20/11/2025
On the topic of safety, I wanted to talk about starting horses under saddle and the importance of making sure every foundational box is ticked before stepping on. Those early steps matter more than most people realise, and the quality of a horse’s start shapes everything that follows.
I’ve been starting my own horses since I was a teenager. I’m naturally cautious, and I tend to take longer than many people, but almost every horse I’ve started has gone on to excel in its chosen discipline (minus a couple that turned out to have serious underlying physical injuries). I’ve also had a couple that I realised early on were going to be more challenging, and I made the decision to send them to a more experienced trainer to start.
Is it my profession? No. Do I enjoy it? Absolutely. There’s something incredibly rewarding about being the first person to sit on your horse, the first to trot, canter, and eventually jump it. Those moments stay with you.
But that longing to be the one who starts your own horse, to shape the bond from day one, isn’t enough when things go wrong. Starting your own horse requires an honest assessment of your knowledge, experience, feel, timing, and emotional capacity; not for when things go right, but for when they inevitably go wrong.
For me, the danger often lies in the small mistakes we don’t notice, the misreading of a horse's body language, asking too much too soon, not preparing them well enough on the ground, or missing essential holes we aren’t experienced enough to see. Those overlooked moments can create issues that can have long-lasting repercussions.
Just this past week, I’ve heard of three people who decided to start their own horses despite being inexperienced or green at breaking-in work, and all three are bearing the brunt of it.
One woman is in hospital with three broken bones after her young horse spooked and leapt out from under her. Another rider ended up concussed when her horse unexpectedly bronced during the starting phase, even though he'd been perfect up until that moment. The third wasn’t physically hurt, but her horse did get her off four separate times and now requires specialised professional help to unravel the problems created.
For both horses and humans, first experiences set the tone for everything that follows. We either give them a confident, relaxed start, or unintentionally frighten them and create a horse that struggles to settle, reacts unpredictably when something goes wrong, or becomes a risk to themselves and their rider.
That's not to say we can't do it, but sometimes booking in the professional and paying the extra money upfront, saves a lot of time, money and injury down the track. And at the end of the day, it potentially saves a horse from going through multiple homes because of bad experiences and learnt behavioural issues, or ending up somewhere much worse.
