Leaps and Bounds

We had a lot of leaps and bounds today, mostly of the good kind. There was one little bucking incident, but nothing that worries me at all. Mostly, Gambler progressed in leaps and bounds. I am so proud of how far he has come in this last month.

I started out our session today with some ground basics that Gambler needs to know before I start him under saddle. Sadly, he is very rusty on these and I'll spend a lot more time on them tomorrow. I started out by flexing  his head back in preparation for future one-rein stops.

Then I disengaged his hindquarters and forequarters, which is officially his least favorite exercise ever. Just when I thought we were done with the biting issue too! Oh well, it will come with time.

After that we saddled up. Today is the second time I've put a western saddle on him. I believe he was started in a western saddle before I got him, but I really don't know. He definitely doesn't seem worried about it at all. If anything, he was a little racey, but only a little. This time I put on the breastcollar too, and he took it all in stride. The only issue we have is that sometimes Gambler gets annoyed and grumpy about the cinch being tightened. I found one solution to that problem. ;)

"I guess I'll just bite the rope then."

Gambler still doesn't want to sustain the canter to the left, but he will hold it for a full circle going to the right. That doesn't surprise me; every horse has a bad side. It is strange that he struggles going to the left, because he used to be really one-sided and he hated seeing anything out of his right eye. Apparently I spent so much time on it that he is now better with the right eye than the left eye.

All decked out!

And we have a canter!

Still cantering!

 Yay!!

Afterwards I got my mother (also my photographer) to hold Gambler while I did some mounting prep. I shook the saddle, flapped the stirrups, pulled down on the stirrups with my hands, and jumped around him on both sides, but nothing seemed to phase him. He just looked at me like I was an annoying child and he was the patient parent. Then we took the saddle off and I went back to my shenanigans, jumping around him and waving my arms. Still no reaction. I probably could have got on him and he would have been fine, but I didn't want to push my luck. So far, the first ride is still scheduled for Sunday. Of course, anyone in the horse world knows that horses love to throw off your schedules, so I'm not gonna bet on it. We'll just see what happens.