Horse care is one of the several responsibilities a horse owner must be able to provide. This is very important in ensuring the horses optimal health and long life. Several aspects must be considered in taking care of a horse including age, breed, activity level, season and underlying health issues.

Horses must have enough exercise everyday to satisfy its physical needs. Horses kept in stables may develop stable vices. Stable vices are bad habits developed as a result of being confined with insufficient exercise, if they are not given work or turnout. Examples of stable vices are wood chewing, biting, wall kicking, pawing or digging.

You must provide your horse with enough land to exercise and run, preferably one to three acres per horse. The land area required may vary in climate as a horse needs more land for grazing in a dry climate than in a moist one. A grazing area must be clean, free from hazards and poisonous plants. It should also provide shade for your horse, if not you must put an artificial shelter.

You must provide your horse with a shelter to protect it from the sun, rain and wind. Usually, a horse is sheltered in a box stall. The size or dimension of a box stall depends on local cultural traditions, the breed of horse, the gender of the horse, and any special needs. Just make sure that it is large enough to fit your horse.

Box stalls usually contain a layer of absorbent bedding such as straw or wood shavings. Compared to wood shavings, straw is less expensive. However, wood shavings are cleaner and more hygienic to use.

A horse generates approximately 15 pounds of manure and several gallons of urine each day, so regular cleaning of its shelter is advised. It is recommended that the shelter and beddings of your horse be cleaned daily. If the horse is stabled all day, the shelter must be cleaned three times daily. It is also important to disinfect the stable to avoid health risks.

Horses need sufficient food and water. They have to be fed two or three times daily, unless they are on full time pasture. They also need adequate water, about 10-12 gallons per day minimum. Make sure that the horses water bucket always has water in it.

Daily cleaning and grooming of the horse is recommended. This will keep your horse healthy and clean. Make sure that its coat is healthy and its feet clean. Cleaning the hoof and weekly hoof check will prevent hoof diseases such as thrush, a hoof fungus. It will also help prevent lameness.

A regular veterinary care, such as vaccination, parasite management, deworming and dental care, should also be given. This should be provided to protect the horse against diseases and illnesses, to prevent or get rid of parasites, etc. Dental care is also important because uneven teeth and sharp edges may cause problems to horses when eating or being ridden.

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Horse training is defined as a wide variety of practices that teach horses to perform certain behaviors when asked to do so by humans. Horses are trained so that we, humans, can manage them.

Horses are also trained for use in horse racing activities and other sports. Licensed medical professionals use them for therapeutic purposes. Some train their horses for recreational activities, police assistance, and movie and circus entertainment.

Horses need to be trained so that they will not harm people as they are larger and stronger than us. And because horses cannot think like humans do, it is our responsibility to think of ways to effectively communicate with them. Training of horses may not be so difficult because they are social animals. Meaning, they are used to following a certain leader.

Aside from being working animals, horses are also prey animals and they have a biological response to acute stress. They have a well developed fighting-or-fleeing instinct, which means that they react to threats by fighting or fleeing. It is our responsibility, as humans, to teach them to determine the appropriate response.

Like most animals, younger horses are easier to teach than older horses, therefore, it is better if horses are handled from a very early age. There are several ways in which horses can be trained. Some use the concept of imprinting, which is the training of foals by exposing them to human as a substitute for the parent horses. On the other hand, some people believe that leaving the young horses for its first few hours or days to allow the foal to bond with its mother is important.

In its first year, a foal is halter broken, which means that it allows a halter placed upon its head. A halter, a headcollar or headstall, is a headgear that is used to lead or tie up a horse. Using a halter, a trainer leads a foal to walk and trot, since it is still too young to be ridden. With the halter, it is also taught to stop on command and to stand tied.

These basic skills are important because foals need to be calm for basic grooming and veterinary care. Foals must also be taught to be caught from a field and be loaded into a horse trailer. They must also be exposed to the noises and commotion of ordinary human activities so that they do not fear noise as well as flapping objects.

The next step to basic training is the ground training, by which young horses are prepared for riding while keeping them accustomed to humans. There are several techniques used in ground training. These are free longeing, longeing, sacking out, and ground driving or long-lining. They are also introduced to saddles, bridles, harness and bits.

The age for which a horse is backed or ridden depends on the breed of the horse and the discipline the horse will be used for. If a horse had adequate ground training, it is easier to be ridden. Specialized training for a particular discipline or set of disciplines should be introduced if the horse has mastered the basic skills under a saddle.

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Horse riding games are now being used by many instructors to motivate their students to engage more in learning. Motivation increases when the student riders play a game because games foster play. Play builds up motivation, which supports the learning process by providing incentive. With incentives, students are encouraged to engage in learning.

When the students are having fun with their lessons, they become more eager to learn. Therefore, incorporating horse riding games is vital to horse riding lessons. With motivation, they gain knowledge easier and faster.

Here are examples of horse riding games.

Musical Horses

This game is played just like musical chairs. However, instead of chairs, ground poles are used. The ground poles will be placed parallel to each other, about 8 feet apart. This will create what will look like a parking lot for horses. Just make sure that there is one less ground pole parking lot than the number of players.

Step 1. Music will be played and the riders with their horses will do a discipline. They will be asked to walk, trot, canter, halt, half circle, reverse or circle.

Step 2. When the music stops, the riders will go to one of the ground pole parking lots while continuously walking or trotting or cantering, etc.

Surely there will be one rider that will not get a space since the ground pole parking lots are one less than the riders. That rider will be eliminated and the number of spaces and the riders will be equal, so one pole must be removed. This will make the spaces between poles one less than the rider again. The last rider to get the one last space will be the winner.

Mounting and Dismounting Game

There will be two riders in this game, who will work as a team. For each team there will be an older rider who can mount from the ground and a little rider with mounting blocks. The younger riders with their mounting blocks will go to the center of the arena. They will keep an eye on their older team mate, who will do the commands.

When the instructor says "halt", the older rider will stop on the rail. They will dismount while the young riders run from the center to their partners. The older riders will get the little riders on safely and then the younger riders will race back to the mounting block. The last team to get to the mounting block will be out.

This time, the younger riders will be the ones to do the commands until the instructor says halt. Then the older riders will run to the younger riders to help the younger riders dismount. The older riders will, then, mount the horse as the younger riders run back to the mounting block at the center of the arena. The older riders will be riding with no stirrups or in jockey style in little kids stirrups.

The last team left will be the winner.

In horse riding games, riders are engaged in artificial conflicts that are designed by rules. This results for the riders to develop their strategic ability to achieve the common goal. Horse riding games also promotes interaction between riders.

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