All's quiet on the West Texas front...

The guys are working 12 hour days right now, and that doesn't leave very much time to work with Blaze and Oakley. When I talked with Travis the other night, he was getting ready to ride Blaze and Tony was riding Belle! Belle was working well with just her halter on. Travis turned the speaker on and stuck his cell phone in the gullet of the saddle while he tightened the cinch and readjusted the bridle.

They didn't go for too long of a ride because the sun was already setting. I could hear Tony in the background calling to the dogs to heal, and Travis was talking softly to Blaze as he coaxed her to do as he bid. Before putting the horses up, Travis worked with Blaze on loading in the trailer. She did pretty good and Tony walked right into the trailer on top of Belle!

I will be getting a couple more Australian vacation posts ready in the next couple of days. I am in the middle of a big project for our website and will post just as soon as I can. The guys are supposed to work the extra hours for about another month. Because of this change in schedule they were not able to gather cattle this weekend. They missed out...

While searching the web for a diagram of a saddle, I found a great site. The Western Saddle Guide, it is chocked full of information on saddles. They even have a blog!

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MnC's Disclaimer: At no time is excessive force, cruelty or brutality used when training the horses pictured in this blog. Reinforcing pats and firm gentleness, along with calmness from the trainers, encourage the horses to do as they are asked.

Daffinah's 1st Cinched Saddle...

I am not getting pictures of every single day that Daffinah is in training, however I do try to get pictures when TnT are working on something new. In these pictures, Daffinah, is going to experience a cinched saddle for the first time! (She has had a saddle on her back one time but it was not cinched.)

Before Tony placed the saddle pad and then the saddle on her back he worked with her feet a little, asked to her back up, and then when he headed to the fence to get the saddle, she followed right behind him. Tony stopped to rest, giving Daffinah some well deserved pats and rubs. When he pulled his rope off the saddle...Daffinah decided that she didn't want anything to do with the rope. So, the saddle sat on the fence for a little longer while Tony worked with her until she didn't mind being roped. Through all of her training it does not take long for her to accept the next step! She is such a sweetheart and is constantly licking her lips in submission!!

You will notice that there were driving reins laying in the middle of the round pen. The training session did not lend itself to driving Daffinah this time...The last three pictures where a different day when the round pen was occupied and Daffinah was worked on the end of a lunge line. I was cleaning her pen and listened to her training more than watched. At first I could her her race really fast, slow to a trot and then stop, race fast again, slow to a trot and stop again! By the time I had her pen cleaned she was trotting at an even pace and would stop only when Tony gave her the signal!

The next post will show how she handled the saddle slipping!!!



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