The First Saddling: How I Saddle Colts for the First Time

The filly was three years old and as a yearling was rescued by a couple. She initially wouldn't tolerate contact or being handled. She'd drag people because she wasn't taught to lead. Over the course of the next year and a half the couple gained her trust and she learned to tolerate people. But until I came to visit she'd had a life of ease. The only expectation placed on her was coming up for a cookie.

Over the previous three days we'd worked in the roundpen on control issues (discussed in some of my other articles here on AC). She'd learned to adapt to going at the speed I'd asked for, she learned to turn when I said turn and stop when she heard "whoa". She learned to tolerate, but disliked, the feel of a whip touching her legs, belly, rump, head, neck. Initially that met with violent kicks that would have seriously hurt me if it was ME not the whip. I then tied a small plastic bag to the whip and did the whole thing all over again. In the roundpen she had two choices - she could accept it or run. I couldn't stop her from running so instead *made* her. If her choice was to run she didn't get to just run off...I pushed her to circling the pen, stopping, reversing, making her WORK. When she stood even briefly she got praise and it temporarily went away. Those first days set a foundation in her head. She was a little headstrong, having never been told no, but once she figured she had choices (and that her choice meant harder work!) she quickly figured out it really wasn't so bad.