Go easy on the gear. If/when she decides she actually likes to ride would be the time to start looking at different tack, saddles, etc., and of course, a horse.

You guys are going to get all kinds of advice from well intentioned people. Take it all in, keep the advice you like or agree with and throw the rest out. What works for one person may not work for you. Alot of what's involved with riding is personal preference, just like other things in life. You may like one type of horse over another, one type of saddle over another, bits, reins, pads, etc.. Take some time and look at your options before you start handing out the cash.

Keep an open mind and mostly remember that this is going to cost you alot...in one way or another.

Hmmmm...black lace teddy? Now there's some mind candy.

The instructor may do this, but make sure she's that she takes the time to get comfortable being "around" horses, not just on them.

Whoever's giving the lessons should provide all the tack for the horse. A boot with a heel is important, and some decent, soft riding gloves are a help.

I don't ride, but my gf has ridden her whole life and trains/judges hunter/jumper and dressage. She's arranging for riding lessons for me, but with Christmas and all, we just haven't had time.

However, I do spend a lot of time with her at the barn. I've worked around horses a some, but never rode much. I'm comfortable around them, but she's taught me a helluvalot about horses in the 7 months we've been together. I'm sure that it'll make things somewhat easier when I finally get in the saddle myself.

Oh, the teddy is nice, but chaps have a certain appeal, too.

Caballero's advice is good! Don't buy ANY tack until after she's advanced enough to know if it is something she will pursue for more than a few weeks!! IF you ever buy a horse, get a decent one! I learned this the hard way many years ago! People ask me "where can I get a good horse cheap??" My reply is that it's like old pilots and bold pilots!! There are good horses, and there are cheap horses. But there are NO good, cheap horses!! (Of course, once in a while someone lucks out, but this is a good rule!) Don't buy ANY tack until you have a horse, because you'll need to get stuff thst is a good fit for the individual horse.

Too bad she's so old. You mention a trainer at $25 an hour. If she was younger a proper method is to get a kid-training-nieghborhood-Shetland. Buy the Shetland (or take it as a gift, with thanks) hand your child the reins and ignore both of them. If the kid stays with it he can become so advanced, so quickly it's almost breathtaking. And you don't get your training by the hour- you get it by the INSTANT! sometimes lots of them strung together one after another. But she, being a fiance, is probably too old to go down that trail and so yes a good horse trainer is in order (I did learn proper horsemanship in college).

Thanks for all the advice all. I got her a pair of pants at the western shop recommended by the girl that works there that rides wester (and really fits her jeans nice ;-) They are a brand that has a cool name too, Cruel Girl! Ha! Got her the ariats, she says they are very comfortable, they had to break in a little, but being leather that was no problem. (all our Christmas stuff got done this past weekend since we are in Colorado for the real holiday and didn't want to try to take all the gifts with us). The lessons of course were her favorite part. I told her that if she ever does end up liking it enough that she wants her own horse and tack that I get to spend equal amounts on firearms! :-)

I am not sure how Pixie (my personal nickname for the new instructor, petite, pretty, and with the sweetest little voice. I thought on the phone she was a teen, but in person saw she is probably about 20) does the instruction, but I am sure she will get leah comfortable first. I did tell Leah she needs to get a helmet. She asked when she could stop wearing one, I said that she doesn't ever have to wear one, she can sign a waiver. but that Pix cracked her head just about a month ago when a horse she was training threw her into a rail. Personally I am a no helmet type person, hating that I always had to wear one on the motorcycle, but it is always better safe than sorry.

See everybody sees the expense of this activity and fails to see the upside, let me give you all the i.e.'s

-new horse = new ranch to put it on (nevada, Montana, Idaho?)
-new trailer = new hunting truck to pull it
-new tack = new firearms to make it even!

I can always find a good side to things.

Red

A helmet is a good idea for a new rider. Don't worry about the young instructor. Early on its all about balance and learning to post.

While I generally don't wear a helmet trail riding any more I most certainly do when I'm foxhunting...its like motorcross on a horse...and every year someone in my club breaks something big... Last week had a guy break his wrist and shoulder...we were moving pretty fast and the horse got caught in some old fencing laying in some brush. Horse flipped over on him...could have happend to me just as easily.. Last year had a woman got throwed when a deer ran into her horse knocking both horse and rider to the ground...yes...the deer ran INTO the horse...I've only been riding four years but have been knocked out once (with the helmet on!)...

I guess I'm a bit of the traditional western type, and I sure wouldn't wear a helmet when riding. I've been thrown by young horses more times than I like to admit as I often ride 3 or 4 different horses every week and I've probably hit every part of my body but my head. However I try to unload under my own terms if I get shook loose.

Dago,

How's the leasons going?

I started learning to ride about 2 1/2 years ago. I learned the hard way, my rancher buddy pointed me at one of his horses, told me that my feet go in those dangly things and which direction I am supposed to face while riding. I rode for about six months before he started giving me leasons and directions. He said he has taught too many people who stick with it for only a couple of months then quit. Now I ride with him weekly and do pretty much everything except rope.

Ca_Mike

Not the helmet thing again

The only thing that looks dumber than a safety helmet on a new rider is the victum of a closed head injury sitting in a wheelchair paralyzed for life with tubes coming out of every hole in their body...


There are as many disciplines of riding as there are of shooting...perhaps more. And what works or is considered silly in one is regarded quite differently in another.

I go to lots of rodeos and helmets and vests are showing up more and more.

I likewise go to things like the Rolex 3 day event...an Olympic level riding competition and will tell you I know more than a few cowboys who wouldn't ever dream of attempting some of those jumps or running that event without a helmet...

I know it might look goofy...but I don't know if having your wife change your cholostomy bag looks better....

There are only two kinds of riders...

1. Those that have fallen off..

2. Those that are going to fall off...

I'll agree with that, as anyone who hasn't ever been thrown has ridden very little or always on old slow bombproof horses. There's nothing wrong with that, but somebody has to make them into old bombproof horses. Speaking of helmets, everyone I know who's ever had a head injury from a horse (I've had one knocked me cold) had it happen while on the ground and the horse jerked, rared up or threw the head hitting the handler. Obviously you can get a head injury while mounted, but I believe it to be less dangerous than while on the ground, of course these are usually green horses. I have two friends are now recovering frome these types of hits, one was hit in the head by a young stud and was temporarily paralyzed, still can't turn his head properly, the other was kicked while shoeing a horse, breaking his jaw and knocking him unconscious. You just can't wear a football helmet all the time you're around one, so the only way to know one won't hurt you is stay the hell away from them and I won't do that either. As a matter of fact the worst I ever got hurt around a horse was two years ago when I jumped off a gate and caught my right spur on the cinch of a saddle that I had draped over it, fell straight down hitting my head on a rock and had 10 stitches put in my cheek. In general if you avoid getting hit while on the ground, and use small stirrups, boots that will come off so you don't get drug, never ride in low heeled shoes I think your chances are very low as the ones I've known that were hurt riding were hung in a stirrup or the horse run off, rider panicked, horse ran under a limb. I know two children who died this way, and a helmet won't protect from a broken neck. Just my opinion, so don't take it too seriously.

Hi, I've spent a fair bit of time riding, and as it happens, I've also spent a LOT of time (as a researcher) in the 'Acquired Brain Injury Unit' at one of the leading university teaching hospitals in Sydney, Australia. You would be amazed at how easy it is to cause MAJOR trauma - ever seen how far a ball point pen can penetrate the skull in a motor vehicle accident? As for horse riding, I know helmets don't look 'cool', but ask my son - he used to argue the case until I took him to work and he saw the dribbling, paralysed, incontinent patients, and also, saw their families!! Believe me, I don't give a s..t how helmets look, and they obviously don't prevent everything, but spend a couple of days with me and then see if you don't wear one!! If you care about your fiance (and I'm sure you do) insist on a helmet, PLEASE!!!!!

To be protected fully from an horse accident I recommend not getting on. To me a good look at what a helmet can do for you is look at the superman star, I won't want to live like that. I spent acouple summers with my cousins on the track in the 50's and saw some jockeys killed most were from crushed chest and alot more injuries from ponying horses broken arms etc. Maybe in a soft fall those helmets work but look at the design nothing to protect the neck and thats why those serious injuries are in a wheelchair. I wore a hard hat for many years but it was for falling objects. My first wife did the hunter jumper and tavis cup and I've been showing quarter horses since the late 60's and I've seen more people kick and only one serious accident, woman was getting after her horse and it was on concrete road way and she got dumped and took her about a year to get right, hear of a women that was killed acouple years ago around here horse dumped her on a concrete isle way. Now I can name over a dozen people killed going to and from a horse event in the same time frame. Some horse events required a hard helmet so be it. For me I don't wear a helmet and anybody in the horse deal knows the good and bad with the helmets. Don't mean to pick a fight with anyone but there is another side to all things. Just my .02 worth. Tom

Hey Tom, we were just in Colorado Springs over Christmas, Monument actually, but went to the city a few times. We are actually considering it as a place to move. What is your impression of the laws around there? very liberal, moderate, conservative? Friendly to sportsman and good gun laws?

She went and got a helmet, and since it rained her lesson is postponed until either tomorrow or Sunday. She got a black helmet with a very faint horse on each sight, glistens when the light hits it right and you can see it. pretty. But for somebody used to wearing real helmets it seemed a bit funny, the way it sits on the head.

I am familiar with many pro's and con's of helmets, and think that for a beginner I am much more comfortable with her wearing one all the time.

Not to be morbid but we were talking about head injuries, and she had to pull the girlie card and ask,"if something happened to me would you still love me?" I told her of course, and that there was always an upside to things, and gave her the for instance that if she were in a wheel chair I could put a remote on it and send her back and forth to the kitchen to get me drinks! :-)

The maybe 3 times that I had a bike go down I never had my head hit, one time I must have rolled 20-30 feet, and never had it hit. But that was just a blessed even, it could have whacked the street, and it would have been good I was wearing it.

Red

My gf is a psychometrist and spent a few years working with brain injury patients. For that reason, she will never get on a horse, or a motorcycle, without a helmet. She's ridden hunter/jumper competitively since she was a kid, and could've ridden pro, had she wanted to.

For similar reasons, she won't drive a car after even one drink.