Tacking Up

I'm a bit confused on how to give your horses the correct tack..or if it even matters. I have so much tack that was removed from my horses, now i'm trying to put it all back on. I noticed that each horse has a letter and number beside it's name, such as N5, L3 and R1, anyone know what they mean? Also when equiping my tack, they have a 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, or 5/5 'rating', is this like the grade 1, grade 2 etc from the old version? A little lost on how to tack up my horses. Any help is appreciated :)

Those N1 R2 and such are the level of the horse's training. N is novice, L is local, R is regional and so on. I think each has 5 sub levels, hence the number tacked on. 1/5 tack is basic tack. 5/5 is fully upgraded and gives more boost to stats, if I remember correctly. I want to say correct tack (event type) does matter.

You no longer have to match the level of tack to the level of the horse - just try to get higher level tack on any horse. Upgrade the tack if you can (you have to be a certain level to do so). :)

Yeah you have to be level 5 to upgrade tack. As far as I know you just need to try and upgrade tack for better boosts and give your horse the correct tack for what discipline it's in. And make sure you are training it in the right level of training, like if it's new to training in Western you need N1(Novice 1) and so on.