HOW TO RIDE A HORSE EASY BEGINNERS GUIDE

Hey, everyone. So I'm getting ready to go out to the barn, and I thought that today what I would cover is how to ride a horse. So let's get ready to go. Bye, Trico. So I haven't seen Tucker in two weeks because I've been on vacation. So I'm excited to see him today. Oh, it's cold and muddy. Hi, buddy. Hi. Hi, buddy. I've missed you. So before I get on my horse, I'm gonna first brush them just to remove any dirt and also make sure they're not sore anywhere and to scratch the scratchies. I'm also gonna just pick out the feet to make sure there's no rocks that can cause him discomfort when he's being ridden. Well, now I'm gonna tack up. I'm gonna put on my saddle and everything I need to ride, and I'm gonna use this lovely new saddle pad I just got. Yeah. So I got my saddle on, and now I'm gonna tighten my girth. So the girth holds your saddle in place, and it kind of is like a belt that it wraps around your horse. All right, and now I'm just gonna put the bridle on, and the bridle is basically to give you some control and help you steer your horse. So Tucker is all groomed and tacked up and ready to go. So if you need a more in-depth look at those things before you hop on your horse, you can check out the links in the descriptions below. So before you go to get on your horse, you wanna make sure you unroll your stirrups and also check your girth to make sure it's tight enough. You wanna be able to fit four fingers in your girth. So now it's time to actually get on your horse, and you can do this the same way either from a mounting block or from the ground. I use a mounting block because it's easier on their backs. So I'm up on my mounting block now, and I'm gonna make sure I'm mounting from the left side of my horse. So when you go to get on your horse, you wanna make sure that you gather your reins up so you still have control. So I'm gonna hold my reins, and if you're mounting from the left, you're gonna put your left foot in the stirrup. So now I can push off with my left foot and use my hands on the saddle and the horse's neck to help lift myself up, and then swing my right leg over and sit down lightly. And then I can reach down and put my right foot in the stirrup. So now that I'm on my horse, let me show you how you'd control this thing. So I'm gonna be sharing how to ride your horse in the most simplest terms, as if this is your first riding lesson ever, this is what you would be told. First things first is you're gonna need to know how to hold your reins correctly. So to hold your reins correctly, what you're gonna do is put your rein in between your pinky and your ring finger, and then you can shut your hands around it and then put your thumb on top. So now let's cover riding position. You wanna turn your thumbs up towards the sky and you wanna look forward and in front of your horse. Next, I'm gonna make sure that I'm rolling my shoulders back to help me sit up straight, and I'm gonna bend my elbows to be at my side. I wanna make sure that I'm loose through my thigh and my knee, so I'm not gripping. I wanna make sure the stirrup is on the ball of my foot, my heels are down and my foot is right under my hip. So that was a lot we just covered, but most importantly, you just wanna make sure you can draw a straight line through your head, down through your hip and to your heel. And that way you're sitting up tall and you have this linear line through you. So now let's talk about how to move your horse forward. So once again, this is in the most simplest terms. And what I'm gonna do is first of all, I wanna make sure I'm not pulling on my horse's mouth with the reins. So I can give with my hands a little bit and get out of their mouth. And then I'm gonna just squeeze with my lower leg to ask my horse to move forward. And there he goes. So if you're pulling on your horse's reins and squeezing, this is what's gonna happen. They're gonna back up instead of going forward. So I wanna make sure I'm giving with my hands to get my horse to go forward. So you can use the same concept to go faster on your horse. So I'll get out of my horse's mouth and squeeze with my lower leg and we can pick up a track. So you may be wondering how you stab your horse once you've gotten going. So what you can do is sit up nice and tall, put your weight down into your heels and then close your fingers around your reins and your horse will come to a stop. So I'm gonna actually show you what to do at a standstill when it comes to stopping your horse, just cause it's very small little nuances. So what you're gonna do first is sit up nice and tall and you can even kind of sit back on your pockets. And so you're closing your hips and then you also just wanna stretch down into your stirrups. So forcing your weight down. So once I've done those things, the next thing I'm gonna do is just kind of close my hand around my reins. So as I'm riding, my hands may be a little bit more loose. So I can close my fingers and if that doesn't stop the horse, I can slightly pull back until they halt. So one thing I find super helpful, especially if you're new to horseback riding, is knowing how to do the one rein stop. So the one rein stop is basically the emergency brake for your horse. So if maybe you feel like you're out of control or your horse is taken off, you can do this to get them to stop quickly. So to do the one rein stop, what you're gonna do is reach your hand down one rein and then you're gonna bring that rein back towards your hip, asking the horse to turn its head towards your knee. So what this does is it keeps the horse from moving forward and instead, the only thing the horse can do is turn in a tight circle. So let's talk about steering your horse. So there's basically two types of steerings you'll come across. One is plow reining and that's when you have two hands on the reins and this is done mostly by English riders. Or you're gonna come across neck reining, which is where you hold the reins with one hand and you'll see this more with Western riding or if you go on a trail ride or something like that. So when it comes to using plow reins like an English rider would, how you're gonna steer your horse is you're just gonna open your hand in the direction you wanna go. So if I wanna steer towards you guys, I'm just gonna open this hand and you'll see that his nose tips towards you. And so from there, what I can do is squeeze with my legs to get him to move towards you and even help him out some more, I can use my opposite leg over here and I can squeeze my lower leg and he'll turn right towards you guys. So if you guys see, I can open my hand and he'll turn this way and I can open this other hand and he'll go back this way. And so this is how you're gonna use your reins if you're learning English or learning how to do the plow rein. So the other way you're gonna steer your horse is through neck reining. So when it comes to neck reining, what I'm gonna do is I'll have both reins in one hand and if I wanna steer towards you guys, I'm gonna lay my opposite rein against his neck and also use my opposite leg and squeeze with my lower leg to get him to turn towards you. So I'll lay that rein, squeeze my leg and see how he turns? So with neck reining, I can lay my rein, use my leg and he'll go in that direction and likewise, I'll change my direction here. And so you're just going back and forth. Good Tony. So there's a lot more to caring for your horse than just riding it. And I made a video about everything you need to know about caring for your horse. So I'll put the link in the description down below so you can check that out. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our channel and give us a thumbs up.