lots of photos! :) Both of the girls had a great day yesterday! I really think mary is getting through to gidget, which is good because she needs to understand that we aren't here to hurt her and we just want to be friends.Now, I know all or most of my photos have mary in them..I'm still on the mend from my fall a few weeks ago(who knew bruised ribs took so long to heal!) I can walk just fine, but using my right arm to pull on anything is very painful. This makes mounting even my domesticated horses near impossible(i'm not a mounting block kinda girl) so mary is getting things started for me and hopefully next week i'll be a-ok to do all this fun stuff myself. I did manage to get Ruger to go around and learn to be line driven yesterday, all by my lonesome! :) she was such a good girl, we even got over our fear of the sturrup flying at our face when i pulled on the rope. We know "whoa" means throw your ass in the dirt and turn, and you know, for being a wild horse..she's not very agile. lol.
Gidget was a very good girl yesterday, a whole day with no striking! I take that back, she did strike at the rope, but at least it wasn't at a person. :) Mary had her where she could walk up and halter her and lead her around, un halter her, walk away, walk back and halter her again(without the use of our squeeze chute). she was being so good. She even stood still for "mounting" and didn't offer a sour face or that look she gets when she's gonna strike.
so all in all they had a GREAT day yesterday. Here's to today being the same if not better!
-Jenn
So, im wondering if Mary will be entering one of the makeovers herself in the future? Do we have a recruit? She seems to do a great job! Awesome job with Gidget! I didn't realize that was her with Mary standing in the stirrups, I assumed it was Ruger! DUH....
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at the pictures of working on mounting I would like to suggest to you the information found in Basic Training for a Safe Trail Horse with subtitle of Eliminating the Fear Factors. While it is good to accustome a horse to mounting from both sides, it is often a mistake to place a hand on the cantle during a mount, because it will cause the saddle to twist and is sometimes the reason a horse will walk off. Here is what this small paperback for a small price on Amazon.com says about mounting. (after your horse has been taught to stand) "To aid in the distribution of weight on his back see that his front hooves are 'squared.' To mount from the left side put your left hand holding the reins loosely upon your horse's neck in front of the saddle. Place your right hand over the saddle to the right side of the pommel....stepping into the left stirrup keep your toe turned toward the front of the horse...stand straight up in the left stirrup and look between the horse's ears before lifting your right leg over the cantle to sit gently...." Especially for trail horse, this book tells what to do, how to do it, and why to do it for the benefit of the horse and safty for the rider.
ReplyDeleteGreat job ladies!
ReplyDelete-Kristy
ReplyDeleteshe might be a recruit if she isn't working! :) She is really enjoying working with her.
-Dazy
thanks for the info, my horses are very well sacked out and i don't tolerate anything "stupid" from them. Not everyone is going to do a textbook mount up every time, and if someone else ends up with these horses, i want every possible way to get on to be done so they don't freak out when someone crawls all over them. Mounting from both sides is something I do to further my sacking out process on the horses. I think they will be just fine.
-Michelle
THANKS! :) Good luck at Gatorland!
WOW! That was about the most mild response I could have imagined. Isn't it great everyone can observe and have an opinion! Here comes mine!
ReplyDeleteDazey, we were selected for this competition because we are qualified to compete not because some random person decided to drop a wild horse on the porch. In addition I must say that the mare they are mounting on both sides, last week couldn't be touched! By reading your post you obviously have never broke a domestic horse in your life let alone a wild one. If you had, you would realize that mounting technique is the least of your worries when you are applying any sort of pressure to the back of a horse that has never been ridden or felt pressure in a stirrup. What you are worried about at that point is the horse seeing your body above its eye level out of both sides of it's eyes and each side of its brain. At this point you are not worried about the horse "walking off" your worried about it leaving dodge and hurting you in the process. Your quoting of someone elses mounting techniques from a book, leads me to believe this is how you learned to mount a horse and when you can write your own book from experience is when you should comment on someone elses technique. Again I say these girls are kicking ass and you should take notes!