Second Ride!

Second ride today! This time I put a snaffle bridle on Dublin for the first time. Probably the first time in a year he's had a bit in his mouth. He wasn't particularly charmed by the idea but he settled down and had a very nice quiet mouth after a few minutes. I tested out his responsiveness to the bit, which was quite nice, then did a bit of ground work, and finally got on. No issues. This time I had Laura walk alongside rather than lead him to get him used to taking direction from someone on his back, and he did fine. I know he's been ridden but I'm not that familiar with track protocol--all I've ever seen is the horses being ponied to the starting gate and then just running full tilt once the gate opens. Not a reassuring scenario for someone looking for a nice quiet ride! Especially since he's tall and I'm, um, not as young as I used to be. But he was great, relaxed and cooperative, so I think next time the lead rope comes off and after 2 or 3 more rides with an observer present, I can start actually working on a few things with him.

He does still need a little work with the saddling process. He's very protective of his back and sides and I get a lot of teeth heading at me when I try saddling, even though I do it in stages and do a few trial swings with the saddle. He actually get more defensive each time and I'm beginning to think the better approach would to just confidently swing the saddle up on his back rather than doing all the pre-saddling work, which really just seems to get him more upset. Once the saddle is up he's fine, and doesn't mind being girthed. So I think it's all the fussing around in the name of desensitization that bothers him. This may be desensitization in reverse, just getting him saddled uneventfully and confidently, and once he sees that isn't a big deal, then get him used to some presaddling activity. It's all such a puzzle.