping and strenuous cross country races are pushed 100% to their limit and must therefore be sound. Cross country races are very dangerous as the course is composed of miles being traversed at very fast and lots of solid build jumps. Only horses being able to trust their riders fully will be successful in these competitions. This is why natural horse training is so important because it builds the trust between horse and rider so when the rider wants the horse to do something new, frightening or challenging, the horse will trust the rider enough to take the risk.

Dressage

Dressage training are known for building balance and muscle in the horse as well as trainer. Whether riding for pleasure or competition, the communication and balance established with natural horse training techniques, makes the dressage horse and rider achieve a higher level of grace and precision.

Pleasure riding

The biggest goal to for most owners is to have fun with their horses which can only happen when there is no fear present. Natural horse training absolves the fear of humans seeming unpredictable to horses and builds communication. When humans learn to speak the same language as their horse, they will find that they will be able to do almost anything with their horses.

No matter the occupation of your horse, natural horse training takes your horse to the next level by building trust, communication and stamina in horses and riders which translates to every situation.

Click Here [http://www.the-perfect-choice.com/naturalhorsetraining] to learn the easiest natural horse training techniques.

Author: Nathalie K
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Keeping your horse’s mane looking its best isn’t something to leave until the day before a show. Clipping and trimming a little each week will result in a better finish, a healthier mane, and a happier horse. And of course, for some working horses, clipping the mane is essential for comfort and safety.

Where do you start?

First you need to decide on the best look for your horse. Some breeds, like Arabians and saddle seat horses, have breed requirements for showing that will tell you if you need a short mane, or a more natural look, and how long you need to clip the bridle path. Polo ponies and cow horses often have ‘roached’ or ‘hogged’ manes. That means the entire mane is clipped away, except for a tuft at the withers and the forelock – this keeps the reins and ropes from getting tangled up. If you show hunters or dressage, you’ll want to trim the mane with braiding in mind. All of these factors will help you determine how you want your finished mane to look, and horse clipper is best for you.

Let’s start with the bridle path. For most horses, this will be a short clipped section just behind the ears, about two inches long. This keeps the mane from getting caught up in the headstall, and makes the horse more comfortable. Some breeds will have longer bridle paths, up to 12″, depending on your horse’s conformation and your personal preference. The best way to start is to clip the bridle path back a half inch or so at a time, leave it a few days and see how you like it before clipping any further. It’s a lot easier to clip a little more each time than to go too far and try to grow it back out!

If your horse has a thick neck, or is a working horse where the mane can get in the way, you can consider roaching or hogging the whole mane. The first time you do this, you might want to use more robust body clippers, but for regular maintenance – again you should do this weekly – opt for the small hand clippers. Keeping the hogged mane short and neat will make it easier to keep clean, and it doesn’t have to grow out much to look pretty unsightly! Leave a tuft of mane at the withers to protect them from saddle pads, and leave the forelock – it isn’t just for looks, it helps to protect the horse’s eyes and ears.

Why trim the bridle path every week? First of all, it makes keeping the area clean a lot easier. The horse’s poll is sensitive, and under the headstall can get dirty and sweaty. A closely trimmed bridle path is easy to keep brushed clean, and prevent any sores or scurf building up. Also, if you let the bridle path grow out to even a half inch or more, the hairs will fold over under the bridle path, causing pressure on the poll, and an uncomfortable horse won’t be easy to bridle, and won’t perform its best. This is why your hand clippers are going to be an important tool in your horse grooming supplies!

Why buy hand clippers?

The best finish always comes with small hand clippers or trimmers, and a set of these will be a great addition to your horse grooming supplies. Scissors never get the same results, and if your horse moves around, you can easily make a mistake, or even injure yourself or your horse. You’ll want to choose clippers that are easy to use, so you keep the bridle path neat and tidy with weekly clipping. Your hand clippers aren’t just for the mane – you can use them to keep up with regular clipping and trimming, such as around your horse’s face and hooves. In an emergency, hand clippers can be a real asset to clean up wounds or help bandages stick. A good quality set of battery powered or rechargeable hand clippers will be one of your most useful equine grooming supplies!

Which clippers should I choose?

Choose clippers from a reliable manufacturer. This way, you will get a good warranty, and replacement blades will be easy to find. Plus, you can be sure that by sticking with the best suppliers, like Wahl, Andis, and Oster that your clippers will be safe – and that’s important anytime you use electrical products around horses.

Which one you choose depends on a number of factors. You’ll want a cordless one if your horse is jumpy or you want to take the clippers with you to shows. If you roach your horse’s mane, or you have a very woolly horse, a more robust model is best. If your budget is tight, or you have several sets of horse grooming supplies, you might want to look for the best value. Here’s a quick selection of good mane clippers from the main manufacturers:

Wahl horse clippers. The Wahl Mini Arco is a great choice for routine trimming. It’s quiet, and stays cool, and blade changing is quick and easy. It runs cordless, but for quiet horses or longer jobs, you can run it with the cord attached.

Oster horse clippers. The Oster Mini Max trimmer isn’t rechargeable, but it’s comfortable, easy to use, and very economical. The low price means you can keep one in your horse grooming supplies, one in your first aid kit, and one in your truck.

Andis horse clippers. The Andis Power Trim is a good choice if you have a lot of trimming to do. It’s rechargeable, but the batteries last well and it’s quiet so it’s good for nervous horses. Best of all, it has an ergonomically designed grip, so you’re hand won’t get tired.

Simply put, a correctly thinned mane, and a regularly clipped and trimmed bridle path don’t just look good, they are easier to keep clean and healthy. Keep a set of good quality hand clippers in your horse grooming supplies, and you will have a happy, healthy, good looking horse every day!

This is the first in a series of five articles on horse grooming. This article is an easy to read, well written guide to grooming your horse’s mane. Not only does it provide specific guidance, but also makes recommendations on the best horse grooming supplies to use to get the job done right.

Author: Marcus Koll
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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The three general categories of horses are warmblood, coldblood and hot blood. Each of the hundreds of different horse breeds fits into one of these categories.

Cold Blood. In Europe, horses were originally bred for farm work and as working horses. Their main function was to pull things (e.g. plow, cart, barges, forest logs). They were bred for strength and endurance, able to pull heavy objects and to work many hours each day. This resulted in breeds with big muscles, on heavy frames, with large joints. Such horses also needed to be calm an obedient; the last thing you wanted was a horse running off with a cart or farm equipment. Their coats, manes and tail hair were thick and long to protect them from the European winters. Such horses are not fast, but are very solid working horses. Sample breeds are the Shire and the Clydesdale.

Hot Blood. In the middle-east and some of the other warmer climates, horses were bred for riding and racing. Such horses are built for speed and distance, rather than power and endurance, so had much lighter bodies and in particular more delicate legs. Their coats, manes and tails have relatively short hair in response to the warm climate. Also, their blood vessels are nearer the skin surface in order to dissipate heat better. Their temperament is spirited and competitive, traits that help them win races. The Arabian and the Thoroughbred and among the best known hot bloods.

The warm blood breeds (also known as warmbloods) are between the hot and cold bloods both physically and in terms of their nature. In fact, many of the warmblood breeds are the result of mating hot bloods and cold bloods to develop a new breed with the positive characteristics of both. Their build is athletic, providing both speed and endurance, but without the power of a cold breed or the pure speed of a hot blood. They have a calm nature and are generally intelligent, making they easily trainable for sports such as show jumping and dressage. Although bred for a variety of duties in the past (such as war horses and carriage horses), today they are mainly used for sport and pleasure riding. The Friesian and Hanoverian are examples of warm breeds.

These three terms (cold, hot, warm) of course refer to their climate of origin and their temperament, not to the temperature of their blood. All horses have approximately the same body and blood temperatures (about 38C or 100.5F) and as mammals they are all ‘warm blooded’ from a biological classification perspective.

Over the past hundred years we’ve seen machines replace much of the functions of horses, with farm and other equipment taking over the function of cold bloods, while modern transport has taken over the traditional employment of warmbloods. Fortunately, sports and pleasure riding have grown to partly fill this gap, with different types of activities suited to each category. In addition, even for pleasure riding, the preferred horse type depends on what you want to do. For pure speed it is the hot blood, for complex sports such as show jumping it is the warmblood, while the cold blood’s calm and reliable nature make it a favorite with many children and less confident adults.

While you might think this is a easy thing to do – feed your horse – you’d be amazed at the number of horse owners that don’t know about the fundamental principles. There is nothing called standard, when it concerns the nutrition requisites of a horse, as it would mostly be based on the amount of activity, its age and body weight. To start with, your horse by nature uses forage as a primary ingredient of their diets. This by the way is one of the most critical components of his diet, which keeps his digestive system functioning correctly, and when we say pasture we are meaning a combining of natural grass and cut hay.

Large horses normally consume about 2 to two point five % of their body size in food every day so a 1,000 pound horse will eat around 20 to 25 pounds of feed each day. Feeds rich in nourishment are what horses need and high-fiber feeds should not be give to them, as it may upset the digestive system. In fact, a horse would be happy if you fed him with a feed of hay/pasture grass amounting to one percent of his body size. For horses, which do not do much activity, a feed of forage only without any grain is sufficient. On the other hand, developing, breeding, or working horses must have supplements in addition to pasture – such as grain or a supplement concentrate. Thus, for optimizing growth and development of the animal, foraging should make up for at least half or more of the body size, as part of his everyday diet.

When you are considering a balanced diet for your horse, consider the nutrient content as well as quality criteria of the grass. This information would help you to gauge the amount of nutrients he would need. The best source, and the least expensive one for summer food is your grass fields and, in most cases good pasture by itself can provide all the nutritional requirements your horse needs. But how do you come to know how much pasture is right for your horse? Using a weight of 1000 to 1200 pounds, here is a rough guideline. This means that a mare and foal 1.75 to 2 acres – yearlings 1.5 to 2 acre and weanlings 0.5 to 1 acre.

Winter feed of course would be cut hay, and again, high quality if you can provide it. Ensure that the hay is leaf-like and green in colored and cut in a systematic way, free of dust, moulds weeds or stubble. This feed is usually rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. While alfalfa hay is food for a developing horse as the protein content is very high, but you have to be careful as it contains abnormal calcium in comparison to its phosphorus content. Too much calcium is not good for growing horses so if you’re not sure about hay quality, have it analyzed.

You will be able to locate some of the best deals on used horse trailers for sale online. There are many used horse trailers for sale, but which one is the right one for you and your horse? Well if you take your horse out only every blue moon then a simple trailer will suffice. The single most important thing to consider when buying any kind of used horse trailer is the floor. Make sure it is stable enough for your horses to stand on and that wood is still strong and not rotted away.

After the horse itself, the most expensive equipment you’ll buy are horse saddles There are many styles of saddles, but you should choose the one that you’re comfortable with, fits the horse properly and suits the kind of riding you will do.
Choose a saddle that suits the activity you and your horse participates the most
There are three main types of saddles for serious riders: English, Western and Australian. There are other variations within these three main types
English saddles are used by Olympians in equestrian events, designed to give the horse freedom of movement. This saddle is known to be the most comfortable for both the rider and the horse The Hunt Seat saddle and Cutback saddle are example of this type. Hunt seat saddles are med for jumping while Cutback saddles allows greater movement of the front legs and shoulders
Western saddles are known as the cowboy saddle, designed to keep a rider secure on an uneven ground. This type of saddle is often put on working horses, as it provides the most security for its riders The Ranch saddle is known as the most versatile of this type.
Australian saddles are made for the rider’s comfort, usually used by people who are confident of their riding abilities They are originally English saddles, of which the most dramatic change was having the addition of poleys, or kneepads in front of the saddle.
The saddle’s fit on the horse is crucial, whatever the type of saddle you choose Ill-fitting saddles can result to both health and training problems, and can even make your horse behave badly. Factors such as breed, overall size and unique physical features must be considered The main feature of the saddle which dictates whether it will fit your horse or not, is the width of the gullet. A saddle that is too wide will press down on the withers, while a narrow gullet will pinch It should comfortably clear a horse’s withers, allow for free movement of the shoulders, be the proper length and shape for its back, and be well balanced to provide good weight distribution.
Try on as many saddles as possible Choose a saddle that feels comfortable to you and allows the proper riding position. Comfort can be determined by size and angle of the seat, stirrup position, cantle height, fork height and angle, and weight of the saddle Too small can make you bump against the pommel at every stride, while too large can make it difficult for you to maintain your position.
Determine your budget A new saddle can be custom-made for you to fit your horse with the maximum comfort possible, but can fetch a hefty price. Used saddles can be much cheaper. Spend as much as you could, if possible Better trust a branded yet trusted product than a cheap unnamed one. Saddles are crucial to a safe and enjoyable riding, so never settle for an inferior product

Bridleways Saddlery supplies all types of saddles as well as wintec saddles , dog rugs and cortaflex for horses .