Two hours of prep, patience and making sure Sam was calm before moving into the next step.
Sam has never been worked with by my fiancé Adam so I first had to get them trusting each other then he started to lay over him then Adam lunged him then finally he jumped up like I do and sat up. We stayed at this point close to half an hour just letting him and talking to him. Sam started falling asleep which is a perfect sign to start moving up to the next stage. The next thing on the list was to take a few walking steps and then end on a good note. I don’t push them their first ride I like them to know they did a good job and we aren’t forcing more. Four walking steps with a rider may not look like much but for a horse that has been wild his whole life, 8 years and less than a year in captivity, also only with a human (me) for 4 months, its HUGE!
Anything can happen in the first steps. Standing is easy I teach all of my horses to stand and accept new things way before being ridden but getting them to walk with a rider can be scary and weird for them. The riders weight is strange and feeling the human moving as they walk is all new. But I do a lot of ground work to prepare Sam for this day and it went very well!
I choose to start all of my horses, especially mustangs, bareback. They are more reactive and they do best bareback when they can feel the rider. Saddles add a gap in communication between horse and human so first rides are best with less 🙂
J Randol horse training 