What to Do Before Setting Off on a Horse Ride

Look at the horse before you put tack on

Run a hand down the legs. Look at both shoes, or at bare feet if the horse is unshod, for cracks, heat, or a shoe that has shifted. Check the back and girth area for rubs. Watch how the horse stands and how it walks out of the stable. A horse that is lame in the yard will be lamer on the lane.

Notice temperament as well as soundness. A horse that is tight behind the eye, covered in sweat, or unusually dull may need a quieter plan or no ride. If you are unsure, ask someone at the yard before you disappear onto a bridleway.

Check the tack that will actually hold

• Stitching on reins, cheekpieces, and stirrup leathers. If you can see thread pulling, do not ride in it.
• Buckles and studs done up, keepers on, and a numnah or pad that is not folded under the saddle.
• Girth straight, not twisted, and tightened in stages. Check it again after a few minutes of walking.
• Bit sitting where it usually sits, with no hay wrapped round the mouthpiece.
• Stirrups level, and leathers on the right holes for you. Irons that are too small for the boot are a trap for the foot.

If you borrow tack, check it as if you have never seen it. Someone else's "it has always been fine" is not an inspection.

Dress for this ride, not for the photo

Hat on and fastened. Boots with a heel. Gloves if the reins will be wet. Hi-vis if you will touch a road or if the light will fade. A body protector if you use one for this horse or this type of ride. Pockets you can reach: phone, and any medication you are supposed to carry for yourself.

Tie up long hair and scarves. A flapping coat caught in a branch is a nuisance; a loose strap near a stirrup is worse. If it is hot, take water for you. If it is cold, take a layer you can put on when you are standing still at a gate.

Match the route to the weather and the time

Look at the forecast for the whole window, including the way home. Heavy rain on clay, ice in shady lanes, and a strong wind are reasons to shorten the ride or stay on better going. Low sun at the time you will be on the road is a visibility problem for drivers.

Say the route out loud. Which gates, which road crossing, where you can turn around. If the ride is longer than your usual loop, use the extra steps in preparing for a long horse ride: water for the horse, a realistic distance, and a finish time that is still daylight if you can manage it.

Sort the phone before you mount

Charge it. Put it in a pocket on you, not in a saddlebag you cannot open at speed. Check you have signal at the yard, and remember where your route usually loses it. Save the yard number and the number of the person who knows you are out.

If you use a ride-sharing app, start it while you are still in the yard and can see that the other person has the ride, rather than discovering a failed invite at the first gateway. Turn on Do Not Disturb only if calls from your chosen contacts can still get through. Missing a call from the yard because you silenced everything is an own goal.

Tell someone where you are going and when you will be back

Send the route and a clock time to a person who will notice if you are late. Include who is with you. "Just me and the mare, wood loop, back by 3:30" is a complete message. "Hacking" is not.

Agree what they should do if that time passes and they cannot reach you. The detail of a useful message — place, route, company, horse, return — is in what someone should know before you ride.

Have an arrangement for the awkward ending

Know how you would get home if you had to lead, if a shoe came off, or if you did not want to remount. That might be a friend with a trailer, the yard's number, or simply a route that stays near roads a vehicle can use. On a solo ride, say this out loud to your contact so they are not inventing a rescue at the moment they are worried.

Emergency services are 999 if someone is hurt. A friend with a trailer is the right call for a horse that is sound enough to stand and a rider who is walking. Mixing those up wastes time.

The first five minutes

Mount from a block if you have one. Walk until the horse is in front of the leg and you have checked the girth again. Use those minutes to feel for a saddle that has slipped or a horse that is tighter than it was in the stable. Turning back to the yard at this point is cheap. Discovering the same problem at the first road is not.

If you are sharing the ride, glance at the phone once before you leave the yard and confirm the other person can see it. Do not ride the first mile with your eyes on the screen.

Then get on

Mount from a block if you have one. Recheck the girth. Walk the first few minutes. The wider safety habits — roads, pace, when to turn back — apply as soon as you leave the yard. The preparation is finished when someone else could explain your plan and you could explain your tack.