Cute!
He's currently in his own paddock so he can get to know the other horses over the fence, without having to get into any kicking of biting matches. Already Gobie is being a butthead, and as Bonnie reported, wouldn't even let the poor new guy SNIFF Honey over the fence. He's a jealous boyfriend for sure. I was fully anticipating Gobie to be on his worst behavior because of the changes going on with the herd, but to my surprise he was in most excellent form today! I was so impressed with his manners that we tried some new things: the surcingle, and the mustang bridle.
Surcingle
I use a surcingle in training to get a horse use to having something squeezing around his middle, listening to cues when you're not standing right next to him, and teaching them to drive a cart. I find it's a good middle step in getting to sitting on their back and riding.
My goal today was to just get him use to the feeling of the surcingle. We weren't going to do any cues or driving just yet. If you remember we've been doing some desensitization work so Gobie learns that when he encounters something scary he should not FREAK OUT and look to me for direction. All that foundational work paid off!
Sniffing the surcingle.
Wearing it. No big deal!
It was super easy putting it on him, and buckling it to the first notch. I had him lunge at a walk with it on pretty loose, and it was no problem so by increments we tightened it up till it was pretty snug around his girth area. This is the same stop the saddle will hug him we it's time to ride. Once it was on securely I had him walk around in a circle at a pretty brisk pace. It didn't seem to bother him at all! Some horses don't like the strange feeling of having something around them at all and will buck, roll, or try to kick at the surcingle like they're trying to shoo a fly. No such funny business from Gobie!
Mustang Bridle
The next new thing was the bridle. I've trained horses in bitless bridles only--using pressure points on the face and nose to guide a horse instead of using a bit in their mouth. I don't think there's anything wrong with people who use bits, it's just not how I learned to train or even really to ride.
However, I'm not sure that we'll stick with the Mustang Bridle. It's made of soft nylon which I'm sure is comfy for the horse, but when you pull and then release it doesn't seem to go back to its original position. The whole point of yeilding to pressure is that when you do, you get relief from the pressure and I'm not sure that's being done in this case.
Either way, having something new on his face was a good step. He sniffed it, and was totally unphased, and as far as he was concerned it was just a softer version of his halter.
Totally unconcerned.
I hooked up the reins and put them over his head. Still no big deal, so much so that he put his nose down to eat some grass. To test out the control, I pulled up on a rein. He responded easily.
He also responded really well to backing up with pressure, and turning his nose in to touch the left side of his belly, and then the right side of his belly. We even tried turning his nose in and moving his hindquarters out and he did it like a champ.
Of course, he does these things brilliantly without a bridle, so he could have just been responding to our usual yielding routine.
We'll see what happens when we couple the surcingle and bridle together and try a little driving.
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