Day 18- Put the saddle on!

Here are some pictures from today- I got the saddle on! woohoo! One might ask while looking at these pictures..."You used an english saddle! What in carnation fer??!" As to which I will reply- I do not feel like repeatedly throwing a heavy western saddle on her back over and over. I will use a western saddle, but I find it is not only easier to carry and throw an english saddle, but it also eases the transition to the later. This particular one is a cheap ebay jumping saddle that I am not particularly fond of- so I somehow feel less guilty if it somehow got tossed in the mud or trampled on.

Sophie took it rather well, actually. I was surprised. She didn't even offer to buck, and I felt like she took to it rather quickly which made me pretty happy. It makes me feel like I did enough work leading up to today that it wasn't a big deal- which is ultimately what I am going for.

Also, I am trying something new that I saw in a Buck Brannaman book that I am trying out...it's called pick me up off the fence (Clinton Anderson does it too). In it, I get her parallel to the fence and just love on her. Gradually, I will be able to move her forward, and desensitize her to me being up high in the process. Ultimately, I'll be able to cue her, have her move right up beside me and have me get on. Pretty spiffy if you ask me. If I can get it to work good than I think I will teach it to all my horses.

Oh and...Merry (almost) Christmas everyone!

The *jingle* of the girth was suspicious.

I tossed it over and over, being really noisy about it all so as not to act suspicious. Then I took it all off and re-did it again so that she knew it was something that could be removed.

And then we did the other side.

This is a critical stage. To do it correctly, you have to do up the girth, get in and get out quick because I had no idea how she would react.

I un-clipped my lead rope and just thread the tail end through the halter so that she could have a quick release if I needed it

Needless to say, she did not get bucky. She was scared and ran around a bit.

But then she came back to me. Thank goodness too, because the girth was too loose!

When she started to look calm, I went over and flapped the saddle to start desensitizing her some more to it.

This is the start of the Pick me up off the fence lesson. I pull straight up on the rope until she moves her haunches parallel. (Baby steps first of course- I want to reward even the slightest try) You can see here that I've got her pretty close. The back right is in motion to being stepped over.

And then I release and *rub**rub**rub! I think she looks pretty in a saddle!