How were horses trained for battle during the middle ages?

Is it true that horses could attack enemy soldiers by biting and kicking? Were they trained to rescue their masters if they were wounded or fell down?

Middle Ages in Europe did not have fighting training for horses, not when they had to gallop with armour and armoured man on their back.
Later, when the armour disappeared horses were taught war moves, which are now showed as spectacles by such school as the Spanish school of Vienna. All those moves are in fact war moves, back kick, rearing, cabriole… (see the links) to be done when the rider give the right signal to the horse.
horses are not intelligent and aggressive enough to go to the rescue of their riders, especially in the middle of a noisy scary fight. Without a rider to direct them horses listen to their instinct and run away. And a badly trained horse will not even listen to his rider and run away with his rider still on his back. That’s called take the bit between his teeth.

http://greybear.greydawnfarm.com:81/about/dressage/images/spanish_riding_school.jpg
http://www.viennaticketonline.com/repository/images/hofreitschule2.jpg
http://www.onlyhorsespictures.com/images/lipizzan/lipizzan.jpg

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My Husband and I are buying a horse property and are having a dispute over the name of the place. Should it be called "Dancing Horse Farm" or "Dancing Horse Ranch". I ride dressage and noticed most dressage stables are called farms. Thank you!

Ranch is more of a western term. You could use it, but it would be kind of awkward. I would actually consider calling it "Dancing Horse Stables". When I hear the word "stables" I most commonly think of high-end english horses. "Farm" makes me think more along the lines of someone’s personal place, like not very large or nice.

I am looking for a cheap horse any breed it doesnt matter. I luv em all. I look on craigslist and petfinder. I live in Northern California. Does anyone or do you know anyone who lives in Northern California, foots hills and sacramento, area who has horses for sale or has a place on their ranch/barn for a 15 year old girl who loves horses and will work for lessons or will ride horse if you still want to keep yours and doesnt have enough time to ride ect.?!?! Ive taken lessons for around 4-5 years riden lots of breeds, done trails and arena, jumped, worked with young horses ect.!

look in your local newspaper- this time of year there are usually some good bargains, also look it up in google ( horses for sale) you can find lots of sites were people near were you live are selling horses and sometimes even for free! also you could adopt- that’s free and easy
there are some requirements in order too though.
good luck )

What would be the most flattering braid for a black and white paint horse? She has a long gorgeous black and white mane and tail. I would hate to have to cut it and band it.I bought a book on braiding but I didn’t see anything that caught my eye. Thank you for you help.

My red dunn always looked spectacular when I did a smocking and braiding combo. Either french braid the upper section and smock the lower half or braid in small strips and smock the strips.
( I couldn’t find any horse pictures, but here is a kid with smocked hair)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_O24yD7Or1BU/SJtJbK-R3UI/AAAAAAAACGQ/U1MHZUp78RM/s400/IMG_4518.JPG

I didn’t even know you could get points in AHA until recently because I don’t show breed shows (I do eventing/jumpers). But I also recently found out the one of the AHA recognised shows in my area is going to be doing jumpers this year…

So how do points work? And what are they for?

points determin different things in different shows. Over all if you show a few shows over the summer they’ll count up all the points you have and you win/place if your at the top. At the same time they also have that at each breed show, so you go into 5 classes and get points for those, if you have the most then you get best in show award at the end of the show.

That’s the basic idea.

what steps should you go about for training a green hunter starting with a horse who is learning bending and the correct frame. what shoud they know by now and what should be the next few steps?
plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me I rly want to be successful with training my horse.

Okay this reply might be long but here it goes.

If your working on framing, use draw reigns. But if you dont want to use those this is what you do to get a nice, low, hunter frame.

Use a "see-saw" motion with your hands, like a half halt in time with his stride, almost like your squeezing a sponge, alternating hands so "left, right, left , right…." and dont stop or lose contact ever, and when he puts his head down squeeze alot with your leg so he knows to stretch and move forward. keep doing this and he will lengthen out
The most important thing to remember is, when he gets his head where you want it, although you can stop see-sawing, dont lose contact and dont take off your leg!

Bending:
A really helpful tip with bending is stand in the middle on your horse, pull lightly to make him turn to your foot, and do the same with the other. Then, eventually he’ll know to do this with just you sticking out your foot

When riding, do little half halts on the inside reign before you come to the bend. With some horses, the "pull and give" might have to be exaggerated "pull, pull, pull…give" till they get it. What some horses will do is TILT their head, so theyre nose will be to the inside, but their outside ear will be to the outside. If this happens, pull up on the outside reign so they correct it. You can work on bending to the inside all the way around the arena with constant pull-gives =)
CIRCLES CIRCLES CIRCLES
help SOO much starting big and then getting smaller and smaller and then back to getting bigger and bigger, all the while working on bending. Whats important with circles is inside leg is pushing your horses bum out, and your outside by the girth pushing his shoulders in, making him bend almost around your foot and so hes not drifting out. ALso, make sure your square to your horses shoulders, not falling in to the circle.=)

One more thing that helps is figure 8’s from corner to corner. Your horse has to change his bend in the middle and it helps him realise when he needs to bend in what direction. There are so many other techniques you can use as well, weaving in and out of pylons, etc.

Sorry this was so long! >.< I could probably go on but ill save you the reading if you want any other info just email me! The most important thing to remember is you give back as much as you take and you’ll have a happy horse!

Keira

I have had a horse before but this is the first time I’m going through the adoption process. I do have a boarding pasture that I want to take my horse to (whenever I find one) but I don’t really know what to ask them to make sure he/she’s being cared for properly.

As for getting the horse, I am looking at rescue organizations as well as newspaper ads/online ads. What questions should I ask about the horse so I know what I’m getting and what to expect?

Does the boarding pasture you have include a shelter for the horses? Are the horses ever brought in to a stall?

My knee-jerk reflex feeling is that if you’re getting a rescue horse, you don’t want to have it pasture boarded. You want it in a stall. The reasons for this:

1. Many rescue horses have physical issues relating to their previous care and need close oversight to assure they recover from neglect or abuse. It’s hard to provide that kind of oversight in a pasture.

2. If your rescue horse has a history of abuse, you’e going to have a heck of a time catching her in pasture.

3. The rescue organization you work with, whichever one you choose, is undoubtedly going to want to see the physical facility where you intend to keep the horse before they let you have one. You may have trouble finding an organization that would let you have a horse if all you can provide is pasture board.

If I were you, before you go any further or waste time spinning your wheels, I’d contact some of the rescue organizations you’re thinking of getting a horse from and ask them what kind of facilities they require/recommend for adopters.

That said, the things I would consider when looking at a pasture board situation:

1. What kind of fences do they have? I’d want to look at the fences myself and if any of the fences were wire, I’d go somewhere else. Are the fences in good condition?

2. Will your horse have the pasture to himself? Or are there other horses in the pasture? How will your horse be integrated in with any existing herd? What will be done to assure that other horses don’t pick on him?

3. What are the sources of water? How frequently does whoever is in charge check the waterers? Is the water source clean, and in winter is it kept from freezing?

4. What is the condition of the pasture grass? Is it scanty and obviously overgrazed, is it long and lush? Are there a lot of weedy-looking plants growing in it? Is it harrowed frequently to spread the manure? Is it ever mowed?

5. Are there trees in/around it, and if so, what kind? Some kinds of trees are toxic to horses. Do any of the trees look like they’ve been blasted by lightning? Is the area where the pasture is located an area where there are thunderstorms? If so, what is done to protect the horses from lightning strikes?

6. Here in Southern California, brush fires during the summer (and spring and fall and winter, nowadays) are a problem. Is the area where the pasture is located susceptible to fires? If so, what are the evacuation plans for horses?

7. How often will someone be out to check on your horse, and how closely will they check? I know of someone whose mare lost an eye because the "oversight" provided by the farm where she was boarded was just to count the horses at night when they gave supplemental feeding and to quickly eyeball the horses for problems from a distance of 20-100 feet. This mare was shy about approaching the fence, so nobody got close enough to see her eye was infected until it was too late to save it.

8. Will supplemental feeding be provided, and if so, what will be provided and in what way? If hay is provided, is it just thrown down for horses to duke it out over, or is some provision made to assure that all horses in the same pasture have access to feed?

9. Are there any problems with packs of feral dogs? At Texas A&M while I was there, every year at the end of term the horse center (and the other livestock centers, too) had problems with packs of feral dogs that formed when students leaving for the summer or at graduation would dump their dogs out in the countryside. One year while I was there one of the weanlings had to be destroyed when dogs chased her through a fence and she broke her shoulder.

These are the questions I would start with. But before I would start with those, I would verify with the rescue organizations that pasture board is acceptable.

I need to know as soon as possible.

FFA is your best start but if you have any fear of horses or can not touch EVERY part of a horse its not a good field to get into. A stallion that is a sweetheart in the field is not the same horse when a mare is around and in season and there are parts that need to be cleaned before he gets to the mare. I do not want to discourage you, but it is not as easy or glamorous as people make it out to be

I’m wondering about horse prices, and would like to know your answers to these questions to get an idea of the horse market trends.

1. Describe your horse’s breed, training level, and age?
2. How much did you pay?
3. What state or region did you buy your horse in?
4. When did you purchase your horse?
5. How did you find your horse (auction, private sale, adoption center, production sale, advertisement in paper, tack store, internet horse classifieds, other)?

You can post answers for more than one horse, if you own several. I’m just wanting to get a good idea of how much horses in other areas are bringing, and what kind of horses they are. I’m curious because horses are bringing less than half what they did two years ago, yet some horses are still priced exorbitantly high!

There are no wrong answers, and as long as you answered all my questions you’re in the running for the 10 points. Thanks.
And to answer my own question, here’s mine:

1. Grade Appaloosa gelding, six months old, late colt so he was a runt, wild and scared, picked him out of a pen of weanlings because he had a pretty face.
2. $120 was the winning bid.
3. Iowa.
4. January 2005
5. auction barn

1. Quarter Horse mare, 4 years old, gentle but never ridden.
2. $800
3. Iowa
4. September 2004
5. private sale, knew a guy who had a bunch of horses for sale, went and looked at them all and chose her.

1. Grade QH-type mare, 15+ years old, kid-broke and acts like an angel.
2. $800
3. Missourri
4. May 2005
5. internet horse classifieds
Edit to mrsmom: That’s fine, if you think it’s dangerous, then don’t answer. But I seriously doubt if anyone can use your answer to locate your horses and steal them. I’m not doubting your word that yours were stolen before, but I’m doubting that a horse thief would look on Yahoo!Answers Horse Section to find his next target. It’s wise not to give out your real name and exact location, but that’s why I said "state or region you purchased your horse". Saying "I bought my horse at an auction in the Midwest" is going to keep you pretty much anonymous and invisible. But anyway, if you don’t feel safe that’s fine.

Thanks to all the answers so far, it’s interesting to read about your horses. If you haven’t answered yet, please do!

The horse that owned me was Raageyn (Geyn to his friends and I’m proud he included me in that category) grey Arabian gelding, tracing back to Skaranic, Reycene, Bint Gazella, ultimately DB on his papers, 10 yrs old at purchase, $1,100.00 he’s just turned 30. Newspaper ad in Campbell TX, moved him to Myrtle Beach, SC, gave him to my daughter….ex sold him, the bustard.

He came with all the bells and whistles, buttons and Auto Pilot. He also could spot a rookie "rider" and use all the "horse tricks" in the book. No dummy. Proper lead canter at a feather touch from a standstill, extended trott to die for, willing to undertake any request from an experienced horseman. Beautiful to look at, a pleasure to have known.

Excellent trail, English Pleasure, Hunter Hack, Western, Halter horse. High point horse with two riding clubs (showed against QH! Tall order for a little grey gentleman)

Saved my sanity…still owns my heart, wherever he is…could show trim his ears, bridle path and coronet while he stood sans cross ties, me crawling around on my hands and knees under him, through his legs. Yeah, boogedy, crayzy AyeRab.

And to MrsMom, sorry about your theft loss, understand the safety issue, but I dare you or anyone to find me in MB, SC.

Fun question, thanks.

Ok, so who’s used a formal contract of sale for selling a horse? Do you have any recommended contracts to use? Have you had any issues after sale?

I have one that was drafted by an attorney that I have modified over the years as things change (over a 40 year period). I’ve never had any issues after a sale….get a good attorney, or check the internet for contracts you can purchase that are specifically related to equine sales.