Flopping Saddles

I went to work with Bliss today. She's a bay quarter horse, around 3 to 4 years old, and is owned by my old roommate's husband. Her and her mother, Mesa, live at his parents' house while he and his wife (my old roommate) are in Utah at college. He, Jace, lets me do whatever I want with the horses and they need a job to do. At first, I was going to work with both of them, but it's easier for me to spend my time working with just one of them. Plus, I'm in school full time AND I have a job, so in order to make it out there everyday to work with them, I only have time to work with one.

Introduce the horse.

Bliss was quite flighty and pushy when I met her. She wouldn't let me NEAR her in the pen/field and would put her ears back and turn her butt to me. Instead of letting this bother me, I began to work with her and discovered a couple of things.

Bliss' Profile:

- Right-brained Introvert: This means that she's prone to run before she thinks about something that scares her. It also means that she doesn't move around a whole lot and bottles things up inside. A right-brained introvert tends to get scared inside and then bolt when they can't handle it anymore. Luckily, Bliss doesn't seem to hold things inside too long and just bolts immediately.
- Is afraid of the saddle: I originally thought that she didn't like to be caught because she didn't like being ridden. This is not the case. She didn't like to be caught because she didn't want to be ridden because she was afraid of the saddle. Wonderful! This is something we can work on and fix!
- Loves having her forehead rubbed and scratched: This has become our "okay Bliss, let's sit, snuggle and calm down" cue. I'll stand by her head, put my arm on top of her neck to have her lower her head and just rub up and down and through her forelock. She calms down and relaxes.
- She's incredibly intelligent: After a couple of times seeing her, she already knew the cue IN THE FIELD WITHOUT A HALTER to turn her butt AWAY from me and turn and face me. I would look at her hip, snap my fingers and walk towards her hip. Despite walking away from me, she would obey this command and turn to face me....then I would go up to her and she'd let me catch her - warily.
- At first, she was nervous of the rope halter: Once I realized that she was sensitive about the halter, I began desensitizing her to it. I threw the rope all over her body, rubbed her face with it, and sometimes would put it on her and just sit there petting her, instead of moving/doing anything with her.
 - Is very much left-sided: She prefers things to be on her left-side and, when I've presented her with "scary" things like plastic bags and saddles, she tries to keep me in her left eye as I try to get on her right side and right eye.

So, I have taken some steps with Bliss over the past few months and just recently, over the past week and a half. I have a goal to go see the horses everyday (except Sundays and Fridays I have no time while its still light out). Here's what we've done/accomplished:

Accomplishments:

- Bliss comes up to me in the pen now, I don't have to chase her anywhere. She even puts her own nose in the halter when I go to put it on her and shows no hesitation.
- Bliss lets me touch her all over: in the nose, in the mouth, in the ears, her udder and even lets me rub the underside of her tail (horses clamp this when they're angry, scared, etc. so its important to be able to lift their tail w/o them clamping it).
- She follows me on a loose lead, walking when I walk, trotting when I trot, and stopping/backing when I stop and back. I don't even have to pull on her head, she just watches and follows.
- After about a 20 minute session, she will now let me wave a plastic bag around on a long dressage whip around her head, over her face, and on/down either side of her neck and shoulder.
- Bliss respects my space, doesn't step into me (and when she does, I wiggle the lead rope and she backs away), and has JUST stopped putting her ears back at me in the pen.
- TODAY: She'll let me carry the saddle all around her while shaking it, swinging it high in the air and making lots of noise with it.

I have many more goals for Bliss, but we're taking it slow. Bliss is still very young and needs to build her own confidence, which I am helping her do, little by little. Eventually, she will be alot more bombproof and comfortable in a variety of situations, as it should be with a young horse being trained. SO.... onto today!!!

Bliss taught me about flopping saddles.

Today was the second day I brought out the saddle to work with on Bliss. Well... things didn't go any better than the day before. The western saddle is large and rather heavy, so to get it on the back, I have to swing it up and let it settle gently on the horse. I can toss the saddle pad on Bliss, but the saddle is another story. After putting it on and off several times (and having it fall several times) I realized that A) I was getting frustrated and B) Bliss was still scared. I backed off and assessed the situation and it came to me!!! She was scared of the jangling, flopping, FLYING saddle that came like a horse-eating monster to settle on HER back with all of its noise and strings!

So I threw the saddle pad onto the fence, grabbed the saddle, let the lead rope lay on my arm and started walking away from Bliss (she was following behind me) and I tried to make as MUCH noise as possible with that saddle! Swinging it around, shaking it, letting all of its parts wiggle and make noise and move. I walked alongside Bliss on each side, pulling her nose into me on a loose line so she wouldn't run off, and kept walking and shaking it until she stopped. Once she stopped moving while I was shaking the saddle, I stopped moving. I petted her, let her sniff the saddle and then walked away from her, leading her behind me again.

Eventually, she would let me on both sides. I then dropped the leadrope to the ground and shook the saddle in my arms as I walked a couple of circles around her, both ways. Then, I stood RIGHT next to her left side and SWUNG the saddle high in the air, and let it come back down with a loud shaking noise (not dropping it on the ground, but throwing/swinging it without letting go). Did this several times while she stood there, and then did it on the right side. She finally calmed down! I walked her around then and repeated it and then threw the saddle onto the fence and took her for a short walk and practiced picking up her feet.

So, today was good. Bliss is the EXACT OPPOSITE of my horse, Justin, who is a left-brained extrovert, so it's fun seeing how the polar opposite works and how I need to adjust my training to help her.