Working Velvet

Well I had fun today! I worked Velvet in my little pen, longeing first; she had a little bit of her usual diva attitude, especially going to the right- thought she could turn her butt to me and snatch her head away- wrong! Soon she was going calmly both directions, so then it was time to introduce her to something new. So I played with the saddle blanket till she was ok with it; all of 5 minutes; then I brought out the saddle. I plunked it on her back a few times, and like I figured, she was more curious than worried.

"Z'is fer me?"

"Izzit edible?"

She was pretty good, over all I was pleased with her and think she is going to be really easy to start- much like her sire and dam. Here is a little video of her first walk with the saddle on board. I didn't have the cinch done up.

After working her, I hopped on Beamer (make that led him over to the mounting block and stepped on carefully so that my muddy gumboots didn't drag on his nice clean back!) We went out on the hayfield again, and my muddy dogs came along. Unfortunately the snow wasn't deep enough to get them clean; it's only about 3 or 4 inches deep now.

Can we get up now? Can we huh?

I tried the bareback posting again, almost fell off once! I think it would be easier to do in an arena where the footing is smooth. Beamer did a good job of putting up with my horrendous balance though. and stayed underneath me. So after our ride, I let him seek out some of last year's grass showing through on the lawn.

So tomorrow's plan is to work Velvet again, and introduce her to the cinch. Usually I like to do rope work for this, but it's not a good idea to do that without a round pen with good footing. My plan is to set the saddle on her, and bring the cinch under and hold it  until she's comfortable with it, repeating holding and loosing it. Then when she is fine with that, I can run the latigo through and lead her around with it done up. I might have to bring Chickory in and do a little refresher course ground work with her too. Yay! Horses to work!