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Getting to know your inexperienced horse, or commonly known as a green horse, requires some caution and experience on your part. A little forethought will go a long ways in preventing accident and injury.
It will depend on how much training your horse has had as to what approach of handling you should try. If your horse has been to a trainer for thirty to sixty days of training it will have the basics down and be much more approachable. Yet, caution needs to be exercised with such an inexperienced youngster.
A horse just finishing training is usually between two and six years old. Depending on the breed, the two year-old will be more difficult to handle as it just doesn't have the maturity an older horse will have. When you halter this horse and tie it up, be sure to use a slip knot which is one that can be loosened rather easily in case your horse gets spooked and tries to escape. This is a caution that should be exercised with any age horse, but most especially with green horses.
Once you have securely tied your horse up, approach it while using your hand to stroke its back, neck or head. If you are walking behind the horse, remember to talk to it and have your hand on its rump, while passing behind it with your body right up against it. If you get more than one foot away from your horse when you go behind its backend, you are more likely to be kicked if it gets spooked. When your bodies are touching, there is no distance for their hooves to cover before landing squarely on your body and causing injury. It seems more dangerous to be right up against a horse but it actually is safer.
Now that you have approached your horse you can go about the grooming basics of getting your horse ready to ride. Most horses tolerate this well, just always be aware that a young horse is more likely to be spooked easy.
When you go to put the saddle pad on your horse, let it sniff it first. This aquaints your horse with what will soon be on its back. Slowly put the blanket on your horse and slide it up slightly over the whithers. Once that is done you can put on the saddle next.
Before putting the saddle on, be sure to have the opposite stirrup pulled up over the top of the saddle along with the back girth strap if your saddle has one. This will keep from bumping the horse with the saddle too much. Once th saddle is up, take care when dropping down the opposite side stirrup. Let it gentlely down if you are uncertain of how your horse will react.
Once the saddle is on, check again that your horse is tied securely to a firm object or post that won't give way if the horse spooks and then go about securing the saddle to your horse. Check the blanket again to see that it is positioned properly and no places will pinch your horse. Move about your business at what ever speed your horse seems to tolerate. If all seems well, just proceed, but keep in mind that horse behavior can be very unpredictable.
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