My stirrups arrived. Talana was a little less pleased about the saddle when she felt how much heavier it is with stirrups! She's a good girl, so all she did was make faces and try to walk away from it when I went to put it on the second time. But for her, that means "I don't think I want to stick around for this! See ya!"
Handily, this provided another opportunity for us to work on ground tying, which is one of our ongoing projects. Talana is pretty good about standing, until she sees me coming with something she doesn't want. Which really means she needs some work on that. I can't have her trying to walk off while I'm doing stuff with her.
I've been going at this a couple of different ways. One is to have a halter and lead shank on her, and drop the lead to the ground while I'm grooming and tacking her up. If she's moving around, I pick up the lead and back her a bit, then walk her forward to The Spot and have her stand again. She finds out that she can work hard without getting anywhere, or she can stand nicely. She's making good progress this way. The other thing I've been doing is to walk up to her without a halter and just start doing things with her while she's at liberty in her fence. I know she's not going to "get away" in there, so it's safe for me to go about things differently. Talana has come to recognize my grooming bucket. She likes it because it's got nice grooming tools in it that make her feel good, so she usually walks up to me when I bring it in. But at first when I brought in the saddle, she'd turn and walk away before I approached her. I know she has bad memories about being ridden, so my goal here is to teach her that she can trust me. Even when I'm holding the saddle.
One of the ways I want her to learn to trust me is to learn that I'm consistent. If she walks away while I am picking out her feet and between hooves, I follow her with the pick. If she keeps walking away, I increase my energy and send her away at a trot until I see her paying attention to me. I don't worry about circles; I actually jog along nearby and we usually go in a straight-ish line. Usually in a moment I see her ear flick back to me. Then I bring my energy down to a walk and give her a chance to respond. Typically she'll also slow to a walk and lower her head a little. Then I turn away from her while inviting her to come with me, and we walk together for a few steps. When I'm ready, I come to a halt and ask her to Whoa. She stops, I go back to picking her feet. To backtrack a bit, if she doesn't slow to walk with me, I go back to jogging her around for a bit and try again when she looks more ready. Generally, this whole process takes about thirty seconds. Afterword, Talana refocuses on me and stands very well. Back to my point about consistency: I do the same thing if she's walking away from the saddle. I know her history with saddles. She thinks they aren't nearly as nice as a hoof pick. But I treat them as though they are the same. The saddle isn't any scarier, and she needs to know that I expect the same behavior in regards to the saddle as to the pick, even if she's not as emotionally comfortable with the saddle. With time, I'm hoping this will change her response to the saddle - Oh, it's this thing that gets put on me after grooming sometimes, rather than, Eek! Not the saddle, those make me feel weird! We've done this a few times now, and she's getting better and better about it. I can tell that she's already starting to understand. She can walk away, but I'm not going to stop tacking her up. It'll just take longer.
The other important part of this process is that I make sure not to hurt her or frighten her. The last thing she needs is one more bad experience with the saddle! I move smoothly and confidently, and when I tighten the girth I try to do it without yanking or pinching. Then when I am riding, I make sure to give her a good experience as well. I don't ask her to do things that will make me off-balance enough to bounce on her back, or if I do I don't punish her for expressing discomfort. When she does what I ask her to do, I praise her and reward her for a job well done. When I need to correct her, I am firm but fair. A small thing doesn't need a big correction - not with Talana. She "hears" the subtlest movements I give her. No need to suddenly act like the world is ending, or to frighten her or give the idea that I'm a big angry monster on her back. "Nope, that's not what I asked for," is all I need to communicate.
I find that Talana is responding well to this approach. She always seems disappointed when I walk away. She's not anxious to gallop away from me when I release her. I think she is discovering that it's all right to trust me, and that I won't do anything mean to her. She is starting to act more relaxed with the saddle. I am so proud of how well she stood for me to tack her up yesterday. I didn't put anything on her head at all until I'd tightened the girth most of the way, and when I walked away to get the bridle, she looked after me for a moment, then followed me. She still likes to stick her nose in the sidepull for me to make it easy to put on. The other day, she even acted like she expected a bit, lipping at the reins!
On one hand, it seems like we haven't done much. "All" I'm doing is riding her around at the walk and sometimes trotting a little. We haven't been riding for long periods of time. But on the other hand, Talana is learning some important things. She is learning that she can trust me. She is learning what cues I use and how I expect her to respond to them. I am learning, too. I am learning how she moves, what things are rewards to her and what things are neutral or unpleasant to her. So, overall, I think we've made a lot of progress.
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