Training Tip: Green + Green = Disaster

If you are a relatively green or inexperienced rider, the last thing you want to do is go and buy a horse that has limited training, regardless of his age, and take him out on the trail. You don’t even want a 4- or 5-year-old, unless he’s an exceptional horse. A rider with no experience who buys a young, green horse “so the two of them can learn together” makes a terrible mistake that, unfortunately, happens all the time.

The worst thing that can happen to an inexperienced rider is to be mounted on an equally inexperienced horse and set free out in wide-open spaces. You don’t want a green rider on a green horse anywhere near traffic, wooded areas, train tracks or bridges.

A green horse, by definition, has very little training and very little knowledge. The same is true of a green rider. Putting the two together is asking the blind to lead the blind. It rarely ends without someone getting hurt. It’s not a matter of if a wreck is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when and how bad it’s going to be. If you are green and the horse is green, it’s a recipe for disaster.

There is no reason for any rider to take their life in their hands in order to enjoy a trail ride. Riding out in nature, away from the arena, on a quiet, well-trained horse is one of life’s greatest pleasures. If you haven’t had a lot of experience on or around horses, you owe it to yourself to find a horse with a little bit of age on him. You want a horse that has had a lot of miles under his feet and has been ridden in many different locations. You want to be able to benefit from his experience and from his training.