Everytime I work with the colts I learn or experience something new. Either about the horse or the people who ride them. It is one of those things where you can not take anything for granted. You need to follow the steps, because the last thing you want is to realize while your in the saddle that something was not tested out and then you got to ride it out.
The same goes for the first time the horse wears the full western saddle. Now I know people can get away with saddling a horse. Heck they can sneak the saddle up on its back, very quietly not to get the horse upset, make sure the stirrups are tied up so they don’t bang around and then barely cinch the saddle up… Heck you can even do that with a western saddle.
But in the real world, we don’t saddle our horses that way.
In the real world, we want to ride, we are usually in a hurry and there is gear on our saddle that bangs around. So for the first time a horse wears the saddle they need to be able to handle the noise, and racket of things coming up to them so you can saddle them. They need to be ok with you up around there shoulders moving around and touching them without grabbing their asses or making you grab yours.
Then once you can do that, you can get the saddle on, help the horse remain still and quiet ( not checking you out, or moving around, nothing worse then trying to saddle a moving target!!!).
Once the saddle is on, and the back cinch is tight you move them out..
This is what happened to me yesterday..
Moved the horse out, at the walk he was alright, but I know in the round pen, he is going to grab his ass and when he does that cinch is going to grab him and he is going to canter, and when he does all hell can break lose…
So I asked the colt to move up to a trot from the walk and he lost it..
I never heard a horse scream before… don’t think I will ever forget it..
Poor guy..
He went screaming and bucking around the round pen, I am sure he thought he was going to be eaten alive by the cougar that had now jumped on him. So much in fact the other horses at the stables picked up on it and started to freak out… Even Emma our horse which is stabled next to him freak out… she started to call out in a manner I had never heard from her… Truly fascinating.
It took him about 5 minutes to calm down and once he did he was as good as any cowpony… but it will take a few more times before he is settled… Hopefully there was just that first buck….
The moral to the story is this.. I was told this horse had been saddled and even then the owners had given pony rides on it… Based on what I saw, they were sneaking rides in, and well….. they got real lucky
Hi Ho!
LW
Actually he only had Kristin on him at the walk in the pasture. She got on from the three step mounting block and I led him around. He did have the saddle on multiple times in the round pen doing walk, trot, canter, gallop, with some hops but no full out bucking. No screaming or even worried whinnies. (He can do really good roll backs fast to change direction).
ReplyDeleteAs stated before, he is intelligent and lazy. He will push every button you have to try and get you to say "poor horsie" and put him up or expect less of him than what he can do. For some reason he is thinking if he makes a big enough fuss you will give up. BTW,Never said he was bombproof, just courious and a card.
Do you need anymore supplement or extra feed for him yet? I take it you won't be at Crown.