Developing good horsemanship skills and being steady and consistent with the use of your legs while riding is necessary when riding with spurs. Although some horses require the use of spurs to move off your leg, most horses can be ridden without spurs or with light spur cues and contact.
Spurs should be used as an additional cue after the horse ignores a cue from the calf. Always use the cue with the least amount of pressure before increasing to a stronger cue. This way a horse will begin to listen to the leg cue and not need the spur cue over time.
You might consider the type of spur you are using. How sharp and what size is the rowel on your spur? The smaller and sharper the rowel, the more damage can be done if used incorrectly. There are also ball spurs with no rowel at all. These are very soft when used correctly.
We recommend that you view the following video series to develop better horsemanship. This should help you control your body better while riding, thus reducing the damage caused by the use of spurs.
Developing Horsemanship Hands and Seat
You may still want to wean your horse from needing a spur to perform maneuvers. That can be done by graduating down to a milder spur over time and eventually to no spur. Coupling this with effective use of hands, seat, and legs in cuing should result in a more responsive horse without the use of spurs.
