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Colt Starting Dancing - Accept the Saddle [Slideshow]

Gabi Neurohr Colt Starting - Accept the Saddle

After all the thorough preparations, Dancing is ready for the next step: accept the saddle. A horses reaction, when wearing for the first time this big floppy piece of leather, can never be underestimated. 

Might sound like not a big deal, but especially when the horse has to learn to carry a big flappy western saddle, we should never underestimate! As she is very curious, she quickly learnt that the saddle was a sweet spot, worth to be explored and eaten. She had no problem accepting the placement of the pad and the saddle, also not the cinching up. But she showed me that she worried about moving around with it.

The bouncing on the back when trotting, the leather strings on her sides and the noise of the stirrups were pretty weird to her. So I took a few sessions to show her that she could still do everything as well as without the saddle on her back. Dancing didn’t give a lot of bucks and no hard ones, but she had a hard time to find relaxed forward. 

Enjoy the picture story of Dancing learning to accept the saddle.

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During the last two sessions, I also started to introduce the mounting block. I want young horses to fall in love with it. It should be a spot of relaxation, cuddles and scratches. When mounting on a youngster for the very first time, I prefer to have no helper – like this, the horse can express himself and I know the truth.

I have to go at his pace because she will be able to move away whenever she feels worried. This will be the program of next week. 

 

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