After seven days of playing I gave Mr. No Name the day off, well I did do a 30-minute sit in my lawn chair reading a Parelli Handbook. Mr. No Name thought it was quite interesting also. By the way I came up with a name after lots of suggestions from friendly horse people. I’m sorry that I couldn’t select all of the names suggested. There were so many cute ones.
I finally decided on “SOMEBODY” because he is really somebody and he is going to make a great horse. I predict he will be the solid gelding that anyone can ride. I can see the little sister taking him over once he gets home, because he is so sweet.
After thinking about it I decided that “Somebody” was just too long, so now he is just “Bod”. You know all of us girls just want the perfect ten “bod”. It’s a little crazy, but it seems to fit, at least for now. I’m sure they will change it anyway.
After a day off “Bod” seemed eager to play and we went through the seven games with very few glitches. He was eager to please and had that look in his eye that said, “you seem to be quite interesting, what are we going to do next?” I was mixing the games up keeping it flowing so that he had to keep thinking and reading my body language. I was having as much fun as he was.
“Bod” is still a little sticky when we do the backing on the rail exercise. The purpose of this is to develop his back muscles so that he can use his hindquarters more efficiently. He could be a little sore from the repetitions, but like any exercise program that will go away as he learns the correct posture and his muscles strengthen.
Before I saddled him, we played around with the spray bottle again. Thankfully he wasn’t as worried about it tonight. He responded with much less exuberance than he did the last time. (Only a few steps to the side and flinching.) I was glad that I didn’t have to match him with a lot of energy, because my own exercise program has me a little sore also. I still haven’t achieved the goal of spraying him all over while he stands still and says, “Oh, that feels so good, I’ll give you a week to stop.” However, I am accepting the little victories that we have, expecting that we will achieve our goal in perfect timing.
After a short break for some grain, grooming and saddling, I thought that this might be the night for his first ride, at least with me. He was ridden a few times as a two year old, last spring. Since then he has been hanging out in a dry lot with some other horses, with little contact from humans, other than feeding. As I went through my preflight checks I carefully read his body language. The preflight checks included: quick 7 games check, foot check, tail check, mouth check, ear check, lateral flexion check, rein throw over the head check, stirrup check, cinch check, and sit on fence over the horse friendly check. All systems seemed to be working properly, so to the runway we taxied for our first flight.
I started by finding the proper low spot to position him in. When you have short legs like I do you learn to use every advantage that you can. I began by setting the horse so that he didn’t lose his balance once I put my weight in the stirrup. This will help prevent that first step. All of this is prior and proper preparation is what prevents p… poor performance. It may sound like it takes a long while and it does, but I’m getting too old to take short cuts and unnecessary risks. A horse will tell you when they are giving you permission to mount. If I don’t have permission, I don’t mount until I gain permission through polite and passive persistence. Thankfully I haven’t had a mounting accident since I began following this principle. The last time I ignored the principle the horse ran off before I knew what had happened and I fell off when we reached the corner as she ducked out from under me, because I never got my seat in the saddle. That was almost three years ago. I wasn’t hurt, but realized the mistakes that I had made in trying to hurry.
“Bod” was now properly positioned and relaxed, so I put the rein and the mane in my left hand, put my foot in the stirrup, bounced a few times then released all pressure by leading him away and petting. I did this process a couple of more times until I was convinced that he was going to stand still. The next time I stood all the way in the stirrup and petted his right side watching his eyes the whole time. He stood still, so I rewarded by dismounting, walking away with lots of friendly. I repeated this a couple of more times. Once he started to walk away, I stayed in position and slightly raised my rein until his feet stopped, and then I released all pressure again. The next time I swung my leg over and sat without my right foot in the stirrup. After counting to 60 I dismounted again. This procedure will teach a horse to stand still when you mount, and it proves that you have permission to mount when they will stand still. I repeated the 60 second sit a couple of more times, and then finally I took a passenger lesson.
The first time I saddled “Bod” he had a few bucks in him. Thankfully I was willing to take the time it takes to develop a relationship with him, desensitize him to scary things, and gain his respect before I chose to ride him. If I had ridden him the first time I saddled him, I am sure that I would be writing a whole different story, with who knows what kind of ending. I am an optimist and intend to write a happy ending to this story. There was a time that I would get on any horse at any time. Age can bring about some wisdom and humility in place of the foolishness and egotism of youth.
The passenger lesson began when the horse moved his feet on his own. I let him go wherever he chose and only corrected if I felt it was a dangerous place for either of us. For example when he tried to rub his halter off on the fence. I have seen a terrible wreck when a halter gets hung up on something. Horses seem to have magnets inside of them, and it usually is attracted to another horse or a gate. Passenger lessons can be very frustrating to the micro-managing human being who has to be in charge. I have learned to just sit back relax and enjoy. The more you can do this the more the horse will begin to explore the surroundings. The more upset and tense you get when they just keep going to the gate, the more they will hang out at the gate. The key is to quit being a back seat driver, and don’t even let your mind think about where you want the horse to go. You must go where he goes without any resistance. We expect our horses to respond without resistance, but can we do the same?
This whole session took a couple of hours. After dismounting I helped “Bod” do a couple more rounds of backing on the rail. I let him eat grass on the lawn then put him away.
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