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Spirit got his name for a reason. He was a large (16hh) young horse that could be volatile if pressured.
During the gentling process in preparation for the Olympics, Spirit was exposed to a number
of activities including packing a saddle. While we briefly put weight on him, our objective
was not to produce a saddle horse, but rather a horse who could handle 20,000 spectators per day
and all the attendant noise and visual stimulus. Therefore his formal saddle work started in the
summer after James adopted him. (A link to the Olympic project appears at the bottom of each page.)
On the plus side, James was Spirit's primary Olympic project gentler so while the two were separated for
several months, they did have a bond that was quickly restored. On the negative side, James
was a new horse owner who had never saddle started a horse before. James was good in seeking
and sorting out advice from mentors and professionals and this feature records how he did.
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James would put different saddles on Spirit and lead him around, however the serious work started
when he took up the driving lines. First with a circingle, then with a saddle, James drove
Spirit all over the stable, starting in the arena, then progressing to the outside areas, then
driving him through all of the obstacles in the horse course. He also would drive Spirit before each saddle
session.
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Starting with the driving lines
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Before too long Spirit was completely relaxed wearing saddles while doing virtually everything,
regardless of who was present. He also had no problems with flapping stirrups or with other contact
and noises associated with the saddle. It was now time to try mounting up.
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Ready to get mounted
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James and Willis worked as a team so someone would be near Spirit's head in case he started getting
worried. Since Spirit stood over 16hh they used a bucket to mount from.
The first step was to make sure Spirit was desensisitized to people getting up and down off the bucket
from both sides.
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Climbing on the bucket & touching the stirrup
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The next step involved putting a foot in the stirrup and putting weight on the saddle with our hands.
It's important at this point to let the horse to find his balance. The advantage to a person at his
head is that he can be discouraged from walking forward in order to "balance out." Care should be taken
not to roll the saddle. These stirrup lifts should be done from both sides.
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Balancing to the weight
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When Spirit was comfortable balancing the weight of a human, the next step involved producing some
movement in Spirit's off side eye. We didn't want him to spook when a leg suddenly came into
view as it swung over his back. By moving our upper body and waving a hand around Spirit learned that
things coming into view on his off side aren't dangerous nor are they cues to move off. This activity
was also repeated from both sides.
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Desensisizing the off side eye
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Spirit arched up the first time we swung a leg over and sat upright, but with some neck scratches and
and with support from the person at his head, Spirit got comfortable with the experience.
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First "touchdown"
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After mounting several times from either side and asking Spirit to bend his head while in the saddle
so that he could clearly see what was going on from both sides, he got pretty relaxed with a rider'
climbing aboard. When he had no problem finding his balance and needed little if any support from
the ground person, we decided to end on a good note and called it quits for the day.
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Cool with a rider aboard
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KBR Horse Training Information, © 2002
Lamm's Kickin' Back Ranch and Willis & Sharon Lamm. All rights reserved. Duplication of any of
this material for commercial use is prohibited without express written permission.
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