Help! Saddling Problems!

[my-pony-bailey]

Over a year ago my sister and I bought a 7 year old Arabian gelding. While buying him we had no idea he was extremly green on his ground work. He didn't crosstie, couldn't handle spray bottles, wouldn't pick up his feet nicely, didn't wear blankets etc. Finally me and my sister overcame all those problems and he finally did it all. He picked up his feet nicely, crosstied and saddled great. His ground manners were great. The only thing left to work on was his ring work which wasn't terrible but he came as a western horse and we wanated him english.

Then my sisters friend decided that she could help with his ring work. We agreeded. We knew her extremly well, and from what we hear and saw she was a great rider owning an Arab of her own.

So when she started woking him he was going alright. Nothing very pretty, he rounded up but not very nicely, but she thought he was doing "amazing."

Then my sister took him to a Dressage show. Her friend came also.. I guess that was a big mistake. The friend decided to tack him up while my sister got ready. We usually tacked him up with a very loose girth in the crossties so he wouldn't get angry at us and that worked well. But she decided to do it extremly tight without even walking him. So thats wehre he started to not like getting the girth done up.

After we figured out that she wasn't doing a very good job we decided that me and my sister would just work with him, and try and get him back to normal. Well here was our second mistake...

One of the boarders was a 23 year old (I'm guessing) girl who had a great experience with horses, but she used harsh methods that we didn't know of untill after. She decided to used the chain on our horse in the crossties to saddle him so when he would back up in the crossties when you brought the saddle over shewould snap the chain on his nose and he would get more and mroe scared. Veyr soon he started to hate getting the saddle on and hated a chain on his nose. Finally when she left to board somewhere else, we were with a crazy arab who would't do anything. We were back to square one. I've learned a lot from this to not let anyone work with your horse unless you absolutly know who the people are and their background on how they look after horses.

We are now working with the pony hes alright in the crossties now, kind of moves around a bit but not much. He puts the saddle on but not in the crossties yet. And he shakes when you put the saddle pad and then the saddle on his back. After your on his back hes absolutly GORGEOUS! His ring work is amazing.. but he just can't saddle. So...

Does any body have any tip for saddling? How to get him back in the crossties, calm again and not afraid of the saddle?

[Aly]

Not sure how well this will work in your circumstance but it has worked very well for me in the past with problem horses in regards to saddling due to fear.

Teach the horse to associate saddling with pleasure. Fill a bucket with his favourite feed, have 3 people, one to hold him and the bucket, and one either side of him. As he is munching in his bucket rub the saddle cloth all over his back gently, reassuringly talking to him and patting him all the time. Once he is calm about it, stop. Leave it for the day or a few hours before attempting again. Next day do it again, etc. etc. until he is non plussed about the saddle blanket.

Then introduce the saddle again, same manner, slowly calmly place it on his back, the person the other side is there to make sure it does not whack him in any way. With his head in the bucket and your reassurance it will only take a few sessions to have him calm with the saddle.
Just make sure when you girth up you do so gradually, don't hoik it up.

This has been my experience with two different horses, both of which were Arabians, so I hope it helps. If I remember any other tricks I will pass them on.
Cheers! Aly

[Jessey]

Our old cob was really scared of saddles when we got him, if he so much as saw a saddle he would shake all over and get in a right old pickle.

We just started using the saddle for everything, we would just have it there next to him while he ate or was brushed, we would carry it to the field to turn him out, anything we could do with the saddle we did, after a couple of weeks he just started to ignore it so we then started putting a pad on him with a roller again at anytime it was ok to do so, again it was a week or two and he stoped worrying about it then we went for the saddle, just put it on and shuffled it about then took it off, then put it on did it up and took it straight off, then led him a bit in it and started putting it on to turn him out (only had it on to lead to the field then took it off at the gate) soon he was happy to wear his saddle at any time.

We had to change his thoughts about the saddle, his old saddle fitted really badly (before we got him) and he associated the saddle with the pain and also people mounting with pain. So he had to re-learn that it didn't hurt, it took a while but we got there.

J

[dcp]

How awful imagine somone hurting your horse like that you must feel angry. What everyone else said try and associate saddling up with pleasure. It's so awful someone has made your horse go backwards with their cruel handling. A girl works on the yard who is like this I don't trust her one bit I've seen her beat up horses and sometimes I think she has done it to my horse. It makes me so angry. Training them isn't about terrifying them into doing something. Hope you get it sorted