If a horse "needs" them, do you consider that bad? a problem? Would you use spurs, would you buy a horse that "needs" them?
Becky
I am not in the habit of wearing them, and don't know if I'd want to. I've worn them before and found them a pain, that the english ones don't stay in place.
If I were buying the horse, I'd be riding him right after you, probably dressed as I am without them. It'd depend on how that went and the horse's basic personality. I'd find out if you just like the extra responsiveness you get with them on, or if I'd have to thump on them to get them to move at all without them. I wouldn't want a horse that had to be prodded onward because he was extraordinarily lazy. Even for Bruce, that makes for a hard horse to learn on.
A lot of horses have been trained with spurs so rather than needing them because they are hard to handle or something, it's the way they have been trained.