Questions to ask when you try out a horse

Hello!

It sounds as though you are thinking about getting your own horse or looking for a horse to share, how exciting!👏🏼🐴

Just as you feel, there is a lot you can ask about and find out before you decide which horse suits you.

Let us split your questions and thoughts into two parts:

1) Questions about the specific horse you meet on the trial ride, or whose owner you speak to on the phone beforehand.

2) General facts about horses, the things that apply to every horse, whichever one you choose as your own or to share.

Let us start with part 1. Here you can really ask anything to do with the horse. I tend to ask things like:

• What it usually does in a typical week, month or year. That tells you a bit about its daily routine, schooling, competing, summer grazing and so on.
• What tack it has
• Whether there is anything the horse particularly likes, or dislikes, doing
• Whether there is anything it is very frightened of, and why
• Whether they tend to hack out, and if so alone or in company
• How it is to load and travel
• Whether it copes with being on its own in the paddock and/or the stable
• What feed it has and how much

And much more. It is completely natural, and important, to ask lots of questions when you try out a horse or ring up about adverts👏🏼😍

Now for part 2, which is about horses in general. One tip is to look up the Swedish website www.hästsverige.se, where you will find masses of information and facts about horses (note that this is a Swedish-language resource). Do also ask here in the HayHay app if there is anything in particular you are wondering about. Feeding, for example. You work out what a horse needs by calculating a feed ration based on the type of horse, its body condition (whether it is fat or thin), its age and how hard it is worked. Forage is the most important part of all. Most horses need no concentrate at all if you have good hay or haylage.

Then there is the size of horse you should have, which depends entirely on you, what you are happy with and how long you want to be able to ride it😊

Good luck, and do ask more so we can help you as best we can here in HayHay😃🦄