Thursday, July 31, 2008

He's a-buckin'!

I went out this morning before feeding to try to get the saddle on Nine. I thought that if he eats with the saddle on, it will give him something good to think about and a very positive experience. Well, it wasn't as simple as it sounds! I did eventually get the saddle on him, but it took many tries. He bucked but stopped before the saddle slipped too far. I had gotten it tight enough that it didn't slip underneath him, but it did slide back and the blanket was on it's way out! So I undid the cinch, adjusted the saddle and blanket, and re-tightened the cinch. He stood still still for all of that! Then he went bucking again, but only two or three bucks before he stopped and let me do some last tweeks and such on the saddle. Then I petted him and told him how good of a boy he is and went to get his hay. When I came back around the corner, that silly boy was just landing from a buck, but saw me and instantly stopped! He gave me this look like he was trying to say "hey, I wasn't doing anything, no way!" He sure is a goofy boy.

Nine ate with the saddle on, but I didn't get anyone here to watch my daughter until nearly 1 PM. So, I went and worked with him a bit with the saddle on, then spent way longer than should be necessary trying to get Nine to stand still while I loosened the cinch... then he jumped off and dumped the saddle again. So I think I am going to give up on my idea of him not dumping a saddle and just get my Aussie saddle on him. It might be too narrow, but at this point I don't have time to get picky. He can dump my saddle a few times until he realizes it doesn't make any difference, then maybe I can start thinking about my fiance's western saddle. Nine also got a minute or two of a brief lesson with the bridle today.

Not much hope of any meaningful time at all with the horses until next Tuesday again, but we will see.

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