Gypsy - saddling and mounting

Ah.... all the best intentions to do lots with the horses this weekend, but life seems to always have other plans. I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd hoped. LIFE just keeps getting in the way! I did manage to spend a bit of time with Skittles yesterday - started off just cleaning up her leg, but then did some driving game and getting her OK with flipping the rope over her head and string around her legs. Also worked more with her picking up her feet. All went well, just didn't do nearly as much as I'd hoped.

Then today I spent about an hour and a half with Gypsy. She's always had an issue with me putting a saddle on her. I've always managed to GET a saddle on her, but it was always chasing her with it, her sidestepping and getting cranky. If I can get her to accept it willingly, we'll have a much better start to all our rides and hopefully a much more willing partner. So I decided to spend LOTS of time just getting her to stand still and be OK with me putting on the pad and saddle from either side. I spent lots of time grooming and picking up her feet first, then started with the saddle pad - approach and retreat (before she decided to leave), each time getting a bit closer, then moving it around on her body. She still moved around a bit, but wasn't terribly concerned. I just kept it up until she was able to stand calmly, put in on, took it off, over and over , both sides. Then I introduced the saddle. She was again concerned and moved away. More approach and retreat, approach and retreat. Since I've always put the saddle on from the left, she consistently blocked me on that side, but blocked less on the right (which is where I started putting it on from today). After a couple of times on her back, then removing it, she started blocking me on that side as well. So I just let her keep her head in my way, stood there... waited... waited... .... ... and eventually she moved her head out of the way and let me in. After that she didn't seem to have any issue with my putting the saddle on her.

I did up the girth, let her do some circling, tightened the girth a bit more, circling, tighten again, and all throughout she had a pretty good expression. She fidgeted a bit when I tightened the girth, but settled easily with my hand on her chest. So I decided to start trying to mount up from the off-side. HA! I've been mounting from the left for over 20 years. I've NEVER mounted from the right. Do you think I could convince my body to cooperate? First of all, my right leg wouldn't lift up to the stirrup on its own (like my left leg does), and second of all, once my foot was in the stirrup, my leg wouldn't LIFT me UP! It was really quite comical. Add that to the fact that Gypsy was wondering WHAT THE HECK was going on? I started just mounting my usual way from the left - on and off, on and off - until she stood quietly without moving away. Once she was good with that, I started on the right side. She DID NOT like that so much. It was many attempts later before she settled enough for me to hop hop hop up onto the saddle. And if I hadn't been laughing at my ineptitude so hard, I might have made it up with a little more grace. My ever-so-helpful son took photos for me (giggling at me the whole time), and mercifully deleted the worst of them. The one attached here is the least embarrassing! After a couple of GOOD right-side mounts, Gypsy indicated she'd had enough and I let her take me up the driveway and we went for a ride. She was happy to be moving and I enjoyed her good mood as well as the beautiful day and trotted and galloped up and down our subdivision road. A good day. I hope future attempts with the saddle will get easier and easier after this.