Answer #3

EQ: What is most important to becoming a western horse trainer?

Answer 3: A basic knowledge of horse care, consisting of grooming, tack, basic veterinarian medicine, haltering, leading, trailering, and shoeing.

Evidence: Knowing the basics will allow you and anyone else to progress forward. Basic veterinarian medicine can help you in a situation where the horse has a scrape on a hind leg. What do you do? You administer neosporn, wrap it in vet wrap, and if neccessary, wrap it in a pillow wrap. Knowing the proper tack that fits a horse will save you from having an unhappy horse, and is also a safety percaution as tack that doesn't fit can result in injury to both horse and rider. Knowing how to hook up a trailer and load horses into and out of one will help in case of emergency, say there's a fire and you need to get out urgently, you'll know how to act.

Source:
- Interview 4 with Janelle Nichols, horse trainer for JKK Performance Horses
- Larry Trocha, horsemanship trainer
- Melinda Freckleton, DVM