Could someone tell if someone else rode their horse?

would he notice an adjustment to a saddle,

Click to expand...

If the healer had to adjust the stirrup length, heck yeah he'd notice that. Think about cars in the days before they had seat-position recall. Even when someone TRIED to put the seat back into the same place I'd had it, I always notice the difference. The steering wheel didn't feel right, or the dashboard was too far away, or my knee was at an usual angle - that sort of thing. Same thing goes for stirrup length.

I echo stirrup length. Most of the gear on a horse is adjusted for the horse, and unbuckled once its been used anyway.
But stirrups are adjusted for the length and comfort of the rider's legs, so once you have them in a good place, you keep them there.

Also, if he generally keeps his gear in good condition, he might notice if it's been used just from being dirty, or smelling wrong. It depends on what he was doing before he was bucked off.

I don't think much would happen to the leathers if he was thrown from his horse, although I'm not an expert... if he tried to keep hold of the bridle he could seriously injure his horse's mouth, before the leathers would snap.

In fact, if the healer was a bit of an arsehole, or a poor horseman, he might injure the horse's mouth himself, by pulling too hard and that would be a sign to an experienced horseman that someone had been using his horse... or he could explain it away as being something he did himself while he was being thrown off.

But, I'm not as much of an expert as some, so I hope if I'm wrong some kind person will correct me.

Yup – stirrup length would be a dead give-away. I can't actually think of anything else.

To go with lastlittlebird's suggestion about an injury to the horse's mouth, there could also be evidence of harshly used spurs on the horse's flanks. Small sores would definitely be noticed by your hero, if he is a good horseman - i.e. doesn't need to be rough with the horse.

Questions like this are why I love this forum.

Being a writer is a blast.

The person using the horse might put the stirrups and so on back the way he found them. But the metal buckles might leave a mark on the straps in a place other than usual.

You have a problem...

in that a good horse would need to be exercised every day. Even if that exercise only meant turning out the horse into a paddock or walking the horse about, it does mean that someone else has been dealing with the animal and possibly using the tack.

You might need to think about setting up the fact that your healer is wealthy and has other horses, and a groom or stable boy, or is poor and does not have a horse.

Then take your plot from there. For example your rider might notice his tack has been altered, not cleaned properly etc. The healer blames the groom.

Certainly most good riders who know their horse would notice something. Even if the tack had been cleaned it might smell of a different type of cleaner, or the girth might have been slightly adjusted, or the buckles seem out of kilter.

If there is no groom and the horse was put out to graze and brought in at night he might wonder why the saddle seems a little greasy, or the bit showed signs of being mouthed and not properly cleaned of froth and slobber. Or if the horse was indeed used to carry a body it might be a little jumpy. Horses do not readily carry bodies, they dislike the smell of death.

I do think that altering stirrups is rather obvious and an intelligent villain would know this, but well worn stirrup leathers do show marks when they are altered from their usual hole, even if they are returned to the usual hole.

If the horse is being exercised in the same paddock or field, there could be a different type of grass (to that known to be in the paddock) trapped in one of the hooves.

I don't do much riding but when I do, the first thing I do when I get back to the stables is take the tack off the horse. So adjustments to the girth and stuff are all lost (though there may indeed be marks on the leather). Stirrup length is a good one, though.

Er...

Tom, girth and bridle adjustments aren't necessarily lost when the tack is removed.

If this is old style tack the girths weren't one single leather strap as they are today. So the writer is free show the reader a double strap girth, a tied girth, anything she fancies to make it work! Old style girths were often adjusted and fitted from both sides of the saddle with several buckles and ties.

Ditto for the bridle.

A sensitive horse in particular will let you know if someone else has been on. Some of them really don't like it, and they'll be strung up, irritable, nervous, etc. Add that to unusually soiled tack, when you know good and well it wasn't that dirty last time--say, mud-splashed, when your last ride was a dry day--and it gives you a pretty good idea of what's been going on.

Regional dirt's always a good one, too--perhaps the mud on your saddle is red clay, when you've only been riding along darker clay or mixed roads.

Even if a saddle isn't on for days--and if a groom has exercised the horse, he might saddle it up--you could still tell if you had unusually dirty tack, assuming someone didn't clean it. Also, if there's a tear in the saddle that wasn't there before, which can happen. Ditto for the adjustment issues. If somebody doesn't put the stirrups back, you're going to notice the next time, whether it was a week or a month since you were on that horse. Ditto if there's any blood from the--er--transported body gotten into some crack of the saddle and dried. You might not put all those things together right away, but if you're the analytical kind, your brain will start to make connections.

But yes, with a recent ride, as you say, there are likely to be signs on/from the horse.

I ride on my college's equestrian team, and we always have to deal with riding horses usually ridden by someone else. Regarding your question, behavioral issues will be much more apparent than anything visible in tack, etc. As someone said above, a horse who was allowed to flatten out, or lean on the bit or anything might do so next time. If the rider before yanked on the horse's mouth or did anything else that might have made the horse uncomfortable, the horse's behavior might suggest this because he may fully expect this to happen again.