Saphira meets Martin Black

Saphira went back to Redwater last week to participate in the Martin Black colt start clinic held there from the 16th to the 20th. This was part of the very generous purchase agreement with Rocking G Ranch: the 2-year-old colts sold at the auction last spring were eligible to come back and get started by Martin Black for free. I wasn't overly concerned about how she'd handle it. She has such a lovely personality and positive attitude toward all the new things I've tried with her, that I didn't think being ridden would be any different. I was right. She took everything in stride. She was one of only a few horses that didn't buck even once during the whole clinic.

To start, Martin put a rope on each horse's hind leg while the cowboy on the ground held the halter. She was allowed to get used to the feel of the rope and to learn to give to it ... that is, to stop when there was pressure applied to it. She was more annoyed by it than anything, but quickly figured out how to accommodate it with the least fuss. Once she figured that out, she was saddled. She moved around a bit, but again, quickly figured out that standing still was the easiest path and in no time she was standing calmly licking and chewing while they did up the saddle, buckles, breast collar, etc. Then they put a snaffle bit in her mouth (attached by a string around her poll), to get her to learn to carry it; then removed the halter and let her move freely around the round pen with the saddle to get used to the feel of it. She was the second horse saddled, and once they had about 10 of them loose in the round pen, Martin started driving them around and asking them for the up/down transitions. He says it's the transitions that horses have the most trouble with at the beginning. Saphira handled it all really well and even figured out how to stay out of the way of the horses NOT having an easy time of it. Once Martin was satisfied that none of the horses was going to hurt itself, he let them run out in the large arena. The only thing Saphira did was to kick out a couple times - and that had more to do with keeping some of the horses from running up her backside than anything!

Then they were brought back into the round pen one at a time. The rope was put back on their hind leg and then the cowboy assigned to each horse mounted up. Cory had Saphira for the first day. He was one of the cowboys from last year, so I was pleased she was getting someone I knew. She didn't even bat an eye. He got on and started asking her to give to the lead rope by flipping it back and forth from side to side. She did wonderfully and was walking around responding to Cory as if she'd been doing it all her life.

The second day of the clinic was a replica of the first, but it went a bit faster for the horses that were OK with the saddle. Mounting was preceded by getting ahold of the hind leg with the rope again, just to be safe (sometimes the second or third ride is more difficult than the first one). But Saphira did just as well on day 2 as day 1. In fact, if anything she was impatient! She started pawing the ground after being stopped by the rope on her leg... I got the impression she was saying - "I'm good! I get it! Stop pulling on my leg!" So days 3 to 5 there was no rope. And by day 3, they introduced the bridle and started asking her to understand the rein pressure instead of the leadrope. As with everything else, she took this all in stride as well.

The horses that were still having trouble (bucking) on day 4 and 5 were ridden more than once each day. On the one hand I was a little disappointed that Saphira didn't get more than 5 rides. But on the other hand, this just meant that there were no issues with her that needed to be worked on, so that was a GOOD thing!
I was very pleased with the pace of this clinic and the softness of the riders. There was virtually no stress for Saphira at any time. Of course, I know if she had been more right-brained, there would have been more stress, but still. I was also pleased that the goal each day was to stop each day when the horse was soft, supple and relaxed, ending each day a positive experience. Some were done sooner than others because of this (like Saphira), but they made sure each horse got to that point. It was a great experience for her and it will subsequently make my job a LOT easier.