Peanut speaks up

Peanut has given his opinions on the saddles.

I went out on Saturday, and took some pictures of the Imus on him to stare at what is going on at the withers.  Rick felt the saddle at the withers, and said that, if anything, it touches more at the top of the withers than the bottom.  A wider tree is not going to help that, it will probably make it worse.  Maybe that's where the need for a hoop tree comes in.

Ah well, I thought I'd give him a little tack up and see what we think.

Again, Peanut avoided the saddle.  The boy did not want it plopped on his back, but once on there, he stood still.  The longer cinch is again too short, so I had to tie it on the front D instead of the rear on one side.  And yet his dressage girth is too long by a few miles.  I can't win!  Or... I just suck at sizes which is probably most likely.

When putting on Peanut's bridle, I completely take off his halter and don't put the reins around his neck or anything.  Loose horse!!!  He always just stands there, waiting for me to get the Dr. Cook in order (pull cross unders through to give him as much room as possible, position the brow band) and then he takes it very well.  Not this time.  As soon as the halter was gone, so was he.  I tried to get the reins over his head, and he was not having it.  It took me a bit to get him bridled, but at least he didn't take off - just went to the opposite corner of the area where I tack up.

Once bridled, I always put the reins over his neck, let go, and backwards walk in front of him so that he follows me and I can keep tightening the girth/cinch.  He loves it because when he gets to me and is told to halt, he gets a cookie.  This is how I have a horse dropped even though I'm tightening the saddle.  Well, this time he was all over the place and needed a lot of convincing to follow me.  But at last we got everything in order...

Next was mounting up.  Peanut has improved A LOT over the years and will stand nicely for mounting... except on Saturday.  I got him lined up and started to climb the mounting block, and he started to walk off.  I pulled him back, tried again, and he started walking again.  I plunged a foot in a stirrup and bellied over, straightening myself up and pulling him to a halt.  By then, we were both unhappy.

The ride itself was terrible and didn't last very long.  He fought me the whole time and generally let me know that he was a mad pony.  Rick said that you could see the displeasure in his face.  He was walking mad, wasn't really listening to me, and was an unhappy camper for the world to see.  To his credit, he did nothing to unseat me, but was grumpy nonetheless.

Fine, I thought, I got the picture.

I dismounted and led him back.  Keeping the bridle on him, I took off the saddle and got out the Fhoenix.  Yep.

I figured we had three possible outcomes:

1. He would act exactly the same and I would know he was having one of those days
2. Everything would escalate since he was tired of this crap
3. He would calm and be a great horse, letting me know his true feelings about the saddle

I saddled him without incident.  He didn't even move away from the saddle.  I had him follow me for our girth tightening routine, and that went normally with an eager Peanut.

He stood absolutely still for mounting, earning his cookie for that.  As we walked out, he was quiet and relaxed to the point where Rick noticed the incredible change and commented on it, saying that we now know which saddle he prefers.

I rode him along around the property, and we did just fine.  At one point he didn't want to go forward, but I didn't let him turn back, so we calmly walked sideways for a while until he stopped, I aimed him where I wanted to go again, and he went.

We reached some very tall grass (it was hitting my boots) and he wanted to graze, but I asked him not to and we kept going.  I then stopped him and told him he could, and I let him graze and go where he wanted.

He explored a bit, especially around the partially burnt brush pile.  I just kept wishing away any nails or anything that would puncture his feet.  He sniffed this, rubbed his upper lip across that, and even took a bite out of a burnt, large tree trunk.  At one point he stopped grazing, he went back to the path next to his field, and he walked back towards the barn on his own.  There was a little hesitation at the hill (GOATS OMG), but then we went up.  I took him a little further, and I dismounted.

He was very calm and very sweet after I got off.  All-in-all, a completely different horse with the Fhoenix on his back versus the Imus.

After my last ride in the Imus on Thursday, I noticed the sweat mark went way, way far back on his back.  There wasn't much sweat this time at all, but what I could see was just at the rear limit of where the saddle should be, which should make Denise happy.