Fourth Observation

This past Saturday at 1:00 PM I went to Hunter Creek Farm. My goal was to interview the trainer and at the same time watch riders either hack or train. The first thing I did was observed how the horses are prepared before they get ridden. (as you can see in the pictures), this is a long processes that may take up to 20 minutes. The first step is to take the horse’s blanket off; blankets are used only during cold weather. Once the blanket is folded and put away, a vacuum is on the horse to get as much dirt out of the horse’s coat as possible. After vacuuming, the currying begins. A grooming mitt is used for this. The purposed of currying is to help finish getting the dirt out, as well as the hair that the horse is ready. Currying is done all over the horse’s body. Brushing comes next; usually two brushes are used to make the job faster, the horse’s body gets all brushed as well. Then the horse’s hooves are cleaned out, subsequently, the tail and mane are brush too and the horse is ready to get tack up.

The first step is to put the martingale if the horse uses one, then comes the baby pad, which goes under the saddle blanket and the saddle. Once these are put on the horse the girth is put into place. The girth holds the saddle in place. Afterwards, the bridal is put on the horse, and the horse is ready to get ridden.

In this observation I was able to learn the difference between hacking and training. Although a horse can be trained while being hacked, I am referring to training as a lesson for both the horse and rider. The hacking generally consists of walking, trotting and catering. It can last from 15 to 10 minutes. While training might take up to an hour, during this time, the horse warms up by walking, trotting and cantering for around 10 minutes or so, then the jumping begins. As I mentioned in one of my earlier observations, what is done during training depends on what the horse and/or rider needs to work on.

Finally, when the trainer finished her class, I was able to interview her and learn about her experience, opinion, knowledge and some very interesting stories that are going to be extremely usefull for my next paper.

In addition to the pictures from that day, I will like to show you some images that will represent each material that is used to prepare the horse.