Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Jewel -- 09/22/08

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately, so I have not had a chance to get back to Jewel until last night.

Apparently, she's one of those drama queens when it comes to "firsts", but after that she's fine. I had her tied in the same spot, walked up with the saddle pad, put it on her back. No dancing, no rearing, no wild eyes. It was boring to her by now. Good! I gave her some praise, then let her eat dinner.


While she was eating, I put the pad back on, then put the saddle on. You can do anything with this mare when she's got her nose in the feed bucket! I didn't tighten the girth much, since I heard that she was a bucking bronc with the saddle on. The few times I've massaged her I've found a lump of what I believe is scar tissue under the off side girth area which could be causing some pain or discomfort when the girth is tight.


{Jewel had a bad accident way before I got her that nearly took off her right front leg. She was cut deep thru the chest to back behind the front leg, I'm just not sure how far. At this point I'm not even sure she'll ever be able to be ridden with a saddle, but time will tell. She's certainly sound in the pasture and on the lunge line.}


When she was done eating I took her for a walk with the saddle on. Her only concern was getting back to the hay. I stopped, tightened the girth up a notch, walked on a little more. Eventually, it was tight enough to keep the saddle on while doing ground work, but still not tight enough to hop on (not that I'm crazy enough to do that yet). Since she had been so good, I untacked, brushed her down, and let her go back to doing what horses do best... eating.

3 comments:

wolfandterriers said...

YAY!!!!

Anonymous said...

Jewel had been ridden with us, once. Like I told you but Trina rushed her, she didn't do hardly any work with her on the ground at all, just lunged for a couple of minutes, tacked her up and got on her and got dumped but did actually get in the saddle and she was quiet for a few seconds and then got freaked out and bucked.

meddywv said...

Ummmm, you call sitting in the saddle for a few seconds and getting bucked off, being ridden?

okaaayyy....