The very first and most important thing you must take into consideration when trail riding is safety. If you think of safe practices first and have a good common sense, you will surely enjoy the experience without hurting yourself or your horse. These are really essential, especially when you decide to experience riding on your own. Also, you will not always be guided or helped by your instructor.

Here are the top 7 rules all riders must follow on the trail.

1. Always inform somebody where you plan to go trail riding and when you plan to return. Always keep in mind that anything can happen on a trail ride. You or your horse could become ill, lame, injured, get lost, or get stuck. If something unexpected happens, there will always be someone who will come looking for you.

Young riders and inexperienced riders should always be accompanied by an adult, experienced rider when trail riding. For experienced rider who want to go trail riding alone, always bring a communication device. A fully charged cell phone will be very useful in case of emergencies.

2. Do not forget to bring a hoof pick and a pocket knife with you. You can use the hoof pick to get stones off your horses hooves. A stone stuck in your horses hoof can cause pain so it has to be removed. The pocket knife will come in handy when your horses feet get wrapped up in vines or get caught in a thick bush.

3. Never teach your horse to become lax because they cannot recognize play from work. Trail riding can be very relaxing. But, becoming lax is something you do not want to teach your horse as it will not know when to play and when to work. When this happens, you may not be able to control your horse.

You will be left without control when your horse decides to relax even if you do not want it to. For example, you are on the way to a show ring gate and your horse gets aggressive and plunge its head down at every blade of grass. This will happen if you allow your horse to grab bites of grass as you walk along the trail.

4. Always ride a respectful distance from the other riders but do not create unnecessary anxiety among the horses. Sometimes, violence among horses happens because they always communicate with each other. This is something that you should consider, so always keep at least one horse length between you and the next rider in front of you. But, do not cause them to think that the herd is getting split up.

5. Always be careful when trail riding on an unfamiliar terrain. Do not run through an open field where you do not know if there are overgrown ditches or covered up holes. You do not want your horse to get hurt, which can happen if it stumbles on one.

6. Know how to handle your horse in case something scares it. Horses typically get scared of foreign objects. In such situation, the best thing to do is to ignore whatever it is that scares your horse. Your horse will most likely do the same. The smaller the deal you make out of it, the smaller the deal it will be to your horse.

In case you are thinking that you will teach your horse to get used to whatever scares it by going back and forth in front of the spooky object, you are mistaken. This can even make the situation worse. Instead, let it look, walk slowly and sniff the spooky object to make it think that the thing is not scary at all.

7. If you come across others on the trail, walk along your horse with comfort. This will make your horse react the same way you do. If you are friendly, it will be friendly too, but if it sees you are nervous, it will get nervous too. You do not want your horse to react violently, so ride calmly.

While there are other rules to follow, these are the top 7 rules to keep you safe on the trail. And these are important so that your trail riding experience will be enjoyable.

Tags: Horses