Saddle Time

When I got here almost two weeks ago, there were four training horses. Now there are nine, plus four Bar W horses that we are getting up and running. So, thirteen horses, plus Rusty. Another kid who has grown up riding with Derek and Tom Curtain is here, so that's been a big help.

Here is a list of the things I learned this week:

1. Don't put your saddle where a horse can poop on it.

2. This one was important for me. The same mare that pooped on my saddle is just stiff and bracey and felt 'stuck' at the beginning of the week. We did some 'front end- hind end' work with her, which helped her, but really helped me. We do this exercise in the round pen. Derek is in the center with a flag. I pick up my inside rein and inside leg, and ask for the hindquarters to step in. Derek pushed with the flag a little bit to encourage. Then I put my outside leg on and ask a turn on the haunches. This really softened up her turns, and helped me to slow down and cue her correctly.  She has a tendency, too, to stiffen her poll and then try and drag the reins out of the rider's hands. Derek ended up getting on, and just held the inside rein and kept pushing those hind quarters around, on both sides. His timing was so exact, and five minutes later she was soft, supple, giving on both sides, stopping smoother, everything. I got on and felt such a huge difference- makes me realize just how much I still need to work on my timing. But after it also made me realize, and visualize, the importance of the hind end. Controlling the hindquarters is the key to everything we do with our horses. Typing that out seems so basic and obvious to me, band if I read that I would say "Well, duh", but feeling it really come together for me was a huge "Ah-ha" moment, and it's helped me a lot with all of the horses.

3. The idea of fixing it up and waiting- preparing to position. I've been thinking about this for a while, and it's come up a few times this week, and I started watching Tom Curtain's Colt Starting DVD yesterday and it just clicked. Instead of just getting on, or just speeding up, or just stopping, or saddling, or anything and everything with horses, it's about preparation. In other words, I don't care about getting the saddle on the horse- I'm getting the horse ready to be saddled. I don't care about actually catching the horse- but getting the horse ready to be caught. I don't care about stopping the horse on a dime. I care about preparing my body- and his- so that he can stop on a dime. And when I approach everything with the idea of preparing for it- it just happens. It's been the key to helping me slow down, and break everything down. To make the horse ready and soft- and then it just happens. Of course, all of things are very obvious and basic, and when I read it, I say Duh, Leah. Way to catch on." But feeling it is different and I think I've been feeling it for a little while, sub consciously- been on the edge if it- but now it's all clicking.  I'm really enjoying that DVD set- I'm going to watch more of it later today. It ties together everything we've been doing with the horses. It's worth checking out.

http://www.tomcurtin.net/DVD.html It's the Gettin Em Ready DVD.

Also, I hooked up my mecate reins from my hackamore, to my snaffle bit. It looks good!