He durned well Will Wear a Saddle!!

Conformation Picture 6/25/06

He does NOT have a big head, K!!?


I LOVE this horse and he's my best buddy but the saddle issue has been a bit trying. I hired someone with a college degree in equine studies to put the first 5 rides on him but oh yeah she had to start with the saddle right? Right. After a few hairy moments, she has managed to train him to stand for saddling but the process was not so pretty. He even got the saddle turned under his belly which provoked rodeoesque bucking of great proportions. It didn't last long though because I've taught him a 1 rein stop from on the ground. I took Clinton's advise and became a flexing freak and lo and behold in the middle of all that bucking he stood on his lead rope with a hind leg long enough to pull his nose to his belly and just like magic he stopped and let us free him from his rather hairy predicament. Since then he stands really still when you put the saddle on him. He isn't totally relaxed about it yet but I believe that with enough uneventful repetion, he will get more comfortable. It's worth noting that the Big Horn Cordura saddle with the synthetic tree is in my opinion, virtually indestructable.

I've been ground driving him and he drives like a dream, all over the big pasture (desert joke) too. So the next move with that is to take him out of the yard. I've hand walked him all over the place. Over cement driveways, and near all kinds of scary objects- objects don't really phase him so far.

I'll give him all the time he needs to accept a rider. He has been traumatized and I know nobody gets over their childhood traumas over night.