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HORSE WRANGLING

Horses are an expensive investment for the inexperienced rider to
make.  But with a little training, practice, and savvy shopping,
riding horses can easily become practical and a pleasure!  Here
are a few tips to get the novice horse-rider started:

1.  Be sure to train your own skills first, before purchasing
your horse.  Often, horses will recognize incompetence in their
masters and refuse to follow them, no matter how strongly one
tugs on their reins.  The best course it to learn the refinements
of the skill, rather than to attempt brute force, in controlling
horses.  Good places to learn these skills are the expensive
Razza Warriors, which train both animal handling and horse riding
to quite good masteries.  For those on a budget, Dana's Skill
Gymnasium in Silverlining is a feasible alternative for the horse-
riding skill, while Rebeth the scout will offer good prices for
animal-handling.  Of course, the cheapest way to learn is to teach
yourself, but this takes an extraordinary amount of time, and is
generally not worth considering until you have at least an average
grasp of your skills.

2.  Shop smart!  A beautifully-coloured coat may attract you to a
certain horse, but make sure that the horse is suited to your needs
before buying!  Often, even ponies are too tall for the shorter
gnomes, fairies, or elves to mount.  Also, some stables tend to
charge more for a certain horse than another.  Be sure to enter the
box of the horse that you wish to purchase and make sure that you
are both skilled and tall enough to mount the horse!  If colour or
appearance is not a factor in buying a horse, you can often find
better deals by shopping at several different stables.  Locations
include Padorn, Hart's Village, Razza, Grasslands, Silverlining,
to name a just a few.  More are opening every day!  Remember,
sometimes the pricing of seemingly similar horses are due to
differences in the physical health, strength, and quickness of the
horse.  Strength is the most important factor here, the stronger
your horse is, the more it will be able to carry, and generally
will also have more endurance.  If the physical traits of your horse
are also not important to you, some really good bargains can be found
on any horses by posting queries on public boards.  It's not that
difficult to find an unfortunate consumer who bought a horse before
realizing that he or she was too short to mount it, and these horses
are offered independently by the owners for drastically reduced
prices.

3.  Know the differences between wild horses, warhorses, and normal
horses.  Wild horses can't be bought from ordinary vendors, they must
be captured in the wild.  This is possible, but takes extraordinary
amounts of time and patience, if you hope to capture the horse without
making it fear you -- the method you use to capture a wild horse will
have serious consequences on later attempts to train it.  Warhorses
are very similar to wild horses, but are sold by conventional dealers.
Warhorse is a general term, they are not limited to stallions but can
also be mares, geldings, and even ponies.  You can tell a warhorse
before purchase by its behavior when you enter its box.  If the horse
stamps its feet or twitches its ears nervously, it is a warhorse.
Wild and warhorses are much harder to steal than ordinary horses, as
they generally don't allow anyone except their rider to even come
close to them.  The tradeoff, however, is having a more difficult and
resistant horse, which will take longer to gain trust in you and
requires much more effort to train.  Normal horses are the most
gentle and easy to ride, and highly recommended for the beginner.

4.  Training your horse takes patience!  Even normal horses will not
be completely trusting of their new master, and may throw you or refuse
to move even with a high mastery of horse-riding skills.  As you get
to know your horse, however, you will begin to trust and understand
each other, and unpleasant incidences will decrease in frequency.  Wild
and warhorses are a special case; sometimes they will not allow you to
hitch or mount them, or even touch their bridle if they have been upset.
The only remedy for this is to sit with your horse and wait until it has
calmed down so that you can hitch it again.  Depending on the nervous
state of your horse, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few
hours.  The key to taming and training difficult horses is time and
patience, no other substitutes will work.


Hopefully, this article will shed some light on the mystery of horse-
riding and training, and encourage others to try these wonderful
creatures.  For more help, you can also try  or .
Horses can be trustworthy, useful companions, if you give them a chance!

Blue Du'Sonsa