Part 1: How to Saddle a Horse for Riding

Video Transcript

" Hi my name is Sarah Stetner. I'm an expert horse rider and I'm doing a video on behalf of Expert Village. Now that we have the saddle blanket on, we are ready to saddle up the horse. Come over here and get saddled. Priority one is to get him to smell what is going to be put on his back. That way the horse is used to it. A younger horse. Just move the stirrups, the cinch, and you get a good arm up here and you place it up just like that. You want it about even. You want the horn about even with his withers right here, which the withers are covered, so it is kind of—see that—but what I do to know that it is perfect—this is a breast collar by the way. I'm going to put that on as well. My cinch on this side is tied up. I have it hooked, that is how it stays and keeps its warmth, it is hooked over here as you can see, and so I take that down. Make sure that this side and this side is all even. I put the breast collar down. The breast collar is optional; you don't really need it unless, I use it because when I trail ride, it does help the saddle from slipping back, and it is used for decoration in the show ring. A lot of breast collars has silver and stuff on it. I'm pretty plain so. Anyways I'm going to go ahead and come over to this side again, hook up the breast collar. You want your breast collar hooked to this side, and that is the beginning on how to put a saddle on."