4th time under a saddle...and a wreck. Now what?

[Faster horses]

To each his own.
We had a little gal here breaking colts for people,
she worked them in the round pen UNTIL she knew they were
ready to be saddled.
For thier first saddling they would stand in the middle of
the round pen and she would take the saddle over to them
and saddle them with nothing on their head. She had their total
trust of her and never, ever did anything go wrong. She was little,
barely 5' and she said she couldn't hold on to them (she would
never tie them up) and saddle them at the same time. This way
was pretty darn hard to beat. She was a natural with a horse,
and really fun to watch. She married a cutting horse man and
lives in Oklahoma and now she rides cutting horses But she gets
the young horses going for her husband.

We have another friend that gives clinics and he goes a lot of places
halter breaking colts. And he never ties those colts up to be halter
broke because he maintains that puts braces in them that you
never get rid of. He halter breaks for people like Bill Smith, Mel
Potter, etc because they like how their colts are when they start
riding them. That halter breaking is so important as far as teaching
a horse to give to pressure and not be on the defensive.

FWIW

 

[flyingS]

You can build a horses confidence many different ways. I used to just get on and ride with no ground work to speak of, now I spend sometime with ground work. The main reason for the change was a thirst for knowledge and the fact that I don't bounce any more, it is more like a splat. The end result in my horses hasn't changed much, I would say that I don't worry as much about wrecks when I first start riding one as I used to. As long as you keep learning you will be fine, when you have it all figured out you better quit. I have trained for better than 20yrs and I learn something everytime I start a colt.

 

[LCP]

I haven't had a halter on him while working with the saddle until yesterday (first time coming back from the wreck). I put the halter and lead rope on yesterday so that if he got a little spooky I could keep him from going around the pen before I got the cinch at least fastened. I don't know if I needed to or not, he didn't get too spooky. Nervous, yes. Spooky, no. I tightened the cinch 4 different times - a little more each time.

Bruce - thanks for the advice to check the saddle. Never thought of that before. Been using it on my other horse and she doesn't mind it, but maybe it doesnt fit him right. Those two horses sure are built different.

Putting the saddle on presents a little bit different process than the other things I've taught him. With everything else (lifting his feet, walking around him, etc), if he doesn't stand still for me, I can immediately send him around the pen a few times to make him want to stand still. Working with the saddle, I can't stop half way through tightening the cinch and send him around the pen for obvious reasons. That's why I think I pushed him a little to fast the other day. This method only seems to work if he is completely calm and accepting of the saddle and all that goes with it. I put the halter on this last time, because I knew that I could control him easily with it if he got a little spooky and I wanted to make sure that things did not end as poorly as the time before. He was still nervous when I put it on him but settled down pretty quick. I left him saddled in the round pen (not tied) for about an hour while I did chores around the yard and could keep an eye on him. I didn't have time to work on him today. maybe tomorrow I will.

 

[High Plains]

Sounds like you're off to a good re-start on this saddling thing. Seems like your approach of letting him wear that saddle around in the round pen by himself for quite a while should be a real good deal for his mind. Can't be much longer and he'll know that it's not going to hurt him.

Good for you. Post a photo of your project if you're of a mind to.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Right or wrong he's doing about the same as I would.

 

[Silver]

I am probably going to start a discussion here. Whatever you do, do not tie your horse up and saddle him and leave him stand. I will explain, first off it is not safe for your horse or for you if you aren't experienced. Second your not building his confidence, your just showing him that if he throws a fit he can't get away from whatever you tie him to. Third, you are actually punishing him for doing something good. You do not want him to buck, but when he quits you don't want to punish him. Start back at the basic's and build his confidence. He obvisously was looking to you for release or he wouldn't have come to you. It would take me a long time to explain what I would do and it may not make sense to you either. If you want one that you can ride to hell and come back with the devil by the tail you better have his trust and you better make sure that he thinks whatever you ask him to do he can get done without being forced. Just my opinion and advice, it free so it's not worth much.

I agree 100%. I realize there are a million ways to get the result you are looking for with a horse, and if you know what you want and are persistant and consistant you will eventually get a result that resembles what it is you want.
I very seldom tie a horse to saddle up, and never tie a green horse for this procedure. Seems like it just gives them one more thing to worry about, and a pitching fit while tied up created by the act of saddling is dangerous for all involved and will likely cause more work going forward. I like to work in an open area, hold the shank in my left hand with enough slack to handle the saddle with both hands. If the horse moves off when I hoist the saddle I just keep bringing him back to where we started and start over. Eventually they will stand. If they duck out from under the saddle, I just stay slow and start over like nothing happened. Patience and persistence wins the day.
But there's lots of methods that work. Dad often hobbles his horses when doing this. Works for him, and he's a better horseman than me by far. But my horses generally stand better for saddling than his do

 

[LCP]

High Plains - You asked for a picture so here it is. This is my first picture I've posted on these forums so we'll see if I got it figured out.

Not the world's best photo. My iphone case is always dirty and probably scratched.

The horse didn't cost me anything. He is out of my grandma's mare, who I don't know much about, and a neighbor's stud. The neighbor has a good reputation for producing good ranch horses. Grandma's horse is a pet, not much more. So the grass was getting short in grandma's horse pasture so she had a "dispersion" and I sort of inherited this guy. Good one to learn on I figured.

A little update - I've narrowed down what bothers him. It isn't the saddle so much as the saddlING. Once I have it on and I quit fooling around with the cinch he is fine and relaxes. Next session will be lots of saddling and un-saddling I think. On a good note, I've been working with his feet a LOT and Friday I trimmed (to the best of my ability) all 4 feet with no issues at all. I was pretty excited about that. Now I probably should have a professional touch up my "work". Figured I wanted to see how things would go before paying somebody to come out and then have a disaster.

 

[Faster horses]

He's cute.
Don't worry about size, all we have to do is click on the picture
and it gets pretty large.

I'm glad things are coming along nicely for you both.

 

[NMCowboy]

its not uncommon for something to happen the third or fourth ride. If he had a fit the day before, he could have been a little sore from it or he was remembering something about it that caused him to react the way he did. Start over. Throw the blankets on him and pull them off until he doesn't even give it a second thought. Then put the blanket on and set your saddle on him. Tie up the cinches and stirrups so they don't flop down and cause a problem. Again, do it until he doesn't even have a problem with it. Then start with the cinch. Just pull it against his belly with hand pressure and release it. Do this over and over till its not a problem, then pull it up a bit with the latigo. Pull it up and release it until its not an issue.

I hate tying one up to saddle. To me its better to get him really flexible both ways with his head before I start with a saddle. Pull his head around to you, hold it and set on your saddle. If he horse moves, chances are he can only move around you in a circle and you can hold your saddle on until he calms down. Pretty soon he'll realize that he isn't going anywhere and he'll stand still for you to saddle him.

Once you get the saddle on him, don't jerk it up tight. If you can, lead him around a bit then snug it up a bit more. Once the saddle is on, turn him loose in a pen and let him wear it. Its up to him to work out his differences with a saddle on his own terms.

On a really skittish horse, i have used a surcingle and let them wear it around for a while. When they get used to it, you can tie sacks, boat bumpers, or whatever onto it. It really helps to get one used to things flopping and bumping him.