Wednesday's Stable Visit: December 19, 2012

We headed out to the Stable last night, heard the temperature was dropping and wanted to work with the Ponies. When we got out there we took Ella inside the barn and removed her sheet, groomed her and checked her hooves.

I snapped on the western reins to her halter. Jesse surprised asked, "what are you doing" - so I told him that I intended to go for a ride on her bareback in the indoor arena.

With his help (holding the lead to her halter) I put the reins over her head. While she stood still and I stood on a stool I hung or draped myself over her back and loin. After doing this a couple of times (and having Jesse say "well are you going to get on or what, bewildered) I proceeded to swing my leg over her hind quarters stopping my foot or lightly bumping the heel of my foot on her croup or dock (near her tail). She did great, she didn't move away, she didn't stir, her ear was flicking back and fourth to indicate she was paying attention (and probably thinking the same thing as Jesse)

When I was comfortable I jumped so my stomach lay across her back and at the same time as pushing myself up with my arms I swung my leg over. There, done, on! She remained still. Once on Jesse proceeded to walk her around the arena with me on her back, bare, no tack.






I took a few things into consideration, one of them being that she had no tack or padding on, she wasn't as familiar with Jesse holder her lead and lastly, not having a saddle on meant I didn't have a stir-up to step into and saddle to hold when hoisting myself up and she's a TALL horse. I still had to hop and bump to get on her from the stepping stool.I suppose I should look into a proper stepping stool as well for these tall, high backed horses

After I was led around the Arena a few times on Ella I hopped off and asked Jesse (with the knowledge that he has just seen me do it) if he wanted to give it a go. So he did, he took his time and hoisted himself up. Once up and on he was amazed at how comfortable Ella is, even said he prefers riding without a saddle. I took her around the arena a few times (quite a few more times around then even I had gone) and Jesse noticed your balance is really important, that if he sat in the right spot and positioned his legs correctly (what we think is correctly, will have to check on that) she seemed to be all that more comfortable and relaxed. She was a lot more comfortable having me on the ground leading her around and that helped Jesse relax therefore be a bit more comfortable.

So this is what we did, walked around in the indoor arena spending time working on trust while being safe respecting her and ourselves. I knew she would be fine, but to be honest she was a lot quieter than even I expected. She was extremely quiet when in the barn leading up to the Arena as well. I have no doubt that a lot of Jesse's doubts or fear dissipated and he developed that much more trust in her just from that short relatively relaxed interaction.

After working with Ella we put her blankets back on (was still extremely quiet) and took her back out to her paddock and have her some feed. Then we brought Eli in. He was pretty worked up with his head bobbing again, neighing his face off and desperately needed to burn off some steam. So we turned him out in the indoor arena and that he did. Wish I had my phone with me then to record (always when you don't have it Dole's Law) he was running, jumping, bucking (no rearing) tossing his head around. He ran and then sniffed the ground and sure enough you could see his front knees bending then rolled and rolled in the dirt all the while snorting like a moose - it's really quite the spectacle. Nice to see him all lively and playful. After he played and burned off steam for a while we groomed him and and worked with him in the barn.

Before we left we filled up their slow feeder hay nets and made sure they had dry blankets on. Will be heading out again soon. Can't wait, slow but steady progress.  I will look into bare back saddle pads and the benefits of them as well as the pros and cons of the different styles available.

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