Longeing Under Saddle

Sunday, March 22, 2009

(Note: Schoolwork kept me from posting these next two posts the day they occurred, but here they are anyway!)

Cherie came Sunday for a lesson. Jordan, Kristin, and Jeff all rode, and Takoda and I were to have another groundwork lesson - this time with a saddle! The weight of a typical English saddle is much heavier than a racing saddle that Takoda would be used to. And, it's been many months since anyone's saddled him up for any reason! We will never know how long he sat in a stall (starving) at the track, but one thing is for certain, he had not been worked in a LONG time. All his muscles are flacid, and they sink in in places where they should be rounded out.

Saddling him was uneventful, much to my surprise. He seemed unphased by the saddle pad and the saddle, and even the girth! This boosted my confidence about how the lesson would go. Interestingly enough, he longed beautifully to the left at the walk, as if the saddle were truly no big deal. It was not until I asked him to trot that he finally actually noticed the weight of it on his back. He tried to get it off by bucking mid-trot. Cherie taught me to correct him quickly and send him right back to trotting every time. I am still getting used to holding the longe line, the slack, and the whip, so I am actually glad Jeff took videos of both Cherie and me longeing him. She makes it look absolutely effortless! Watching the videos of me longeing him, I realized that I am MUCH slower to react than I feel like at the time. Now I know why she wanted me to correct him faster and send him on faster!

The photo below is Takoda longeing beautifully at the walk before he ever really realized he had a very heavy saddle on his back. The video below it is the last part of the lesson where we got him to go pretty well at the trot. He finally gave up trying to buck the saddle off most of the time, and was actually quite exhausted at this point (as was I!). My schedule prevented me from longeing him today (Monday) but I am excited to get back out there and do it again tomorrow!