Saddle Up! or How India's Life Has Changed

Last week's tornado delayed India's lesson with Jenny, the local horse whisperer who you've seen in this blog before (February 17th's entry) dancing with India at the end of a long rope. I don't want to rush India as she's still growing and she's still very young (2 years, 5 months), but we both felt it important for India to be introduced to what life is going to be like before she gets older, bigger, and stronger. Jenny, Katie and I have all noticed that when India is faced with something she doesn't want to do (like dance on the end of a rope, which is really an exercise in softness with India learning not to brace against the rope and not to get stuck and not so much dancing, although it looks that way), she uses her body to push against the handler hoping that crowding the pesky human will end the exercise. Jenny wanted to go ahead and saddle her today, and maybe even ride her, while she is large enough to carry the weight of a saddle and a rider, but not so big that she can throw that weight around. So, today was the big day. Jenny started with the dancing exercises, but no photos here because that's not what you're dying to see. You want to see India under saddle. Behold:


Saddle on for the first time! This was after ten minutes or so of dancing, first with a rope around her neck and then with a halter and long lead. India is quite used to a saddle pad as she's worn one since she was two months old. The saddle? Jenny has a very sturdy and pretty heavy saddle that she uses with babies. That's what you see here. Jenny took off the back cinch for the first time as she didn't want India catching a hoof in it. This meant that she only had the front cinch tightened. I've had a surcingle on India before, but it's been a very long time. I regularly dropped a rope over her off side, reached under her tummy and pulled it tight to simulate a girth, or cinch as the case may be.

Hi ho, Silver! My puny lead line cinch did not simulate the real thing. This was India's reaction.

This blog entry is very condensed. India bucked a lot. It was quite the show. Jenny would wait until the fireworks ended, then she'd take off the saddle and pad, rub India's face, and saddle her all over again. Each time she did this, India got better about standing while the saddle swung up and on and then was girthed. By the fourth or fifth time (I lost count of all the times this happened, but I'd say at least ten times over the hour), Jenny could fasten the back cinch, which helped keep the saddle from moving. She'd tighten the cinches and turn India loose. India would buck, but the elevation attained would drop and drop until she was mostly just hunching her back. Then Jenny's goal was to have India trot and canter each direction of the pen, moving smoothly and accepting the saddle rather than trying to rid herself of it. After a few tries, she did.

Although upset with having this heavy thing on her back, India gallops smoothly around the pen. I would have preferred less drama from her about the whole thing, but I was very pleased to see how coordinated she was. Many horses her age can't canter or gallop around the perimeter of a round pen this size without scrambling and sliding and generally flailing. She did counter canter a few times (front end on one lead while the back end is on the other), but would break to a trot and then pick up her canter again and the front and back legs were going in the correct order. She'd counter canter when she'd fall into the canter from a good buck.

Straight on for artistic effect! ;0)
I was very pleased with how well India moved. She's going to be a smooth ride once she gets over all this silly bucking.

After several sequences of saddling with little angst and moving smoothly around the ring, India stopped, turned and looked at the peanut gallery (me, Elaine and Katie) and her expression clearly said that we must be kidding about all of this. Oh sweetie, if only you knew that this is just the beginning.

During each period of unsaddling and resaddling, Jenny would rub India on her nose all the while telling her what a good girl she was. This is the last time before the final unsaddling.

Lesson over, India stood quietly while Jenny haltered her.

India seemed very grateful to be hosed off and then squeegeed by Jenny. However, proving that the young are full of boundless energy, as soon as Jenny took off the halter, India galloped off to find the rest of the herd, no doubt to tell them all about the torture she'd endured. I'm sure the others laughed at her tales of woe.

If Jenny gets off work early enough tomorrow, we'll meet and repeat today's lesson. We could wait until next weekend, but India will retain more of it if we follow up so soon. So, stay tuned for more in The Adventures of India!

Oh, I'm happy to report that Asia loaded just swell both times yesterday, so she's not tied to a tree out at 1099 (horse camp), but home in my pasture with Babe eating hay. She gave me a lovely, lovely three hour ride yesterday afternoon and Joanna and I had a grand time. We were sorry that Christi couldn't join us as planned, but as she hurt her knee is a skiing accident, she couldn't travel south to tour the Ocmulgee on Babe. She should know better than to go skiing in May.