Tag Archives: saddle breaking

Training, Western Horsemanship

Another Good Training Session with J Golden

I had some time and some decent weather again today, so out to the horses I went.

My goal for today was to trim up J Golden’s hooves again, break him to the D-ring snaffle bit, and to see if I could actually ride him around the arena without getting bucked off. I figured that might be a bit too much to ask for our third training session…over the period of about a month, but why make goals if you’re not going to set them high? A wise man once said, to shoot for the stars and miss is far better than to shoot for the gutter and hit it!

As usual, my first task was to catch J out of the pasture. It was apparent we were going to have another “go-round” in the pasture when I entered. All except for Lizzy, who has had enough of running around. She came right up to me, so I haltered her, gave her a treat, and took her out of the pasture.

I tied Lizzy to the grill guard of the front bumper of my truck – it’s an excellent tie rail. I brushed her down, revealing some of her beautiful summer chestnut brown under her lighter sorrel winter coat. I trimmed up her hooves as well, in anticipation of a possible ride this weekend. Then I left her standing and went back for J.

This time I let J, Jimbo, and the other horse in the pasture into the small arena through a gate in their pasture. Once in the small area, which is about 100′ X 75′, or thereabouts, I had them right where I wanted them. Although it’s quite a bit larger than a normal round pen, it works for what I need. I started the trio trotting and cantering around the arena and kept them going until they let me walk up to them. Every time they turned their tail to me, I made them run. Eventually, they will learn that if they stand still when I come up to them, they don’t have to run. Later, I will teach them to come to me.

After catching J, I haltered him and gave him his treat. I let the other two go back to the pasture. I took J out to the truck and tied him next to Lizzy, brushed him down, then trimmed his front hooves. I just don’t have the energy I used to , so after trimming Lizzy hooves and J’s front hooves, I was done. I’ll get J’s rears later. I am pleased that J’s hooves are looking better. After years of minimal or no care, they had splayed quite a bit and are quite flat and large in diameter. I am slowly trimming them back to good shape. A few more months and they’ll be right.

After resting a bit, I saddled J up. He stood well, although he’s still a little bit cinchy. Again, I saddled him with a lot of banging and swinging straps and stirrups, to get him used to having things slapping around him. He handled it well.

I walked J out into the arena, where he initially became agitated, as before, but quickly settled down and relaxed. I then started refreshing his memory of our last training session, by using the halter to turn his head to the right and left by the pressure-give method. I led him forward and asked him to back. We went through all the halter training steps we did during our last training session as a review.

I decided that J’s head was right and ready the next step: bridle and bit training. When I break and train my horses, I like to break a horse to the bit, using an O-ring or D-ring snaffle. with a 1/4″ or 3/8″ egg-butt or straight hinged bit (no shanks). I will use this bit on a horse trainee until it learns basic commands, such as go, stop, turn left, turn right, and stop. Once the horse reliably performs those commands, I generally switch to a bosal hackamore for the bulk of its training. That way I can teach a horse to become more responsive to bridle and rein pressures without the risk of making a hard mouth. Once I feel like the horse is completely submissive and obedient to the bridle pressures in the hackamore, I transition them to a solid curb bit.

I presented the bridle to J, just as I have instructed in the video I did several years ago, which you may view here. I held the headstall in my right hand with my forearm and elbow on top of his neck. This allows the trainer a little bit of control and entices the horse to submit. I captured his nose between the cheek pieces with the bit hanging below his chin. I took the bit in my left hand and guided the bit between his lips while raising the bit to his teeth by lifting the bridle with my right hand. I tickled his tongue with my left thumb, to entice him to open his mouth and, when he did, I lifted the bit into his mouth by lifting my right wrist (the one on top of his head). He took the bit very easily and I quickly had his ears tucked into the headstall.

After a few exercises similar to our halter training steps, I felt like J understood what the pressure on the bit meant. He didn’t like it much and moved the bit around in his mouth with his tongue for a few minutes, but soon realized that if he gave to the pressure he was much more comfortable. From the ground, I taught him to turn, lead, stop, and back to bit pressure in just a few minutes.

It was time to see if we could reach the highest goal of our training session. As J had taken all previous stages of today’s session like a champ and with no resistance, I felt pretty confident we could continue.

I snugged up the reins with my left hand and took a handful of mane, put my left foot into the stirrup, grabbed the horn with my right hand, and put some weight in the stirrup. J immediately moved away and got worried. I hung with him and when he stopped, I got off and petted him. After a couple more similar episodes, J realized that if he stood still things were better. After stepping up into the stirrup several times from both sides, and leaning over the saddle, without actually mounting, I felt confident he would allow me to mount. I mounted the first time from the off-side, just because I happened to be on that side when I decided to swing my leg over. I dismounted on the on-side and petted and scratched him.

It was time. I pulled myself into the saddle and just sat there. After several calm minutes, J voluntarily took a step. I started turning him to one side, then the other, taking a step or two each time. Eventually, he decided he wanted to be down at the other end of the arena, near his buddies, so I let him walk that direction. As he began to speed up, I gave pressure on the reins and he slowed. Once down by his buddies, however, I had a hard time getting him to go again.

Eventually, J responded to repeated nudges in the ribs with my heels and jumped forward. The nudges stopped. We tried it again and every time he went forward the nudges stopped. Within a few minutes were were walking and gaiting around the arena. J responded very well, surprisingly well, to leg and rein pressures from the beginning. We rode around the arena practicing our turns, stopping, backing, and going for about a half hour, before I decided that was enough for the day.

I was very pleased with J Golden today. I learned something about J as well. He is not a Fox Trotter. His gait is that of a Tennessee Walker. Oh well. The important part is that his walk will, indeed, keep up with Lizzy.

That’s all I need.

Tack and Gear, Training, Western Horsemanship

A little more progress with J Golden

For the first time in quite a while, I had a day off today with good weather at the same time. So, after sleeping-in to an appropriate hour, and having a relaxed breakfast while watching the news, I headed out to work a little with my new bronc.

As you will recall, I bought J last month. He’s a grade Missouri Fox Trotter…at least he looks like one…somewhere between 4 and 10 years old, and he is not yet saddle broke. I bought him from a fellow who bought him at auction, so we really don’t know a lot about him. I see him gait around the pasture, so I know he has a natural Fox Trot as well as a more lateral running walk, so it’s likely he has a bit of Walker in him as well.

With all the snow we’ve had this winter, I have only had one other opportunity to do any amount of work with him and it was mostly just to see what he already knows and give me a starting point. It is pretty evident J has had folks work on his hooves and mess around him a bit. He’s friendly and surprisingly trusting, in light of the history I know about him. He has obviously had a lot of longeing, as anytime I give him any room with a lead rope he wants to trot around me in a circle no matter what I’m trying to do with him.

I’m not a big proponent of longeing. There are legitimate purposes for it and, if done properly and for the right reasons, it is useful. However, in my experience, many people longe their horses because they are afraid of them. Some people do it because they just enjoy doing it, others do it to exercise the horse. Very few actually do it as a planned and purposeful part of a horse’s basic training. Consequently, few people actually accomplish any useful thing with it, with regard to helping the horse and the rider come together down the road. Good ground training, in my mind, is essential for a saddle horse, but most of its training will come under the saddle.

So, today I decided to try to make a little progress with J and see how far we could get.

First off, I would have to catch him. I keep my horses in a pasture about a half-acre in size. I haven’t been able to mess with them much over the winter, so they have been a little silly lately about me catching them. I have had fun running them around, watching them buck and fart and play, all the while teaching them that if they don’t come up to me they will run. They think it’s fun at first, but after awhile they begin to get winded and it’s not so much fun. Normally the first one to stop and come to me is my good mare, Lizzy, who is now about 5 months in-foal. Yesterday she finally let me walk up to her and put the halter on her. I brushed her with a curry comb for a while, gave her a treat, then released her.

When I went into the pasture today, there was no running. The first one to come right up to me was J, so he got a treat. He wouldn’t let me halter him at first, so I went on to Lizzy, who stood calmly while I haltered her. She got a treat. Then I brushed her and released her. Next I went on to my mustang,  Jimbo, who wouldn’t be left out of getting a treat. He doesn’t like being caught, but he loves the treats. I started currying him, which he really likes, then slipped the rope over his neck. Once that was done, he started looking for a halter to stick his nose into, so he could get a treat. I brushed him a bit, then released him.

Next, I moved to J, who, by this time was ready for another treat. I curried him for a few minutes, then slipped the rope over his neck. He then let me slip the halter on him. Then he got a treat. My horses learn pretty quickly that putting a halter on in the pasture is a good thing.

J leads quite well, so it is evident he has had some halter training. I took him to the tie rack and tied him off. I have been very pleased that J has shown no pulling-back issues, even when he’s startled. I lifted all his hooves for cleaning and inspection. He’s still a little ticklish about his rear hooves, but offers no real problems. As part of his training, I will lift and clean all his hooves every time I saddle and unsaddle him. It won’t be long before he won’t offer any resistance at all and accepts it calmly. That will be appreciated by my farrier.

Next, I took him into the small arena. As soon as we entered the arena, he became agitated and wanted to trot around me in circles. Like I’ve said, apparently he has been longed a lot and thinks that’s what he’s supposed to do. My lead rope is about 10 feet long, which doesn’t give him much room for longeing. I let him go around a few times one direction, then turned him to go the other. When I let my arms down to my sides, he turned to come to me. I worked with him for several minutes to teach him to stand calmly while I worked around him holding the lead rope. I’m having to help him unlearn what he has been taught before. I want him to stand calmly when I am holding his lead rope. I don’t want him trying to longe every time we head into the arena for training.

Once I got him standing calmly, I started desensitizing him to the lead rope swinging around him. I would swing the tail of it up onto his rump, around his back legs, and up under his stomach, until he learned that when he stands still I stop swinging the rope.

I’m finding J to be a willing and submissive student and he learns quickly. Within a half hour we were ready to begin lessons for the day. My goal for the day was to be able to mount and sit on J’s back. While I expected some reaction from J, since I did a little testing with him before I bought him, I figured he wouldn’t be too much of a challenge to break to the saddle, due to all the handling he had before I bought him.

I saddled him up. He’s been saddled before, so there were no surprises there, even though he gets tensed up and doesn’t like to be cinched. I was a bit brusque and noisy as I saddled him, flopping things around and bumping him here and there, to desensitize him to the saddle and saddling process. He took it well and we had no problems, other than him tensing up. I saddled him with a rear cinch and breast strap. Eventually I’ll start using a crupper and progress to a fully-rigged pack saddle.

Then, back into the arena we went. Again, we had to work a little bit to remind him that we weren’t there to longe. Once that was done, I began to flop things on him, such as the end of my lead rope again, teaching that things flopping on him don’t hurt and aren’t dangerous. I just kept flopping the tail of the lead up on his back and rump and up under his belly until he stopped reacting, then I stopped. It didn’t take long before he was standing calmly while I flopped the lead rope all over him.

Next, I worked on teaching him to give to the halter, by putting side pressure on his nose with the lead and pulling his head around to the left side. I would put a little pressure, and when he gave a little, so did I.  Within a few minutes I had him responding to light pressure on the lead rope to turn his head around to the side. We did this on both sides.

Then I would snug up the lead on the left side and place my left hand, with a grip on the lead rope, up on his neck, just ahead of the saddle, as if I were about to mount. I would have him turn his head toward me submissively, then I would put weight on the saddle with my right hand, gripping the saddle horn or opposite pommel swell, and pulling my weight off the ground, my body weight against his side. The first few times we did this J reacted, spinning around and hopping a bit. I hung on, moving with him until he stopped moving, then I released. Within a few minutes I was able to hang on the side of the saddle while he stood calmly. We did that on both sides.

The next step was to actually put a foot in the stirrup and put weight on it. This step is a little tricky, especially without an assistant, since the trainer is in an unbalanced position with one foot in the stirrup, holding the lead rope with the left hand and the saddle horn with the right, so you don’t want to rush this. Make sure you do enough of the previous step to be fairly sure the horse isn’t going to explode while you have one foot in the stirrup. I would have preferred to have had an assistant hold the horse’s head and lead him around for me while I hung on the side, but I didn’t have one available. An assistant in this phase can help things progress a little quicker.

I asked J for his head, bringing his nose around to the left. I repeatedly asked for his nose until he did so willingly and softly. If he pulled or resisted, I continued to ask until he gave his nose to me. Then I placed my left foot in the stirrup, my left hand with the lead rope snugged-up on his neck, grabbed a handful of mane, then, grabbing the saddle horn with my right hand, lifted myself up into the stirrup, leaning across the saddle. At this precarious point, I started patting him on the right side with my right hand, keeping a snug lead rope with my left. As he agitated and moved, I hung on, pulling his head around, until he stopped, then slid from the saddle. I did this on both sides, until J calmly let me rise in the stirrup, pat and rub all around on the off-side, flop the stirrup, mess with the rear cinch, and generally do all manner of irritating things. I spoke softly and soothingly all the while, as I did this.

The next phase was to teach him that this was a normal and not a worrisome thing. I walked him around the arena and at irregular intervals would suddenly stop him and quickly put my foot in the stirrup and rise up, pat him a little on the off side, move stuff around, then drop to the ground. Once he would allow this without reaction, I decided we were ready to attempt the goal of the training.

Before getting to the punch-line however, I’ll talk a little about our training to lead. I like my horses to walk beside me with their nose even with my shoulder and arm. I try to train all my horses this way, because it irritates me to have to haul on the lead rope to keep an enthusiastic youngster horse in check. As I walked J around the arena, I noticed J had a tendency to want to get out ahead of me, especially while walking toward his home pasture, where is buddies were munching grass. I remedied this by turning abruptly away from him and walking the opposite direction. As I led him, each time his head got past my shoulder, I would abruptly turn and walk the other way. He soon learned that we didn’t turn if he kept his head behind my shoulder. The time we spent leading around the pasture between mounting exercises was quite valuable today. By the time we were done, he was staying right where I want him. This training is important to me, as it keeps horses from stepping on little feet when kids are leading them.

Now, for the grand finale of the training session. Actually, it was quite anticlimactic. When I felt like J was ready, I asked for his head. When he gave it softly, I grabbed the lead and a handful of mane in my left hand, put my left foot in the stirrup, grabbed the horn with my right hand. I then lofted myself into the stirrup and swung my right leg over onto the other side. I was sitting in the saddle. J tensed-up just a bit, then relaxed. It felt really good. I immediately dismounted, sliding to the ground while J stood calmly. We did that several more times, including dismounting on the off-side (right side). I repeated the earlier exercise of walking around the arena, then stopping abruptly and mounting and dismounting. By the time we finished, J was non-reactive to my mounting antics. Mission accomplished!

I was pleased and excited at the progress we made today. I decided not to push him any further. That was enough for me. I’ll let him rest and assimilate all that we did today and we’ll try it again tomorrow, if the weather holds, or Monday.

My goal for the next session will be breaking J to the ring snaffle bit, teaching him basic commands and how to respond to bit pressure. We’ll also work a little more on mounting and dismounting. I’m looking forward to it.