How to Care for your Horse after Riding : Beginner Horseback Riding Lesson

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Sally Martin with expertvillage.com. When you’re finished riding your horse you want to let the horse cool down, it’s not the pony express where you take a saddle off a wet tired horse and throw him in the pen and jump on the next horse. You need to loosen the saddle, make sure the horse is cooled down before you turn him loose, unsaddling is reverse of saddling, you pull the tang out of the cinch like unbuckling a belt and thread the cinch and you can walk your horse around after you’ve loosen the saddle a bit, let him cool off, make sure that everything all the other accoutrements from your saddle, this horse has a breastplate on and you want to make sure all your other accoutrements are off of the saddle. The cinch is the last thing because if the horse were to spook then the cinch will hold the saddle on whereas if you left the breastplate on or something like that and the cinch was gone the saddle would stay connected to the horse but dropped down and spook the horse, it’s dangerous. So be sure to save the cinch for last and thread just like a belt and pull the saddle and the saddle blankets all off at the same time. Once you’ve finished riding your horse, unbridle, pull the bridle off the top of the horse’s head, let the bit gently slide out of his mouth, make sure your horse has water readily available."