UPDATE ON FLASH

Well what to say, Flash is starting to adjust to our place and getting easier to catch. Just before Christmas a friend and her sister came up and rode Dancer and Flash for two hours and raved how good they were, and how much they enjoyed the ride. Dancer was said to have a smoother gait than Flash but both were stated to be very good horses.

While Jon was here over Christmas he made it very clear he would like to go for a ride. We chose the synthetic saddle that we got with Flash and proceeded to saddle Flash and Dancer. Janice mounted Dancer and Jon mounted Flash and all went well as they walked down the road.

This lasted about 1/2 mile when Flash decided, for some reason, to buck Jon off. According to Jon he was not ready for Flash to buck or he wouldn't have been bucked off. in other words the buck was not big or exaggerated. Jon remounted and they continued about another hundred yards, and Flash again bucked Jon off.

This time Jon said Flash went into rodeo mode full on, and bucked and kicked like, well he was in a rodeo. After ridding himself of Jon, Flash ran up to where Janice and Dancer were and Janice was able to catch Flash's lead rope. Jon like a true horsemen remounted Flash, who started getting ready to buck again when Jon calmed Flash down and Jon decided to dismount and lead Flash home on foot.

I felt really badly about Jon being bucked off but also proud of Jon for remounting those times. After Jon had gone home, I decided to start cleaning the saddles. During this procedure I removed all the straps, cinch, etc, and learned that who ever had put the front and rear cinch on this saddle cared more for looks than safety of rider or comfort of the horse had installed the cinch straps with knots inside toward the horses side, thus it couldn't help but irritate the horses sides. It also appeared that the saddle may have been pinching Flash full length on both sides of the saddle about half way between the center line and the bottom of the saddle skirt.

I suppose the moral of this post would be to be aware of anything on a saddle that may irritate your horse, otherwise it could ruin your ride,  as well as possible injury to your body.

We just bought another saddle for Flash, cheaply built, but looks nice, and I think it will be comfortable for Flash and the rider.