Saddled Up and Rode

I wanted to see how Chance would react to the saddle and his new bit before this weekend. We did some free work last night and again this morning. He is doing great. He wants to use his left eye more than the right, I now have some good exercises to work on that. So after the free work today I brought him over to the tack room to saddle him up. As soon as he saw all the stuff his expression change from care free to lets shut down. And thats what he wanted to do. I worked slow, started with brushing and scratching him in his favorite places. Saddle pad on and off, walk around the around the paddock and started again. When it was time to put the saddle on he wanted to walk away. I did more free work with the saddle and he was fine. He never seemed physically uncomfortable at all. I started with the bridle and he tried to avoid the bit. Again I worked slow, scratching his neck, pulling the bit away when he relaxed. Finally he accepted it but with hesitation and he almost bit my fingers. Not intentionally, he just never really opened his mouth very wide. I was feeling very relaxed and decided he looked okay enough to ride. So, I hoped on. I let him choose where he wanted to go (staying inside the ring of course), we did some one rein stops and that was about it. He was trying to drop his head almost to the ground. This was making me a little nervous because of his tendency to crow hop and buck when he has a nutty! So I only let him drop it to a certain point. After about 10 minutes I got off. He stayed relaxed the entire time.