Day Seven-SADDLE DAY

So Yesterday was awesome!!! First we were really busy at the barn.  Christen had a lesson, people came to look at horses, and other folks came in to talk about training.  Everyone wanted to stay and see Christen and I work with our mustangs.  Of course they would want to come on a day when we are introducing something brand new that they have never seen before (saddle and pad).  I took Shortcake out and started with the saddle pad it was pretty interesting she went right up to it and giving into her curious side smelled the blanket and saddle.  However, when I took the blanket into my hands she immediately leaned back almost so the backs of her front legs were on the ground.  Just imagine looking at the sphinx and that is what my horse looked like.  We all died laughing.  She eventually figured it wasn't going to eat her and after about 5 minutes I was slapping it onto her.  She took the saddle a lot better and let me put in on her but was unsure about the stirrups hitting her on the sides.  It took about 25 minutes to get the saddle cinched up and ready to go...and she was off.  She only bucked a few times and when i said whoooooaaaaa she stopped looked at me and relaxed.  I sent her around a few more times making sure she changed directions and trotted and cantered both ways and the day was done.  We walked back to the barn and took the saddle off.  Penny was next and did not take the saddle pad quite as well.  She is a funny horse because after Christen had been working with her for a while you could tell she didn't really care about the pad however, she didn't want it near her either.  She danced around for a while and gave Christen quite a workout to keep up with her but she eventually stopped and let her slap the saddle pad right onto her back.  You know when they say you have to train two horses when your training, is definitely the way Christen has to approach everything with Penny.  She gets it on one side and then you would of thought she had never seen it when she moves to the other.  Even still, every time we see her move she gets more and more amazing with the way she carries herself.  Her natural headset is beautiful and she almost glides around the pen.  She is every thoroughbred like in her looks and is going to make an awesome horse.  It is going to rain tomorrow so I think there will be some inside training and desensitizing.  Big steps today and still a ways to go but I think we can be on them by middle of the week sometime around day ten or eleven!!!!!