Bareback.

Things We Accomplished:

- Bliss accepted me on the fence above her, and standing on a bucket, driving, circling, yo-yo'ing and rubbing her from that position

- Bliss accepted my feet, arms, legs, hands and body on her back today....bareback!

What we did:

Pretty much just worked on getting on her bareback today. At first, I got her haltered then sat on the fence above her head and rubbed her, got her comfortable with me standing above her body and got her to stand

Yes! See? I'm actually on her -- bareback!

parallel to the fence while I stroked her back with my hand, arm, leg, foot, etc. Then I took her into the small round pen area (it's alot smaller than a round pen, but I use it for liberty work and desensitizing to the saddle so she can't get TOO far away from me) and started kicking around the small white bucket I would be using to mount her from.

Boy! That white bucket, if you didn't know it, it is a HORSE EATING MONSTER!!! It's amusing to me how many things she's afraid of and unnerve here because my horse, Justin, is unphased by most things. Of course, he is the horse who had four wheelers doing donuts in his tiny paddock, so he got used to it and started chasing them when they would four-wheel. So I threw the rope over her back, which surprised her so she bolted, then she calmed down and I started kicking the bucket around and rolling it with my foot. She was pretty nervous, but it wasn't until I started kicking it towards her that she took off running circles around the small enclosure. I thought it was hilarious! Bless her little heart!

After awhile, I tried to get her to come up to it and put her nose on it. This happened with a little success, so then I just stood on it and played the circling and yo-yo game while I stomped around a little on the bucket (the noise was obviously the sound of an approaching CARNIVORE!). She eventually got more comfortable with it, so I started prepping her for mounting. I leaned over her, rubbed her sides, rubbed and laid my torso on her butt, back, hung on her a little and shifted around to get her used to that and even brought my knee and leg up onto her back. At one point, after doing this several times on each side, I had my leg on top of her back and WOULD have jumped up on, but I wasn't sure how she'd take the jumping/shifting onto her back, so I got off and went back to the fence and climbed up above her. 

Five minutes later of doing the same desensitizing stuff, I was on. I probably rode her for less than 3 minutes. She's still super young and inexperienced and very VERY green-broke, so she didn't want to move very

A side view of her face while I was on
her back - fairly calm/relaxed.

much and was swishing her tail alot and had her ears back. Tail swishing, wrinkled nostrils, and flat ears are a sign of irritation - it's very much an adolescent thing to do when they've not gotten used to cooperating. Bliss hasn't gotten used to cooperating and responding to various pressures and signals yet, so I wasn't surprised. With time, she'll trust me more and will stop being irritated when I ask her to MOVE under saddle (or under butt...I WAS riding bareback) and be more compliant and happy. 

Principles Learned/Practiced:

When you have an issue with a horse on the ground, it will get worse in the saddle. Also, when you have an issue at the walk, it will get worse at the trot; an issue at the trot will get worse at the lope/canter, etc. Before I got on Bliss, I wasn't doing much with her so she was being a little pushy (rubbing right up against my legs when she moved past me for me to get on...which I needed her to do, or I would've had to LEAP from the fence to get on her, but it wasn't the best idea - she was entering my space which is disrespectful), so she wasn't asked, nor being, super respectful and responsive. Therefore, it was no surprise to me that when I got on her back, she was unresponsive and being disrespectful by throwing a teenage-hissy fit when I asked her to move forwards: the tail swishing, nose wrinkling, ears back thing.

OH! I also got her to pick up all four feet with BARELY any pressure! I ran my fingers down her leg and then squeezed in a rhythmic-like way on her tendon above her pastern and she lifted her foot and I held it for a second then put it back down!!! WOOHOOO!!!! She's getting SO good at that! :) I'm so proud! 

Will have more principles/goals/aims to share later that I wrote down during one of my classes today. :P