Spurs... when do you wear them?

LBertie Wooster

LBertie Wooster

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I started wearing mine for home schooling aswell as out competing, untill my friend took me 'under her wing'. She made the point of mentioning to me that the more I wear them at home aswell as competing the less he's going to respect my leg when I dont wear. I've stopped wearing them when schooling/ jumping at home and out at trainings/ clinics other than the odd one where I might just pop them on. Friend then went on to say that some places don't let people under X age wear them so another reason to not schooling with them at home.
I understand people need them to help as a friend, B's old owner, had a car crash so needed them with him as she wasn't able to use her legs as well due to the accident.

So, my question is, how oftern do you wear yours and is there a reason to it? :)
 
I totally disagree, I am capable of riding mine without spurs but my leg aids are more refined when I have them, there is no way I would want to start wearing spurs at competitions I want the horse to be comfortable with them. Surely if you don't keep niggling with them she won't get dead to them?that's why I use them so I don't have to pony club kick and give her dead sides.
 
Countrychic said:
I totally disagree, I am capable of riding mine without spurs but my leg aids are more refined when I have them, there is no way I would want to start wearing spurs at competitions I want the horse to be comfortable with them. Surely if you don't keep niggling with them she won't get dead to them?that's why I use them so I don't have to pony club kick and give her dead sides.
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This.
You dont have to wear them all the time but they are there to refine aids.
PC members are not allowed to wear spurs at PC comps without permission unless they have [I think]B test.
However most comps do not have restrictions,apart from showing where juniors must not wear them,and not allowed in M&M classes either.
 
I see whre your coming from, but it totally depends on both horse and rider. I know I can get on mine at a comp and he's comfortable with them due to being ridden in them repetidly when evented before us and when I used to ride him in them. But I know if I used them everyday he would get dead to them, I can't dive ponyclub kicks as I would be on the floor and he would be other side of the arena/ field!

My friend is totally the oppersite with hers, she wears them every time she rides because he's a little ***** and has been booted repetidly before she got him.

Can deffinatly see 2 sides of the argument though.
 
Restrictions are few and far between- for PC, you must have your DCs permission and RC lets juniors wear them now.

As for wearing them, I never do as I genuinely cannot control my lower leg enough and have never had a horse who needed them. Al wears hers for all competitions, rallies, training but not for hacking unless she gets out and he's being a bit teenage at which point she trots back and puts them on again! If you don't nag with them and you use the judiciously, then how much you wear them won't be a problem. Horses tend to become dead to the leg if you do nag at them (in the same way I would tune someone out if they kept telling me the same thing repeatedly...) regardless of the pointedness of the nagging...

Hope Bertie is well though- do you know if Keysoe has any more unaff ODEs?
 
So if he doesn't need them at home why wear them at all?
Might be speaking out of turn but will say it anyway, please be careful about people taking you under their wing, I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong but just saying please be careful,they might be very capable and successful but I have seen so many people go wrong with bad advice
 
Yep, PC either passed Btest or card signed by DC, which mine is even though i do V little with PC anymore.
BB, Thats another reason, some places dont let you under X age if im under that age I would like it if my horse will come off my leg with out them.

Lolo, thats the excat reason I dont wear mine at home other than and jump trainings. I do the same as Al with the hacking except I can see it in his eyes when I bring his tack round. Its the same with sticks, can NOT for the life of me school him with a stick exept for the most pathetic thing ever, jump/ hack with one as every know and again he attempts to take the P so a smack helps as legs do nothing at this stage.
Bertie is fine thankyou! full of spirit and patheticness ;) Ermm, not sure, would be worth checking there website as they usually have one start of every month. will be going again if they do so I can go round with breaks this time! :rolleyes:
 
I wear mine for jumping lessons and XC - occassionally SJ also. I'm using mine more for impulsion than anything else and have the little impulse roller ball spurs.

I will also use them however for flatwork if doing lateral work and I feel he is not moving away from my leg as I would like.

My instructor agrees with this approach and herself only uses hers for lessons and competing as she feels that there are an aid that should be used occassionally to reinforce other aids rather than all the time.
 
Countrychic said:
So if he doesn't need them at home why wear them at all?
Might be speaking out of turn but will say it anyway, please be careful about people taking you under their wing, I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong but just saying please be careful,they might be very capable and successful but I have seen so many people go wrong with bad advice
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I didn't say he doesn't need them at home. I just don't wear them at home other than the odd time if he's being a***y. He needs a little reminder when competing as he tends to forget your there and goes about in his own little world with all the excitment. I wear them SJ and XC competing, sometimes dressage, SJ and XC because I can hold him together better, keep a good pace and therefor do a good round, XC because he needs a reminder everynow and again. DR, he gets bored and lacks off your leg.

Friends is at PN, has 2 horses that TB's and are just highly excitable versions of my lad. She's got more out us us in 5 months than someone did in 1yr. Friend meet us when I didn't want to go over X pole, now has us doing 3ft6 and rides mine and gets me working him just how he needs to be done. She's been there done that in same posistion as me regarding pretty much everything, and we are alike in so many ways.
 
I only ever wear them when working on my youngster's outline or steering to refine the aids a little, they also help him to carry himself better and come through from behind. He tends to get very deep in his outline and the occasional poke with the spurs helps him pick himself up and keep him poll high. I am very conscious of my lower leg when i have them on though, which is why I don't jump in them. I don't agree with using them to get the horse going, not that mine needs it! When starting to teach mine more advanced lateral movements, such as half-pass etc i will probably wear them, though I use them less and less until he realises what I'm asking without them. I use them just like any training aid, eg. a bungie, as you don't want to be using them for ever! x
 
I have just started wearing them when jumping away from home, he has had them at home before we went competing. I started wearing them to sj as he is a spooky bugger and I dont want it to start to become an issue so a quick touch with the spurs on the first fence he really backs off then he gets the idea and jumps the rest of the round well. I started wearing them when he went from being green to just being a bit of a monkey. Then I started wearing them xc at camp this year as he had major tantrums at the water and he ignores a stick at this point so untill he has mastered water and ditches we will stick with them even though the fences are not an issue.
I also school in them the day before a competiton as I find it sharpens him up to the leg ready for the next day, I also school in them if I'm not carrying whip as he had got really complacent without a whip so they just reinforce that the leg means move.
Probably going to get shot down for this now but my instructor has no issues and it is working for us right now.
ETA i hardly have to use any leg when I have them on after the first touch :rolleyes:
 
I do not school in mine at home as it is a good reminder how much energy I have and to not get complacent about how off the leg they are. I do not jump in them either at home for the same reason. Everywhere else I wear spurs. I have 3 different pairs depending on what we are doing and the horse.
 
I have rollerball spurs for flat and normal for jumping. Always wear them for riding. Horse needs a lot of leg on flat as he finds it incredibly boring, and I would much rather squeeze and have him move off spurs than nag, nag, nag with leg. Incredibly, since I've used this approach, horse is much sharper off leg and goes when I ask, instead of dawdling. Pointy spurs for jumping are because not much leg is needed, but when it is it needs to be positive as horse can be a cocky little git.

IMO it all depends on the horse and what works for you. My mare needed a whip when schooling to remind her to work, out dressage I slapped on roller balls as a replacement and it worked for her.

Then there are the horses that needs spurs at home, but get a little more excited at parties and don't need them. As said, horses for courses and all.
 
i only wear them for competing, or perhaps for jumping at home on a very sluggish horse... but tbh i'd rather have to work to get the horse truly in front of the leg, whatever that takes, than use spurs. i prefer to keep them for competing, and perhaps for xc schooling. i've never had a horse overreact to them at a comp, fwiw.
 
I use them for showjumping and xc out- they help to refine my aids as he does not respond well to a tap from the whip!! In the SJ I have felt a particular difference in the quality of our canter and our jump off turns as a result. I used them on my one (and only!) dressage outing and will use them again if we ever decide to venture there again! I don't use them for showing as I'm not allowed or with our working hunters but as the jumps are often smaller and the courses more straightforward- we are fine! I also use them on my lessons as they are good for the lateral work. However we have been working in a school which is quite hard going so we change to our springier 'more exciting' indoor school, I might leave them off. I don't use them for my own schooling, hacking out, jumping at ho0me etc. I only use the roller ball spurs.

I've used them on all my horses. I think when I was in the pony club you had to have attained your B certificate or got a signature from the DC. But it usually doesn't matter if you are a non PC competing. The rules for juniors and spurs varies from venue to venue quite often :)
 
With Bronson I used to wear them for dressage tests (and the occasional schooling session, if he was being a little toad :mad:) - purely because, without them, he knew that if he wanted to be naughty there was naff all I could do about it! He respected the spurs slightly more and his scores went up by around 10% with them :) Never needed them for anything else with him though!

With Wibbles I wear them for all competitions and for for jumping at home, occasionally for schooling too. Never for hacking/hunting though - don't need them and I don't see the point - hunting he is forwards anyway and hacking is his 'chill out' time. I can't ride him with a stick (well, I can, but last time I caught him with one he decked me, and he never truely relaxes with the whip) so the spurs sort of subsitute that.
 
It depends on the horse. My last mare was very lazy and dead to the leg, and didn't react very well to the whip - I wore spurs all the time on her because it meant I could keep my leg aids much lighter and focus on getting her supple and balanced rather than putting all my energy into just keeping her forwards.

The horse I have at the moment isn't lazy per se, but he is a very big boy, and in the school does find it quite hard work - I am only little on him, and as a result, he does have tendency to drop slightly behind the leg when he is finding it difficult. I wear spurs if I am working on something more difficult than usual and really need to be using my energy for something other than keeping him forwards.
 
I have them permanently on my boots. If I don't happen to wear my boots then I don't wear spurs but most of the time I wear them.
I find it strange though that people think that simply by wearing them you deaden the horse to them. Surely just by having them on your boot you are not using them? When I give a leg aid, I aid with my calf which does not have a spur attached to it ever. If this does not achieve the desired reaction, I back it up with my spur (on my heel) or my schooling whip (depending on whether or not I am wearing spurs or just how lazy she was being or whether it was a forwards aid or a lateral aid).
Perhaps I am riding incorrectly as I learnt to ride like this from an American Western trainer (who had us wear those long spurs with pointy rowels on which you would most certainly not want to bump your horse with accidentally) but my dressage instructor has never corrected me. I find that my horse is generally very obedient though although I am certainly very far from the world's best rider and there are people here who know a lot more than I do.
 
I wear my spurs when riding my horse in lessons and in competition but not hacking out. He has been trained to respond to spurs so its best to use them. I didn't wear them for the first few months I was riding him as I did not want to use them incorrectly. Incidentally, my horse is a quarter horse and I ride western. My daughter also rode him english with english spurs. I do find overall that the western spurs are gentler to use as they are only used gently and will roll rather than poke the horse and they are not sharp at all. I wouldn't dream of wearing sharp spurs on my horse! Ed is a real schoolmaster and has wonderful manners too.
 
Personally when I am riding I live in my spurs I ride in them for everything provided I know the horse is used to them.
As for kids riding in spurs a complete no go for me until they have sufficient ability and lower leg control normally not gained until about15/16 purely due to muscle strength. I prefer to see kids learn to use there legs and seat.
 
i used to wear mine jumping but he would panic and we would end up having fences down. so i took them off and although nowi have to actuallyt use my leg, hes not panicing, running forward and then knocking the fence over.

I wear mine for home schooling and dressage comps as he doesnt really respect me, he goes round sluggish or with his head in the air lol. but when i have them on, even if only for 10 mins, he works lovely in a outline and forward. I think he just needs reminding sometimes.

I think it all depends on you and your horse. :-) some horses need them , some riders need them (little legs on a 17hh) just depends :-) xx
 
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