OMGPONY!

Woo hoo! Just won a nice Abetta Endurance saddle on eBay!  I got a pretty good price on it, including the padded trail stirrups and a nice cinch in the right size, as well.  It’s used but in good shape from all of the pictures.  I’ve been shopping for a lightweight, wide tree saddle to fit Mocha for a few weeks.  I’m currently borrowing an older leather Western saddle from my friend Karin, but it doesn’t fit right due to a narrow tree.  I’ve heard great things about the Abetta synthetics and like the idea of having an 18 lb saddle too!   I can’t wait for it to get here!

In barn news, Mocha and I didn’t ride tonight. Instead we played The Pawing Game.

You see, Miss Mocha has a slightly bad habit of pawing when she’s cross tied and bored. It’s both annoying and not good for her hooves since we have concrete floors in the grooming stalls.  I’ve tried whacking her knee whenever she paws, to convince her it’s not a fun thing anymore but that hasn’t really discouraged her much.

I decided to try another tactic.  Ignore her bad behavior and reward the good. Pretty simple, common sense kind of thing.

So, I put her in the cross ties tonight, pulled up a lawn chair and just sat there watching her… Whenever she stopped pawing I’d get up and pet/brush/praise her until she lifted her foot and pawed once. Then I’d immediately walk away and sit down, ignoring her completely. She pawed a lot at first, almost non-stop trying to get my attention but to no avail.   After about 30 minutes with just a few little breaks of non-pawing, she finally started to figure it out. You could almost see the gears grinding in her brain!  If I stood by her and gave her attention she wouldn’t paw, so I notched it up a bit and started to walk away when she’d lift a foot, before completely pawing. Another half hour or so of this, and more grinding gears in her big ol’ Tennessee Walker noggin and she seemed to have caught on to what I wanted her to learn.

By the end of the next half hour, she was standing nicely, getting brushed, praised & spoiled; only occasionally lifting her foot. She’d even lift  a foot, hesitate a moment, holding her hoof up in the air. Then she’d turn to look at me, think about it and set her hoof down gently as I started to move a step away!   SUCCESS!   Or at least for the time being.  I’m sure we’ll work on this “game” a few more times to keep reinforcing the lesson but I’m so proud of her (and me!) for accomplishing this little step!

Oh and if you want to add an interesting blog to your reading repertoire, check this one out: http://afatgirlafathorse.blogspot.com/ It’s a new blog just getting started by a plus sized gal addressing riding as a plus sized person.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Around the barn, Shop for Horse Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.