Now that River is desensitized to tack, I am teaching her how to be ridden. What i did first was start petting her neck while leaning over on her side to give her some of my weight. First i did it on the right side, and also the left. After repeating that about 20 times each side, I stood beside River with my arms on her back and started jumping as if i was going to get on, gradually increasing the amount of weight I put on her back. River side-eyed me when i started jumping, and shifted over a little bit, but other than that, was fairly calm. I repeated the process on both sides before laying over her back, where she felt all of my weight, but I could get off fairly quickly if anything happened. She just stood there, and sometimes turned her head to look at me better, and to see what’s up. After laying over her back for a while, to make sure she was comfortable with it, I put the stirrups on the saddle and put one foot in the left stirrup, before leaning and standing in it. River was a little unsettled by this, so I got off, and petted her, and did some more of just leaning on her. After about 5 minutes of this I stepped back in the stirrup and stood up again, before moving to sit in the saddle. After a few seconds I got off of her and let her relax a bit. And after repeating this over and over, i was able to sit on her back, no problem! So after that I put a little pressure on her sides to see if she would respond, and she sorta jumped as it was a little unexpected, but started walking around the pen. I rewarded her with a pet and got off. She did great today!
@Dontay13 for tack @Ghostsonqs for River @-TheConjuring for the rider @mythtopianpegasus for the background
