Houston, We Had A Problem!

Can you see the situation here? Apparently I chose to start today’s saddle training session at nap time and Liberty takes nap time pretty seriously! Liberty just does not believe he can pat his head, rub his tummy, wear a saddle and stand up all at the same time. Man this saddle training is exhausting stuff! @#^!!

I had put the saddle on and just barely tightened the cinches and had been practicing walking up and down the lane leading him. Not as easy as it sounds as Liberty is sure he can't move while wearing this thing. By the way we've been thru this many times before.

Liberty tried everything… the stuck feet routine, nope that didn’t work. Therefore he went into the, “I can’t stand and have to back into the fence so it can hold me up because the saddle is too constrictive” scenario. So here we were back to leading lessons, this time wearing a saddle.

Luc had been helping from the pasture side of the fence to get Liberty to go down the fence line with me. It didn’t hurt that I had a hand full of treats ready to share with them. While Liberty was pulling back on the rope with his butt firmly planted into the fence I was feeding Luc treats.... Man, the light bulb went off in Liberty's head; he walked up and got a treat! I kept the treats handy and we spent a good deal of time walking up and down the fence line and then up the hill and away from Luc.

We had made some good progress so I decided the next step would be to step on and off him a couple of times. I was rocking him back and forth to help him get his feet under him as I was getting ready to mount and dismount. I even moved the mounting block and got on and off from both sides. Since I wanted to end on a good note I decided we had had enough training for the day and when I stepped off for the last time I did not use the mounting block. That was just too much for Liberty and he folded like a wet washcloth and gently tipped over. I had moved the mounting block to the off side so the first thing he did was to stick a front foot in the hole in the back of it as he was lying on the ground. I immediately removed his leg and moved the mounting block out of our way. Liberty, at almost 64" tall, certainly is a long way for me to step down off him, apparently he didn’t think he could handle it either!

After numerous and unsuccessful attempts to get him up using my own power Jim, who was headed to the fields on the tractor, stopped to assist. We tried everything we could think of and Liberty was not cooperating so Jim suggested I take the saddle off and “let the sleeping donk lie”. Since he was in no hurry to get up I went to the field where I could watch him and helped Jim move fertilizer trucks to the next field. Not long after we had the trucks moved Liberty decided to get up. After arising he apparently went over to the saddle, put the horn in his mouth and pulled it off the saddle rack and onto the ground. I don't believe he thinks much of his new saddle. I have a feeling this saddle training is going to take some serious time! Next time…. NO Lying Down on the Job, Liberty, I HAVE A FEW NEW TRICKS UP MY SLEEVE TO DISCOURAGE THIS BEHAVIOR!
October 7, 2007