I have rented a kid and he is coming over saturday to hopefully back Nasi ( 4 years old tomorrow icelandic) the first time. He is my nephew, very small for a ten year old, very good balance, surfer, skateboarder etc. he has ridden jaspar before and was great. he is a good calm kid. Here is my plan for the session and you guys can offer suggestions/comments/advice if you want!
nasi has been trained up til now to whoa, go, stand still at the mounting block while I lean over him waving arms around, wiggle the saddle vigorously, slap the stirrups against his side etc. He is fine with all that. just stands there. I have ponied him on two trail rides, he did great. He seems unafraid and not spooky of anything. Only thing i want to be careful of is it is his defense when aggravated, unhappy, mad, upset, he bolts off. He does this with the other horses and with me, when he gets sick of it all he will sorta skitter off to the end of the lead rope. But he has never taken off and pulled away with me since he was a baby. He seems to enjoy being trained and does some tricks and knows the early basics of clicker training. I will instruct Kale, my nephew, to be very slow and easy in his movements and not accidently bang his heels or be jumpy on him. Should I do bareback? Kale would be best with the saddle i think. But with bareback maybe he could just slide to the ground easier. I dont have a roundpen at the moment. But my husband will be on hand and my sister too, and she can take pics so my husband can stand on the other side of him. Should I just let him mount and sit there a minute or if all goes well lead him around a bit? Should I put the sidepull on him? He has worn it before too, and responds to rein pressure with it. I know I am making a bigger deal of this than I should... anyway. any ideas? I cant believe my little teddy bear is 4! Janice -- even good horses have bad days sometimes.
