Bridle Fitting Day

Checking out the saddle pad.

I see that very high winds pounded a good part of our continent yesterday.  They were so strong here that the wind vane on the peak of my barn is now bent.  Oh well, it is in the shape of a rooster so now I have an excuse to get one in the shape of a horse.

We lost a good deal of snow in the last few days but what's left is ice and hard, very uneven ground so terrible footing for working with the horses.  I have lunged *Benjamin every day except for yesterday and his transitions have improved tremendously.  Still have to work on the trot to walk but it won't take much longer.  I still have him on a 40 foot circle so it's time to "give him more rope", so to speak.

Because the footing is so poor I decided to make it a tack fitting day.  As I mentioned before I am treating *Ben as a complete restart so am approaching every step as though he has never done something or seen something before.  I have had a couple of episodes of shying in the last year - at a fly mask one time, a rain slicker another time.  At the time I thought he had developed fears to certain types of "things" but now I realize he and I didn't have a relationship for him to rely upon to help him through.  Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

First I sacked him out with the surcingle and then put it on him.  He didn't budge.  I asked him to walk both directions on the 12 foot lead.  I stopped him, removed the surcingle and then introduced him to his new saddle pad.  He was leary but I think it had more to do with the colour and the lack of horse smell on it (it's brand new).  Once I could see he was okay with it I put the pad on, put the surcingle back on and asked him to move out again.  No issues!



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 Next was the bridle.  I have a bridle for each horse as I have *zero* patience for adjusting them.  I was sure I had one for him but I guess his was re-allocated to another horse at some point.  Rather than messing with another horse's bridle I decided to pull out my favorite bridle.  It is manufactured by Pink Equine and it is black leather, with lime leather padding and the browband is studded with lime green Swarovski stones.  Very striking and stunning when the light hits it just right!!  The bonus is Brian despises it!  Whenever I have it out there are always plenty of "not PC" remarks about it.

*Ben was very cooperative about being bridled though there was some chewing and fussing with the bit.  He settled down soon enough and I went about adjusting the bridle properly.  Once again I asked him to move out and he was just fine.  I then asked for some flexion to the left and the right and he was fine.  We just hung out for a while before removing the gear.  So a good productive day!  Before finishing up I measured his wither to see which gullet I should put in my saddle.  Hopefully this week he'll be wearing his saddle and bridle for his training sessions.  I am hoping to have him ground driving and long lining by next weekend.

Lynn

Homefire Curly Horses

Stirling, Ontario, Canada