I get my foals used to a saddle pad or a blanket on their backs, so they learn this early on. With Rajmani, I have no idea what he knows and what he does not. So, I always expect, he does not know it. The pad proved to be no major issue. He wanted to sniff it for a little while and then I touched his neck and flank with it and within a few minutes I could place the pad on his back. He turned to sniff it again, but did not object or show signs of discomfort. So, the next day I went one step further and put on the lunging girth. That is one step further, because the horse needs to not only accept something on his back but also something under his belly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I put the girth on after I had finished grooming him and he clearly did not like the girth around his belly. I did not pull it tight straight away but tightened it slowly and gently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One word of warning at this point though: It is good not to over tighten the girth on young horses. But never leave a girth loose. Because, if the horse makes a sudden movement and the saddle suddenly slips under his belly, the horse is in for a big fright. That is one of the reasons I start with a lunging girth rather than a saddle. The light girth does not slip so easily and if it does, it is much smaller than a saddle and does not give the horse such a big fright as the saddle would. Still, I make sure, I tighten it enough that it does not slip or move around much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the horse is fine with the lunging girth, I progress to the bareback pad. This one is bigger and I can put stirrups. Many people will say, take off the stirrups, so nothing flaps around which might irritate the young horse. I use a different concept, it is better to get the horse used to things flapping around, particularly if you want to go trail riding later on. Because eventually something will flap around your horse, so it is a good idea to get him used to that in a controlled environment where a little scare will not cause him any harm. Maybe not right in the beginning, but once the horse has safely accepted the pad or the saddle and you feel you can progress one step further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the bareback pad, the saddle is just a tiny adjustment, another baby step. When you prepare your horse well, there won\u2019t be any rodeo or any bucking around. The process of saddling really is a series of baby steps and when you do them one by one, it will go smoothly and easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deworming <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And finally, Rajmani received his de-wormer. I brought worming paste from Germany, the one you have to squeeze into their mouths. Most of my horses are used to them and will not make any fuss, but Rajmani never had one of those I guess and he is anyway wary about things happening around his head. I first tried to give him his dose outside, after we came back from riding, but he did not want me to touch his mouth, let alone put something into it. He created a fuss and kept on shaking his head or raising it up and swinging it from left to right. I decided to first do the others and worm him afterwards in his stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I put him into his paddock and did the rest of the horses before going back to him for another try. He was much calmer in his paddock and I could put the syringe into his mouth and squeeze the whole paste into it without much ado. It almost looked, as if he felt secure and comfortable inside his paddock and did not feel that he had to mount a lot of defense as he had done before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You never stop learning I suppose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 20.03.2021 Today we returned from our fifth ride together and I am rather satisfied with Rajmani, even though he stopped a few times abruptly. He generally follows the lead horse better and trots on command not with me pulling on the lead rope. He also learned to drink from a water trough outside today. First,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,8,10],"tags":[25,19,23,22,24],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horse-training","category-rajmani","category-young-horses","tag-deworming","tag-ponying","tag-preparing-for-the-saddle","tag-saddling","tag-young-horse-training"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gunguroo.com\/marwarihorsemanship\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/IMG_6524.jpeg?w=640&ssl=1\")
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