KBR Training Case Study:

"Patience"
Part Six

I took her to the tie pole and went over her pretty will with the Grooma as she was shedding pretty heavily. She wasn't sure about the Grooma at first, but soon appeared to decide that it was OK. (I wasn't quite ready to introduce her to the horse vacuum.)

We had decided to see how she'd handle things on her back. I put my colt starting saddle and a pad in the center of the round pen and then brought Patience in. We played "Touch it!" with the pad. No big deal. I rubbed the pad on her shoulder and threw it up on her back a couple of times. Ho-hum.

Next we touched the saddle. A bit more curiosity but she didn't move an inch when I threw it on her back. (Note we're standing in the middle of the round pen and her lead is on the ground; she could have left any time.) I carefully tightened both the front and rear cinch. I don't like loose rear cinches in case they buck and get a hind leg through it, so the rear cinch wasn't tight, but was definitely contacting her belly. Ho-hum.

We walked on the line. No big deal. She glanced back a couple of times and she was a little annoyed about getting poked in the leg by a curled end of the off side billet, but she was fine with the saddle. Sharon suggested we make her move out and I took off the lead rope and asked her to run. The only time she got upset when when she knocked the side of the round corral and either her hoof or a stirrup made a loud bang. She got a bit humpy for about a quarter round then settled back down.

I grabbed a steel 3-step ladder (that we call a mounting stand), lined her up beside it, climbed up and laid across her, pressed on the saddle, put weight in the stirrup, and she barely moved a muscle. Sharon suggested that before I thought about climbing on, we ought to make sure she was settled on the off side as she was pretty much of a touch-me-not before we started working with her.

That was a good call. Patience didn't want to have anything to do with the ladder on the off side. Although she'd play the "Touch it!" game with the ladder, she didn't want it over by her shoulder, no how, no way. We were trying to schmooze her up to it when Sharon suggested we just go back to some good old basic natural horsemanship. If she didn't want to stand, no problem. Out in the circle she went and took two. Since this was a new routine for her, we started out easy, pretty much hand walking her at a brisk clip. By her third or fourth stall out with the ladder, the "take twos" were pretty serious and when she asked to come in, she was ready for business. She walked right up beside the monster ladder. I rocked it and shuffled it and fussed with it. She could have left at any time but it made more sense for her to deal with it, so she stayed real still.

I threw the lead rope over her shoulder and climbed on the step ladder. She stood quietly. I rubbed on her, leaned over her, rocked the saddle back and forth, put lots of weight on the saddle and stood on the near stirrup. She stood quietly. She was really good and since we had been doing stuff for over an hour, I figured it was a good time to quit. I put her out in the arena where she rolled, then I brought her CJ whom she tormented for the next couple of hours playing mustang "I'm gonna get you" games.

It rained like Hades that night and when Cindy came out the next morning, neither the round corral nor the arena was fit to use. We saddled Patience and did some ground work out in the grass which was interesting at times considering that numerous objects such as trees, picnic tables, etc., posed challenges to attempts at longeing. Patience didn't quite get the idea and as soon as she would settle into an arc, we would have drifted into range of some obstacle and the circle would break down.

All saddled up and nowhere to go

Flapping the stirrups and
other stuff. Note that Patience
is not restrained.

Shaking the saddle.
Still no restraint.
(In this view you can see
the rope on the ground.)

Transferring weight to
the saddle. Patience is
standing quietly because she
willing to and is not afraid

Not only can Patience
eat from a spoon...

But it's 14 month old Ashland
who's feeding her!

We worked on keeping moving when Patience would stall out (usually over some tasty grass) and on more saddle preparation. Cindy got to work with her, moving the saddle all around and putting weight on her. Patience did all of this on a loose line, usually "ground tied" or with the line draped over her neck.

Day 18

Patience was also a lady and we worked on bends, yields and basic ground school. She picks up things very fast. Her only problem is that she likes to stall out when being led. We work out tricks to get her through the stalls, then she figures out ways to overcome our cleverness. This, too, will pass and as she gets handier on the line, we'll be able to easily finesse her through some of this stuff.

I was most pleased with how well she was handling counter turns and disengagements; important balance and guidance issues we need to get through before we get serious about sitting in the saddle. She's starting to get used to her new hoof angles and hardly tripped up at all today. Cindy's daughter, Ashland, found it great sport to feed Patience a psyllium mix from a spoon.

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