Yesterday I decided would be a good day to check that Filly "accepted a human". It's been a long time since I did this with her as it involves sitting on the horse :) .
Fortunately I recently spent a great day with my instructor Josh watching him start colts. Josh was James Roberts apprentice when we first met. Since James sadly left us Josh has continued his studying with a variety of horseman and has also set up his own business starting and re-starting colts. Unfortunately for me he has left JRFS in Wiltshire and moved up to a place near Aintree. However he was at JRFS for three weeks recently doing a colt start for them and I took the opportunity to spend the day refreshing my knowledge and learning the new things Josh has discovered over the past year.
So, with my knowledge refreshed, I decided it was time to make sure Filly was still accepting of a human on her back.
I ran through the usual "prepare to ride" checklist I follow prior to every ride, except for the saddling part. Accept a human is best done bareback in case the horse reacts badly to the experience. In addition I just used the rope halter and 12 foot lead rope. That prevents me being tempted to pull on both reins if things go badly as I only have one rein !
Rather than bore you with all the details I will just comment that the actual mounting went very well. To start I just jumped up and lay across her back, rubbing the far side of her. Then slid off when she relaxed. I then lay across her again then knelt on the side of her back in an upright position to check she was ok seeing me vertical on her back. Slid off when she relaxed. Then I went to the kneeling position again and as she seemed chilled slid my leg over so I was sat on her. Her head did come up a little at that point, but after just 30 seconds rubbing on her her head dropped and around a minute later she let out a long relaxing sigh. I rewarded that by getting off and finishing the session.
I got the feeling that she kind of said "at last". She was very cuddly as I put her away and seemingly very happy and relaxed. I'm not going to do this again until I'm ready to ride her as that would not be progressive. It was just a quick check to ensure that there was not more extensive training needed before I could start riding her properly. Once she is physically ready to be ridden properly I may quickly do the same then saddle up and get on with it. I'm debating what bridle to ride her in. It'll either be the rope halter and just the lead rope on one side, or the rope halter and clip on reins. We'll see how it goes and how she feels on the day.
I was so excited to be on her again I went around and told everyone who would listen. No one but my wife seemed that excited for me, but they don't know how much it has taken to get to this stage so that's ok :)
Fortunately I recently spent a great day with my instructor Josh watching him start colts. Josh was James Roberts apprentice when we first met. Since James sadly left us Josh has continued his studying with a variety of horseman and has also set up his own business starting and re-starting colts. Unfortunately for me he has left JRFS in Wiltshire and moved up to a place near Aintree. However he was at JRFS for three weeks recently doing a colt start for them and I took the opportunity to spend the day refreshing my knowledge and learning the new things Josh has discovered over the past year.
So, with my knowledge refreshed, I decided it was time to make sure Filly was still accepting of a human on her back.
I ran through the usual "prepare to ride" checklist I follow prior to every ride, except for the saddling part. Accept a human is best done bareback in case the horse reacts badly to the experience. In addition I just used the rope halter and 12 foot lead rope. That prevents me being tempted to pull on both reins if things go badly as I only have one rein !
Rather than bore you with all the details I will just comment that the actual mounting went very well. To start I just jumped up and lay across her back, rubbing the far side of her. Then slid off when she relaxed. I then lay across her again then knelt on the side of her back in an upright position to check she was ok seeing me vertical on her back. Slid off when she relaxed. Then I went to the kneeling position again and as she seemed chilled slid my leg over so I was sat on her. Her head did come up a little at that point, but after just 30 seconds rubbing on her her head dropped and around a minute later she let out a long relaxing sigh. I rewarded that by getting off and finishing the session.
I got the feeling that she kind of said "at last". She was very cuddly as I put her away and seemingly very happy and relaxed. I'm not going to do this again until I'm ready to ride her as that would not be progressive. It was just a quick check to ensure that there was not more extensive training needed before I could start riding her properly. Once she is physically ready to be ridden properly I may quickly do the same then saddle up and get on with it. I'm debating what bridle to ride her in. It'll either be the rope halter and just the lead rope on one side, or the rope halter and clip on reins. We'll see how it goes and how she feels on the day.
I was so excited to be on her again I went around and told everyone who would listen. No one but my wife seemed that excited for me, but they don't know how much it has taken to get to this stage so that's ok :)
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