Today’s video is just the fourth ride that my brother Joseph has on this young horse. Young horses aren’t always this easy, but the groundwork that he has done, has set this horse up for success and for having positive, productive rides.
We start off by testing him by getting up halfway, to gauge how he will be with a rider on him. Keep an eye on his general expression, how relaxed he is, because what you want to read is if you feel like you’re going to get on him and he’s going to get scared and buck you off, you have to do more preparation work in different ways to try to prepare him as best as you can.
First, you can grab the saddle and move it back and forth a little bit. That gives you an idea if he feels that pull and jumps in the air or runs away. That’s a big sign of how he might react when he feels your weight up there, especially if you get a little off balance.
Then try jumping a little bit next to him to see how he reacts.
The next step is to gather up the reins and get just halfway up on him. If he gets bothered, just step back down.
Once on board, focus on reading the horse’s reactions, start slowly, and remember the importance of patience and using the voice to communicate. While lunging and working with them on the ground, we used our voice to communicate with them, so we want this to carry over.
That was just his fourth ride under saddle and its going really well. He’s starting to get used to going that way and carrying someone.
Happy Riding!
Amelia
