|
Care & Grooming
by Lauren age 12
To groom your horse and to take care of it you first have to be a true horse lover, if you hate horses than you shouldn't own a horse.
Before you ride your horse you need to do the following:
You need to groom your horse
You need to make sure your horse has not just eaten, because it is harmful if you ride your horse when its on a full stomach.
You need to put on tack/ pony gear.
You need to make sure your horse has no injuries, Riding on a horse that has a wound makes the wound a lot worse, and it is painful for your horse.
To groom your horse you need a curry comb, a soft brush, a hard brush, a few sponges, and a hoof pick.
To curry comb, you rub in small circles along the horses hair to get all the loose hair off and to lighten the coat, you then rub the soft brush in long straight lines to get all the hair from the curry comb. You use the hard brush to get out tangles in the main and tail. You use one sponge for each part that can only be used or clean with a sponge like the dock (butt), the nose, the eyes, and the coat only when bathing or to get off sweat.
To clean the dock you gently pick up the tail (make sure you stand a good distance so the horse cant kick you) and make sure the horse knows you're there or it will get frightened and go crazy. Clean the dock by gently rubbing the dock so you get out the poop that got there. To clean the nose you get all the snot out of the horses nose, even if there is none still rub the nose just in case. To clean the eyes just rub all the sleep out (make sure when you clean the dock, nose, and eyes the sponge is slightly damp.)
To get the horses sweat off get the sponge really wet and rub it along the sweat marks and make sure you get the sweat off or your horses sweat will get dry and gross and hard to get out. You cannot forget the hoof pick because the dirt will build up under the hoof and it will be hard on your horse, and it will dry. To hoof pick the horse you stand next to your horse and rub your whole arm down its leg and squeeze the horse will lift its leg up and you lean against the horse that way it has balance while grabbing its leg and then pick all the dirt out.(be sure not to hit the frog, cuz that's a sensitive spot. After doing all this you put on the tack)
To take care of your horse you need to feed your horse at least 3 nutritious meals a day, and always make sure your horse has a full water jug, and check constantly for signs of sickness, if you see one immediately go call the vet. For your horses home you need a stable for each horse, and your field need to be fences off and have a certain size for how many horses you have. In your field you should have no poisonous plants and lots of grass, you need some shady spots, no garbage in the field, toys, and plenty of food and water that needs to be changed every day. It is a lot of responsibility for one person to take care of a barn so you could hire some workers to maybe muck out your horses stalls. TO muck out means to clean out your stalls. Maybe if you want to you could have horse lessons.
And that's how you take care of and groom your horse.
Horse Grooming Gear
|
|
