The Next Big Success Breaking In Our Horse. 1st Saddled Mount. Watch The Video!

The Next Big Step

Hi Steemit. For some months I've been keeping everyone updated with our progress slowly breaking in our mare. It's been a new experience for us but we've gone from success to success.

One of the big differences with our approach is we take our time. "Professionals" are deadline driven and tend to target 6 - 8 weeks. Well we've been more like 6 months and much of that has been due to time limitations on us, not on how much Nayyerah is able to learn.

The results have spoken for themselves to date. Just last week after work we decided to try mounting her saddled for the first time.

Background

I've been on her bare back a few times before which has required me jumping on her from a milk crate and swinging my leg over. You can imagine how different that would feel to being mounted saddled so there's a lot new going on for her here.

Each previous mount, although successful, has only lasted for maybe 15 seconds tops before I dismounted again. I only wanted short and successful (hopefully even pleasant) experiences. There's no point rushing or pushing until the point that there's a problem.

We've walked her with a saddle on before so she's accustomed to that, but to mount from a stirrup, the girth has to be firmly fastened. This was fairly new to her too. Heaving the leather tight would feel quite strange but aside from a few head flexes (which we've trained her to do rather than any physical form of communication) she's completely fine with it.

Honestly, I'm really very proud of what we achieved in this video. It's a textbook first mount if I say so myself. Note that there's no stepping or fidgeting and definitely no kicking, rearing or bucking. She's alert, knows what I'm doing and is trusting that although this is new, she's confident that I wont hurt or frighten her.

All the hours building the relationship comes down to a few moments when you can really see the rewards. We even took the opportunity to get her to take her first step with a rider. You can see it's slightly awkward and you can understand why! Walking must be strange with 15% of your body weight on your back!

At no time did she try to "escape" or even get distracted by something in her environment (sometimes they'll do this to take their minds off a difficult task - you see this when trying to float them sometimes).

The Video

Enough of my banter; a picture speaks a thousand words! I've annotated the video a little to explain what's going on. I'm happy with the sound track too, courtesy of The Turtles and expertly chosen by @beulinator.

Enjoy!