Did you know......

....that a horse can step out of his cinched up saddle?

The day after Thanksgiving my husband and I took two boys from our church for a ride. One had never ridden before; the other one time with us.

I put Will on Captain with my daughter's old western saddle which seems narrow. Captain is very narrow shouldered and should be ridden with a crupper. I know that. But I also know the trail and was pretty sure that nothing too extreme would be encountered and it's only a short ride, etc,. Etc.

Well--------------we start out and get to a fork in the trail. It's a 3/4 mile spur. I ask the boys and Will replies, "Anything that will keep us out here longer!" My kind of rider, even if he's only 15. So off we go. Plus, Ron (husband) and I had never taken this spur so we were curious also. There's a bit of climbing and I am thinking about the return trip and Captain's narrow shoulders. Nice view at the top, by the way.

We start down and I'm keeping a close eye on Will and the saddle. Finally I suggest that he get off and walk until the trail flattens out. Okay. But that doesn't overrule gravity! A few minutes later I realize that the entire saddle is in front of the withers. Captain stops and drops his head and the WHOLE THING just slides right down his neck, over his head, and plop! On the ground right in the middle of the trail. The cinch is cinched; the breastcollar is buckled. Captain is standing with both front feet inside the loop of the attached cinch. I wanted to take a picture so bad because I didn't think that could happen. I mean, everything was still buckled up. Well, Captain just backed up and I un-cinched so I could re-saddle.

The rest of the ride was uneventful.

Note to self: ALWAYS use a crupper on this horse no matter where you ride!

PS--the boys loved the ride. It was about 2 1/2 hours long. At the top of the loop we were riding through fetlock-deep snow. And I got to put my truck in 4wd!

First off...WOW. I bet you were glad that kid had gotten off as was I am sure he was too. Secondly, good broke horse to take that. I don't think it would have been too bad with my Rocky, he wouldn't have liked but he wouldn't have killed any body. My daughter's horse...that would have been a rodeo. I don't how (or why) you could desensitize to that. A video of that would have been great. Never seen a horse undress himself before.


Cheers!'
Les

When I was training this horse, I ponied him with a pack saddle for a year. That saddle would also ride up on his shoulders even with the britching. Captain would get to a point where he couldn't take it anymore and would squeal, snake his head and do a leapy-bucky-kicky thing. Everytime he did this I would jerk hard on the lead rope (rope halter) and growl really ugly at him. He learned that while it was uncomfortable, he still had to carry on without reacting. When I started riding him, same thing. He got to a point and rebelled and I jabbed hard with my heel and growled at him and made him continue on. And started to ride with a crupper!!! Captain has learned that discomfort is just that. But it really helps to ride with a crupper. I wanted him to learn that just because the saddle moves forward he doesn't get to argue.

And lest you think I ride my horse in constant pain, he does not have white spots (he's black, so they would show up really well) nor does he flinch when I run my fingers down his spine. The only time it's an issue is with steep downhill or steady long downhill. But when I use a crupper, I don't have the problem.

My brother was riding a very crazy horse one day and I mean of the literal sense. Anyway we came to a creek crossing and he let her head down to drink. Just then her reflection scared her or just another idiot attack. But anyway over the front he went, sitting in his saddle in the middle of the creek. Oh I laughed and laughed. After he cooled off, literally I helped him catch the horse. So after that I got on the horse and we headed along. Well we come to a gate and I went to open it from the horse well aparently that scared her too and samething there I was laying face first in the dirt still in the saddle. But I got stepped on to so that hurt a bit. Anyway all my brother said was, "pretty damn funny isn't it". I walked it off for a minute and agreed "only when it happened to you". Anyway just sharing