I'm so excited to share this. We are breaking in a young horse for the first time & have been updating our progress on Steemit. The last update was 29 days ago now where I'd managed to calmly place a training saddle on our mare for the very first time and it went smoothly and calmly, blowing away my expectations. That post can be found here for those who missed it.

Background

Our youngster is a beautiful, well natured grey Egyptian Arabian mare and we've been taking our time growing a relationship with her rather than rushing in and sending her to a breaker like the conventional wisdom would dictate.

We've been acquainting her with how to calmly ask for pressure release so she doesn't have to resort to bucking, kicking and biting which is a standard last resort for them when they don't know any other way to communicate an inability to deal with what's happening.

We've trained her to simply bring her head to us to ask for pressure release; a method we've adapted from various sources and have had great success with. So, by placing weight on her back by simply leaning or draping an arm over, she can communicate that she's uncomfortable by flexing her neck around and I can simply remove my arm. It makes sense that a horse would prefer this less physical approach as it takes a lot of energy to buck, kick and bite. When they have a simple and calm alternative, everyone is happy and I can stay out of hospital; a nice bonus.

The Mount

Recently we decided that we would try the next step with her training and progress to attempting a bare back mounting for the first time. We'd only draped over her back previously and had only once lifted a knee to her croup so this was a big step forward for her and nobody really knows how such an attempt will go. All you can do it put precautions in place and communicate with the animal, watching for all the signs they give you prior to getting physical.

Success!

So here's the video...

Things to note are how completely calm she is for a brand new experience. I mean imagine how foreign it would be to have someone mount your back and sit on you if you've never experienced anything like it before and didn't have the power of language to have it explained to you first.

Note how she doesn't fidget or attempt to walk off... the only movement was to adjust some weight on to her off-side hind leg which was cocked at the time I mounted her. Textbook!

I started with a small jump to drape over her first and stayed there momentarily to read her. Then I lifted my left knee over her croup (as I mentioned she'd only experienced this once before) and again paused to read her reaction. Seeing she was taking it with calm curiosity, I decided to slip the leg over and sit upright on her. What a thrill for me! I've never been able to say that I was the very first person to mount a horse in my life and what an honour to share this experience with this mare.

Note too that I didn't stay there long. All we wanted was a brief exposure to the feel for her and then dismount. She'll remember the experience as brief and nothing to worry about for next time. She flexes her neck around to the left after a few moments and as I've trained her to communicate a request for release with this action, I responded by dismounting. They're clued up like that. Note that I also chose to dismount from the opposite side so that she was made aware that activity can happen on both sides.

Conclusion

I've not seen a calmer horse during an inaugural mount. Think of all those western movies where horse breaking was achieved by throwing them in the deep end by strapping on saddles and frightening the life out of them; waiting for them to exhaust themselves through bucking. How horrible and unnecessary. Our approach is very soft and look at the results.

Nayyerah has a wonderful working relationship with us and I'm looking forward to her wanting to be cooperative with us on future bush rides and the like. I'm much more comfortable on a horse treated in this way than one that's been frighted or forced into submission.... all it takes is for them to decide they've had enough and there's only one winner in that situation.

These really are amazingly accepting animals when they are given the space and time that they need to process new experiences in a caring and friendly environment. I think there are lessons here for our own psychology. Sometimes the best progress is made by avoiding force and pressure and instead accumulating small investments of effort over time. There's a saying in the horse world "the slow way is the fast way" and I feel that could be applied to many human situations too. Food for thought.

Thanks for reading and for sharing in our massive personal achievement; something that can't be purchased but only possible through investments of time and effort. Very rewarding!