Eleven-Fourteen

Today is the fourteenth day of the eleventh month. For those of you who don't know, that is my special number. There isn't much logic behind it, it's just a number that shows up all the time in my life. I used to live in the 1114th house on my old street, at the place where I used to work there wasn't a 12th or 13th stall, and often I'll just happen to glance at the clock when it turns to 11:14. Someone must have told Gambler that today was a special day, because he was wonderful today.

When we got to the barn, I set up the arena and walked out into the pasture to get Gambler. He let me walk most of the way and then walked the last few feet to meet me. Once we were in the arena I began the session with a review of Thursday: the bit. This time I left the browband on the bridle, but took the noseband off. The bad news is the browband doesn't fit Gambler anymore. The good news is that means he is growing!

No head-tossing going on here!

He has more of a problem with putting on the bridle than taking the bit I think.

Awwww look at my Gamble being all grown up.

He looks so grumpy here. In retrospect, I should see if I can loosen the cheek pieces a little more. If the brown band is too small now, the bit is probably pulling too much on the corners of his lips.

We played the circling game walk/trot with the bridle before I took it off.

Next I worked with Gambler on his feet. I've mentioned this a few times, but I kept putting off an in-depth explanation, so I'll try to explain the process now. Gambler has always been bad about his feet, but recently he has gotten even worse about it and it is getting to the point where finding a farrier is difficult. So I'm spending a little time every day just picking up his feet. One thing that really helps is using the method Parelli uses to get horses to pick up their own feet. I ask Gambler to pick up his foot by saying "Give" and either squeezing the chestnut (front hooves) or the cap of the hock (bad hooves). To start I just squeeze until he picks his foot off of the ground and then I reward him. After I've done that once or twice I grab the foot when he picks it up and hold it for a while. If he kicks free or kicks at me any time during the process I back him up several steps as fast as I can. Right now Gambler will let me pick out his front feet, but still threatens to kick in the back.

After that, I tried a new approach to mounting preparation. It didn't work. So I amended my approach on the fly and stumbled upon the answer. I decided to try the approach and retreat method that I used with the bit since that worked so well. It worked! I asked Mom to hold Gambler loosely then I walked over, jumped up on the mounting block, and rubbed Gambler's back (not even pressing down, just rubbing). Of course, he moved all over the placed. So I hopped off of the mounting block but kept rubbing his back until he stopped moving. Then I brought the mounting block over and did it again. If he held still while I rubbed his back I stepped off of the mounting block to praise him and scratch an itchy spot. Once I could rub his back I started pushing on his back. When I could push his back without a problem I started leaning on him. By the end he figured out that he could get me to leave him alone by standing still better than he could by moving around. As soon as I knew he understood, I moved on to something else. 

So I brought out the saddle, the saddle pad, and the bareback pad. I started by playing the friendly game with the saddle pad before putting the saddle on twice (once on each side). Then I put the bareback pad on a few times. I didn't cinch up the saddle or the bareback pad, because right now my goal is for him to just relax during the saddling process. 

Somebody's neck was itchy.

Gambler was just about to attempt to bite the saddle. I will let him sniff, lick, and lip the saddle, but he knows that as soon as the teeth are involved I'll bump him in the mouth. That is exactly what happened a few seconds after this picture was taken.

Then I went back to the mounting preparation. I went through the exact same process, but it went a lot faster. In the end I jumped over his back sideways and he stood still. I call that success. The best part is, through the whole thing (mounting prep and saddling) he only grunted once.