It's time to get to work!

It is time for me to stop procrastinating and get to work with Sparkle. The foals no longer take up so much of my attention although their cuteness is sure captivating! Booncat is very friendly and I do need to get him haltered more often, and Eli is learning to eat his foal ration when I catch him and bring him out of the pen, more on that another time.

It had been a while since I worked with Sparkle. Yesterday I started back on her training program. My goals: Have her stand at the hitching rail to be saddled is #1. Not necessarily tied, looped over is fine as it gives her a bit of movement to back up if she gets concerned, but she does have to stand for saddling. So, yesterday she chose working in the round pen over being saddled at the hitching rail. However it only took less than 10 minutes for her to remember that it's a lot of work to say no, and I got her saddled. Part of the plan is that I don't ride her unless she lets me saddle her from the start, so instead of riding her after saddling, I put the snaffle bridle on her and bitted her up. She is not accustomed to wearing a bit, so she fussed with it a bit but didn't really have much problem in giving to the rein pressure.

Today, I gave her the chance to say yes and she took it. Which brings me to goals: #2  Riding her only after she is good on the ground.
I saddled her with the lead rope only looped around the hitching rail, she backed 1 step when I threw the saddle up which to me is acceptable on this particular horse. Then I took her into the bottom of the foaling pen, which is kind of like a mini arena, to do some ground work and assess her some more. It was interesting finding her points of resistance and learning how to get past them without adding too much pressure; she is super sensitive and too much pressure gives a huge reaction with her.

The reason I ask for the horse to step over on the hind end in this exercise is because it sets them up for the one rein stop which is crucial for safety, especially on a green horse or one I am unfamiliar with.

Sorry about the barking, Tay thinks when I click to the horse that it's a signal for her to help.

After the ground work I bridled her and checked her around using the off side rein around the saddle horn and getting her to follow the rein around turning away from me. 4 times each side - good on the left turn but had to work a little more on the right turn. After that, I thought about stopping but decided to once again give her the benefit of the doubt.

She followed me in a nice join up so I figured it was a good time to step on. At first she was a little concerned about the bit when I picked up the reins, but as soon as she realized that I wasn't taking a firm hold she relaxed and we had a nice little ride. I used two hands at first to make sure she was ok with guiding  (Janice only rode her bitless) but soon went to one hand and used legs and body to turn with minimal reining. I think a few more days of riding her like this and making sure she is comfortable with me using the snaffle on her and we should be able to go out  to a bigger arena and then on to trail riding. Am I being cautious, maybe too cautious? Perhaps, but better safe than sorry. If she spooks at something on the trail I want her to completely understand what it means when I pick up a rein and do a one rein stop in a hurry.



Time to give this mare a purpose in life!

Riding day 47