Saddle Training a Horse – A Guide

Training a horse is rarely an easy or quick task. You must earn a horse’s respect and trust, and then slowly guide it into the tasks you wish it to perform. With a difficult horse this can easily take months in the hands of an experienced trainer. Your easiest horse will be young and accustomed to people, especially people riding and interacting with other horses.

When it is time to train your horse with a saddle, you should have made a considerable amount of progress already. Saddle training is by no means the first step in training a horse. Your horse should already be able to work with a lead well. She should now what your cues are for walk, trot, etc. and should generally respond well to your directions. Attempting to saddle train a horse who has not gotten this far will likely lead to injury on your part and emotional damage for the horse which will be confused and terrified.

A saddle can easily frighten a horse.

Saddle training a horse is not at all easy and if you have never done this before, you might consider hiring a professional trainer. This is not the easy way out; the trainer is not there to train the horse while you stand by, but rather to guide you and help you train the horse. Even if you choose this option, it is a good idea to find several good books on saddle training. Talk to several trainers or horsemanship instructors near you to see what they recommend.

Enlist the help of a friend and lunge the horse for a little while. Your next step is the saddle pad and this can easily scare your horse. While the friend holds the line, calmly and gently approach the horse with the saddle pad until you can very gently lay it on her back. Rub it around her back a bit and then hold it in place. It is quite possible that she will be scared and try to throw it, but try to make sure you don’t let the pad fly, as this can be even scarier.

This will not be accomplished in one session. Remove the pad and do it again the next day until she is comfortable with it. Then keep it around while you do other things around her and just get her used to having it put on, waved around, moved, etc.

The saddle should be approached in much the same fashion, keeping in mind that it is heavier. Slowly get her used to it over several days and eventually lead her around with the saddle on.