Huge Personal Success: Just Moments Ago I Tried Our Young Mare Under Training Saddle For First Time Ever!

Well I just have to share this. I've never broken in a horse before but my wife and I are working towards doing just that with our young mare here, Nayyerah.

She's a beautiful, well natured grey Egyptian Arabian and we've been taking our time growing a relationship with her rather than rushing in and sending her to a breaker like the conventional wisdom would dictate.

Today I decided that I would try the next step with her having on a number of occasions now been successful with placing a saddle blanket on her back and watching her deal with the new experience in a controlled and mature fashion.

What's this now dad? Well, I trust you and I'm sure you know what you're doing so I'll just go back to eating if that's OK

We have a training saddle here, one we used to ride with but has since been replaced so I decided to use it as a first experience for her given it is fairly small and light.

Trust, combined with small achievable steps results in a stress free new experience & a foundation to build upon for the future

After doing a little behavioural work with her to start with, I went and placed the saddle on her back like I would have done with the saddle blanket. I was so impressed to see that she didn't freak out; a possibility but I was suspecting not a probability due to the relationship we've built. To me this shows that she is comfortable with my company and what I ask of her.

She was curious, once reaching around to sniff this funny leather thing that was now on her back, just what I was looking for... curiosity rather than fear.

For a first time experience I'm so impressed. I let her feel it a bit while walking around grazing and then took it off to try again on the other side.

Complete success on both sides and a wonderful first experience for her. As the theory goes, I will build upon this in the days and weeks ahead, every new time will be either a reinforcement of, or a little step further from where she was comfortable last time.

Anyway this is a big personal experience and success for me and gives me confidence that we'll be able to turn her into a confident riding companion in the future.

These really are amazingly accepting animals when they are given the space and time that they need to process new experiences in a caring and friendly environment.

Thanks for reading.