Ten Tips for Beginner Horse Lovers to Have a Safer Start with Horses and reduce the risk of getting hurt!

Horse Riding Hub — A mastery guide for parents, learn how to ride a horse, get back in the saddle with confidence or own a horse one day

Whether you want to learn how to ride a horse as a pro or for fun, we have some tips to get you started:

1 — Get Professional assistance to prevent accidents — horses are dangerous animals if you don’t do things right. Find a good coach and riding center, ask the questions. How long have they been operating and are the horses experienced for beginners? Are they qualified through longevity of experience? Is your coach qualified and can they explain things well? How long has your coach been riding and what type of riding have they done? Can your coach teach beginners and break things down to explain how the body communicates with the horse?

2 — Don’t go out and buy a horse until you have sufficient experience. If you haven’t learnt to handle a horse, ride a horse up to canter or how to train a horse then don’t go out and buy one.

3 — Buy the correct gear/equipment. If you are going to learn properly then invest in a pair of riding boots and a comfortable, good fitting helmet.

4 — Buy a horse that is best for you. If someone is pushing you to buy a horse, then they usually have something to gain and are not looking at what’s best for you

5 — Listen to an experienced coach. Listen to a coach that has been around horses their whole life at has experienced many different horse disciplines and types of horses. (If someone has only done one type of discipline, they might not be able to point you on the best path for your needs.)

6 — Remember that starting our should be fun.It’s not about competition, there is lots to learn before this path. As a beginner get educated with horse basics knowledge before you ride with beginner books to reduce the risk of getting hurt. The Giddy Up Beginner Books collection is an ideal learning pathway for each step of your journey.

7 — Get exposure to learning how to do EVERYTHING from the ground up. Make sure you don’t just get riding lessons. Ask if you can learn horse care as well, offer to help with the stable duties at your local centre. Prepare your horse for the ride just like cars horses are prepared before take-off, part of preparing a horse includes ensuring that you have the right equipment and safety measures are put in place. Checking the horse is healthy before you go riding, is their coat shiny, can’t see their ribs too much, are they walking with no sign of limping. Always handle the horse safely whether you are grooming or saddling move slowly and don’t stand behind them.

8 — Understand that horses involve hard work. Which includes daily care and how to use a shovel, the lovely smell of manure, how to tie knots and how to fix things that break and make things safe.

9 — Conquer the fear and learn, how to manage horses safely. With fear you will get hurt and won’t be able to become the boss and you will never be able to control a horse well enough. Horses that feel fear will stomp all over you. Maybe not your lovely quiet riding school horse, but it will happen throughout your horse life.

10 — Make sure your instructor challenges you to progress and constantly more forward with your riding skills and learn new things. Staying at a walk or slow trot will not prepare you for a spooky or naughty horse or a bad weather day or a trail ride when a car goes past too fast. You need to learn everything about riding up to canter and how to move a horse slow and fast and how to stop and turn and how to move your horse through different patterns and exposure to different disciplines.