Selecting The Right Riding Spurs

Riding spurs have been utilized for decades as a way of sending signals to horses without having to make any sounds or sudden movements. We’ve all seen the western pictures where the riders use spurs that are decorated with a spiky metal star at the rear, spinning around as they ride the pony. Nevertheless this type of riding spur isn’t actually applicable for most sorts of present day horse riding. Selecting the right spurs is important.

There are two different sorts of riding spurs and which one you should invest in depends upon which type of horse riding you may use it for, and whether you’ll need any spurs at all. For youngsters and/or younger riders, spurs are basically useless since the rider’s legs will not reach far down on the horse to apply the right pressure with the spur.

The “English Spur” is sometimes used amongst dressage and equestrian riders. This is a rather more refined form of spur that’s utilised to send extraordinarily subtle commands to a horse that are almost invisible to the non-professional observer.

If you are in to Western riding then the more flashy sorts of spurs are the ones you should be taking a look at. These are the characteristic cowboy spurs with gold or silvery metal at the back that makes rather a lot of noise. These are very unsuited for any kind of competitive dressage or equestrian riding.

The long part that is attached to the spur is called a shank. Now, depending on what sort of horse riding you’ll be doing you will have to use different sorts of shanks. This is due to the way in which the rider’s legs are placed when they sit in a saddle. For Western riding the legs of the rider will be pushed forward and slightly to the sides. So this means that the shank must be curved inwards for the spur to have any effect on the horse.

Its equally important to understand that if a horse rider is employing a Dressage saddle or an English saddle, the legs will be down on the sides. This means that the shanks will only need a slight angle on them to be able to poke the horse when required.

Something to keep in mind is to be very careful when using spurs. Wild and unexpected pokes in to a horse can make it aggressive and irritated and in the worst case scenario harm the horse. Use the spurs with care until you are an experienced rider and know just how hard you can push the spurs.

Nick Jacob is a longtime content author publishing articles on a wide variety of subjects including travel, sport and medical subjects.

Townend Online is an equestrian clothing and tack shop for all competitive riders as an example stocking Sprenger spurs and other expert equestrian equipment.