Pushing the Limits........Tacking Up..........

Part 1

Before I get to the photo, I want to mention that before we left for the park lytha did get the opportunity to meet the canine members of our farm as well. Fortunately she didn't get mauled by either Sugar or Delilah but it was not for their lack of trying. Both dogs were so tickled to have a visitor they forgot all their manners and were jumping all over the place trying to get to lytha. She's lucky she didn't get knocked down and licked to death. Both Sugar and Delilah are now back in remedial training.

Going to the park I kept thinking about how I was going to work things. Normally with a stallion along and wanting to get both horses tacked up at the same time, I'd be tying one horse on one side of the trailer and one on the other. Since I knew I'd be doing most of the saddling to accommodate fitting issues with both horses, I figured I'd try tying both horses on the same side to give me less running around to do.

Legs is really good travelling in the horse trailer with any of the horses next to him but there is a partition between them. I think that boundary helps Legs know what is expected of him. I have tie another horse next to him outside the trailer for a brief moment as I'm switching horses around inside but that's been the extent of it. Neither horse has remained in that position long enough to even think about investigating the other and if they even look like they're going to sniff, I'm scolding them sharply with my voice.

I know despite Legs' good manners he just cannot be trusted to refrain from acting like a stallion in some situations. Leaving a horse tied next to Legs with no partition between them for any length of time is asking a lot.

Then there's Dandy who is the all time king of crabby old geldings with other horses. Ever since being sick with his EPM all those years ago, Dandy has not been comfortable with other horses close to him. I knew Dandy wouldn't be too thrilled to have another horse nosing into his territory either.

Dandy has had the experience of being tied to the horse trailer with another horse right beside him as both horses were prepared for riding but there was no visiting allowed. I knew Dandy would probably get ticked if Legs got into his space so I knew I needed to watch both horses closely to be sure no one's buttons got pushed. I sure didn't want lytha or me in the middle of a horse wreck.

Once both horses were tied to the trailer, lytha jumped right in grooming on Dandy while I worked on Legs. As soon as the grooming started Legs figured out that this was different from other times and he thought he should check things out. That nose stretched over to sniff at his brothers and I quickly scolded him.

Lytha and Dave laughed and made comments about the cute brothers visiting but I know these horses and I was worried. I wanted Dave and lytha both to understand the risks involved with tying these horses this close but I'm not sure that either of them really got my concerns. I was scurrying around like some kind of mouse trying to speed up the whole process so I could get those horses separated before something happened.

I can't tell you how many times I corrected Legs for trying to get closer to Dandy. He kept stretching out to reach Dandy's muzzle to get a good smell and I kept flipping the end of the lead rope at him or poking him in the shoulder to make him back off. Legs was not deterred and I was getting stressed. I did not want an incident of Legs striking at Dandy followed by Dandy swinging his butt into Legs to kick the crap out of him. I figured that Dandy would win such a skirmish, I just didn't want to be in the middle of it so I did some pretty sloppy grooming I can tell you.

It was the saddling up that was the hard part. Since Dandy has particularly high whithers, I've never been able to find a saddle that fits him perfectly. To make sure he's comfortable, I've resorted to adjusting some padding underneath the front portion of the saddle to keep from pinching him.

Getting that saddle onto those pads in exactly the right place is tough anytime, doing it in a hurry made it all the harder. I think I had to reset that darn saddle a couple of times before I actually got it right. Luckily for me, by this time Legs was worried about being in trouble so he had slowed his advances towards Dandy. I did have to scoot behind Dandy right at the end, diving at Legs to back him off but I managed to get both horses tacked up without anything more than the sniffing you see in this picture. I was a frazzled mess by that time but I was also relieved that nothing dangerous had happened. I knew I had tested both these horses.

I grabbed Dandy's bridle out of the trailer's tack room and untied Dandy taking him out of reach of Legs to bridle him. I heard a sigh of frustration from Legs as the gelding moved out of reach. There was going to be no visiting for now anyway. It was on to getting riders saddled and on the trail.

Apparently Legs is not the only one that sighed as I walked Dandy away from Legs. Lytha was poised for the horses to misbehave because they were being split up. Evidently she is not used to horses being comfortable working along or going somewhere without another horse. It was going to be the beginning of a new kind of trail experience for lytha.

To be continued.........................

Mounting Up

Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY