Kai Day 13- more sacking out

Today's work was all about sacking out. There was nobody here today, so I don't get on colts when I'm by myself- but there is always something that can be done! Kai had a day off yesterday. Today I wanted to see if he would let me saddle him in the round pen.... but no, he kept sidestepping away as I tried to put the saddle up, so we went one step back and I took him to the hitching rail to saddle him. Much better. I'll keep plugging away at it- someday he will get over this. I think to advance I will try saddling him at the hitching rail but not tied, just with the lead rope over my arm. Then once he's ok with that maybe a few feet away, and so on.
I took a few items with me to the round pen: my Greg Gommersall chinks, my Australian Outback slicker (aka Monster coat) and the driving lines.
First item of contention was the chinks- I flipped them all over him, no problem.
So I draped them on the saddle, and sent him out on the longe line. No issues, both ways.

 Then came the monster coat.

Flipped it all over, dragged it off his butt etc. So what, says he. So I tied it on the saddle and sent him out. This was a little more pressure, he did get a little humpy and the chinks fell off- they weren't tied on- but if that's what Kai calls bucking, I can handle that! You'll see it in the video below. After that, I attached one of the long lines to the saddle and sent him around dragging that, again, no issues. Good boy, Kai!


Then I pushed the stirrups into his sides to ask for hip over and shoulder over- he got it much better that the first time I tried that. After that, I put the bridle on, asked for lateral flexion, then asked him to back up- which he did very nicely. Since all was good, I stepped into the stirrup and stood a couple of times but didn't swing over. Very nice workout. I had Kai carry all the instruments of torture back to the tack shed.

I dislike these angled photos, but Kai just wants to come to me- can't discourage that at this point! Throughout this work, he really wanted to be good, except of course for the initial saddling. He's getting there!
I'm hoping I can get on him again tomorrow, if not, I'll drag out more scary monsters to torment him with, and maybe add some ground poles in just to mix things up a bit.