>Dear Jessica, my horse Rico bloats up whenever I
>put the saddle on him. I can hardly tighten the girth he bloats so much.
>Then when I get on in a little while I have to get off him again to tighten
>the girth again because it is all loose. I don't understand why he does
>this. It doesn't get him out of being ridden and it just gets him punished
>so he must not be very smart if he keeps on doing this. I am short so it
>isn't easy for me to knee him in the gut like I'm supposed to get him to
>let his air out, so I always have to get off him again later to tighten the
>girth. I wish I didn't have to do it twice every single time I ride. Is
>there some way I can get him to stop bloating? Some times I'm thinking
>about something else and I don't remember about his trick and my saddle
>starts to slipping sideways before I remember and get off and tighten it. I
>just know one of these days the whole saddle is going to slide around
>underneath him and I'll get hurt just because he pulls this trick every
>ride.
>
>Tammy
Hi Tammy! Your horse isn't actually bloating -
that is, he isn't taking a deep breath and
holding it. What he's doing is tensing his
muscles. Horses that tense their muscles when you
reach for the girth are typically horses that
have learned the hard way that someone is about
to make them very uncomfortable by pulling the
girth hard and suddenly and trying to make it as tight as possible.
It's been a long time since I heard someone say
"Knee him in the gut" but there probably ARE some
people who still teach this. Don't worry if it's
difficult for you to do it - the truth is that
you shouldn't do it at all. Your horse isn't
inflating with air, and you can't let the air out
of him. You can hurt him and frighten him and
convince him that being ridden is a miserable
experience and that he should worry whenever he
sees you, but I'm sure you don't want him to feel
that way. You should probably give up the idea
that you can fasten your girth once when you
first saddle your horse and then make no further
adjustments until the ride is over.
Girth-fastening should be an incremental, gradual
process, not a sudden, extreme movement.
Don't punish him when you reach for the girth and
he tenses his muscles. He's anticipating pain,
which makes perfect sense if you're always in a
hurry when you saddle him. When you pull hard on
the girth and try to go from "no girth" to "tight
girth" in the course of one or two seconds, it's
not a nice experience for your horse. He knows
what you're about to do, but instead of stepping
away from - or biting or kicking - the person who
is about to hurt him, he's just trying to protect
his own body. That's actually very nice of him.
There's no reason to punish a horse for
anticipating discomfort - all that will do is
teach him that it's painful AND scary when you
get near the girth. Since you have to get off and
tighten the girth again anyway, why not make the
whole process easier on your horse and yourself?
When you tack up, fasten the girth slowly,
gently, and loosely, then walk the horse for a
few minutes, stop him, and tighten the girth a
little. Walk him for another minute or two, and
THEN tighten the girth to its final position and
mount up. It's possible that you might need to
get off in another fifteen minutes and tighten it
a little more, but it's also very possible that
you won't, and in any case you won't need to
tighten it much. If you can teach your horse that
you're going to be gentle with him and he doesn't
need to brace himself whenever you touch the
girth, you'll have an easier time fastening the
girth - and you'll be much less likely to find
your saddle slipping underneath him later during the ride.
Jessica
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