Tacking a horse up is not generally a complicated task and can be learnt very quickly and easily if you can practice every week. The most important note of tacking up horses is to not restrict their blood circulation at all or have any sort of part of their tack pinching or bothering them. It’s also important to have the right size of everything for the horse you are tacking up. I have done a video on my YouTube channel before on basic tacking up, which you can find here, but in case you don’t have time, here is a short and easy step-by-step guide on tacking up your horse, English style.

Step 1: The bridle. This is the most important piece of tack when riding your horse. This is the piece that goes over your horse’s head that you use to guide your horse when riding.

Step 2: The first part of the bridle that always goes first is the bit. This goes into your horse’s mouth and is the actual way to communicate what you want your horse to do when riding, such as stopping and turning. One slight movement with your hands and they can feel it in their mouth. This part always goes first.

Step 3: The bit is followed by the headband, which is placed behind the horse’s ears, the browband placed in the front of the ears. This is the primary part where the rest of the bridle hangs from and is important as it keeps everything intact. The browband prevents the headband from slipping backwards down the horse’s neck.

Step 4: The throat latch. This acts as a prevention from the bridle slipping forward over the horse’s ears and sits directly under the jaw of the horse. When connecting the throat latch, you must always make sure you cant fit four fingers, horizontally, to make sure it is not too tight under the horse’s jaw.

Step 5: This is the cheekpieces, which attach the bit buckles to the headband of the bridle and sits vertically along each side of the horse’s face. It is the key to being able to guide your horse.

Step 6: The noseband, which is not always a necessary piece, but can be helpful in stabilisng the bridle in total, as well as making sure your horse doesn’t open their mouths too wide to evade the bit.

Step 7: The saddle. This is the piece of tack you use to sit on the back of your horse. This includes a numnah, stirrups and a girth (and other pieces of tack if relevant, but this is just a basic guide).

The numnah is what goes directly under your saddle and is to protect your horse from friction of the saddle and helps take in sweat as well as provide a comfortable barrier between the leather saddle and the back.

Step 8: The saddle. The saddle itself has the girth which goes directly under your horse’s belly to be buckled up on the other side and prevents the saddle from slipping off. If this is not buckled tight enough, the chances of you slipping off your horse are quite high. Make sure your girth is tight enough.

Step 9: Stirrups. These are what you put your feet in so that they don’t just dangle from the sides of your horse. Measure these correctly to your height in order to help keep balance on your horse when riding. Also an important piece of tack, as this keeps you safe from falling off.

This is just a simple, basic guide to tacking up, as there are a bunch more items that I could have mentioned that I didn’t deem necessary for beginner riders or people wanting to learn about equestrian. Feel free to check out my YouTube video here to see how I tack up a horse in real life, with visuals of each piece of tack.