SOME HORSE QUESTIONS?

Question

I have a few horse questions...

1. How can you tell if your horse is tired of riding?

2. My horse will not canter for the first few days I ride him in a smaller arena once I get him out of in the open will he canter?

3. Can I ride a horse w/out shoes? (trail rides only) the horse w/out shoes not me lol.

Answer 1

1- Horses get BORED before they get tired if you are just going around in circles. He will get "sour" , grumpy / lazy.

2 He will - as long as you ask him correctly and it does not hurt him to do so.

3 - Depends on the trail (rocky/paved = shoes.)

     And his feet - flat feet / sensitive soles/ brittle hooves = shoes

YOU don't need shoes if you go bareback!

Answer 2

1.  They get lazy and wont pick up their feet, or they turn and look at you and say they have had enough LOL kidding

2.  How small is the area?  Your horse may not feel comfortable in tight spaces.

3.  My horses all barefoot, all have great feet and are regularly trimmed.  

Answer 3

1. paying attention to his cues: coming off the bit, hollowing, taking short, choppy strides, head tossing, leaning on your hands, etc.

2. sounds like he's not balanced and supple.

3. depends on the horse.

have you considered taking some lessons with a professional trainer?

Answer 4

Usually an hour of riding work is good enough for horses- its enough time to end on a good note. They are strong animals and we only ask them to work for maybe an hour (give or take) out of their day. If you ride that horse enough, you can tell when their getting tire. They may not pick up their feet as much, start being lazy etc.

Unless your working them over an hour then they won't be too tired. Shows etc. are an exception.

Are you giving your horse the right aids to go into a canter? are you pushing hard enough? Where are you riding? You need to push your horse on if their lazy. Move your outside leg slightly behind the girth and ask them for the canter- make sure you shorten up your reins first and ive them half halts for a warning. Be sure your not giving mixed signals. Unless you are asking on a rocky road for the canter, there is no excuse for why he won't do it.

You mean for you to ride without shoes? Yeah.. you can ride bareback without shows, like if you wanted to go swimming with your horse (walk through the lake etc.) I wouldn't want to but if its your horse and if your safe then sure. I have seen people do it before.

Good luck=]

Answer 5

1. when they get tired, they most likely will be all foamed up from sweat and will be really sluggish. mostly really sluggish.

2. you might need a bigger area to canter him so that he feels more comfortable. maybe you are just giving him mixed cues and you don't know it.

3. yes! best if the horse has shoes for rougher/ rockier trails, and if he does strenuous work.  

Answer 6

1. The horse will start to act very tired and want to stop going fast. generaly they might fall asleep when your standing still (but also dont confuse this with lazzyness)

2. You need to make him canter when you ask him to or else he wont take you seriously and it will become a bad habbit, use spurs. Most likly he will be more willing to canter in a bigger place or in the open.

3. yes you can, but it will protect your horses feet so much better and i would recomend shoes when trail rideing ( if im correct they make something like shoes you can by but you can take them off and put them on when you want to sue them).

Answer 7

1. They will use body language, or give you some sort of weird signal like bobbing their head witch could also mean they are limping... Sometimes you cant tell if a horse is tieredof riding im not actually sure..

2. Well if you can get him in a big enough area and depending on the arena and horse he could just be trying to be lazy but he should canter for you in the open.

3. lol yes, as long as he/she does not have really bad feet, then you need shoes my horses are (as my farrier puts it) living the barefooted dream because their feet are in good condition and by really bad i mean like splitting apart, your farrier should know if your horses need shoes or not i think for trail rides, in MY opinion, its better to have a barefoot horse!

Hope i could help and have fun with this horse!

Answer 8

1. You can pay attention to how they act and look. If they are covered in sweat and are not as entergetic and maybe slower, then they are probably tired. I try not to ride for more tehn an hour at a time, unless your on a relaxing trail ride, where you walk for most of it or something.

2.It could help, maybe try cantering in a feild. It might help, but it might not. It's worth a shot.  

Some other people suggested that you might not be pushing hard enough....not to say they're wrong but i have found that if you ask lightly and nicely, you get much beter result. Try being gentle too, give waves of pressure and if they still don't listen then try to push harder. Only use a crop or whip (depending on your riding discipline) as a LAST resort.

3.If the horse doesn't need shoes then it can. Some horses need them, but for otehrs, it's not necessary.

Answer 9

1. The horse will most probably: resent cantering/trotting, throw his head up at commands, if their cheeky, try and turn around at every possible chance your not paying attention, keep heading for the gait if your in and arena/round yard... You'll be able to tell with most horses, they sometimes turn moody.

2. If by smaller arena you mean like a round yard then maybe its not big enough for him to canter in, try in a bigger arena first, unless you know that he's not going to take off on the slightest touch. He should go to a canter once your out in the open unless he's totally anti-forward moving.

3. I ride my horses on trails with out shoes because they have really hard feet, but we always walk on the edge of the trail on the grassy part for a bit just to give them a rest. If their feet are quite soft then stick to the grass the whole time.

Hope this answers your questions...