If you are planning to get a horse, have you made adequate budgetary provisions? Don’t commit the blunder of assuming that your expenses are over after you have paid for the horse. A pony might be the biggest item on your program of expenses, but in no way is it the sole item.

Before you set out to get a pony, you ought to have identified, quantified and made allowance for all things that are a part of purchasing, riding and caring for your horse. These include accommodation for your horse, feeding and watering him, medical care, riding gear and riding clothes for yourself. All these items have to be attended to before it’s possible to even sit in the saddle for the first time. Making your budgetary provisions means making decisions about a few aspects of horse ownership. You need to decide on the type of riding you wish to do, the style and quality of riding gear you want to use, the type and quality of riding attire you wish to wear.

If your financial position doesn’t allow for new gear, you might want to visit horse shows, farm sales and used gear shops to buy less expensive tack which has been well kept. If you do buy new stuff, do so as far as possible from outlets that are within reach, to enable replacement of gear that doesn’t fit or is other wise unsuitable for your specific purposes. Naturally, you want to make sure that refunds or replacements are allowed before purchasing. If you are completely certain of your requirements, you can buy from online outlets. There are numerous great purchase options online, but you need to be very sure of yourself, because returning products purchased online could be a very pricey business. Whether online or off line, buy only once you have made certain of the seller’s refund or replacement policies.

The most basic of gear you definitely have to buy are a halter and lead rope, two items essential to bring your pony home to begin with. Note that if you’re purchasing a young horse, you want to get a suitable halter and keep replacing it as the pony grows older. If you purchase a mature pony, you want a halter for adult horses you can use for a long time. Nylon halters aren’t very expensive and even leather ones that are not elaborate show pieces won’t cost too much.

For riding the horse, you will need a saddle, blankets or pads, a bit, a bridle and one or maybe two sets of reins depending what type kind of riding interests you. Tack comes in 2 broad categories: western and English. Both western and English tack items are used for the same purposes, but differ broadly in size, shape and appearance. Usually, English tack is lighter and smaller, the saddles are minimalist, short of frills. They do not have horns, deep seats or high forks. The stirrups don’t come with wide fenders. Comparatively, western saddles are heavy, with distinct horns, deep seats and tall, rigid cantles at the rear. Stirrup fenders and saddle skirts could be impressively carved or may come with gold accents or silver ones. Both English and western style tack come in numerous variations, and therefore it’s very important that if you are making plans to take part in specific disciplines you research the correct kind of tack to acquire.

Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers read more