Pennie: Ride 3, and a change in plans

Friday evening, T and I went out to the farm, dragging H along (she took a nap in the car while we rode). The horses were up and happy to see us, and it was short work to brush off the dust and tack up. Looking over while T saddled Sunny, I was surprised to see Sunny's back feet tucked up underneath him, leaving his back slightly hunched, and his expression - well, resentful.... Odd.

We double-checked saddlepad and Sunny's back for pointy things and any soreness, but finding nothing went ahead. He seemed quiet and easy enough walking down to the pasture, but when T started to mount, Sunny wrung his tail and scooted away. Even held, he was NOT happy, and he's been really good about standing planted for mounting lately. This was the worst evasion I've seen him try. T thought his weight might be pulling the saddle cock-eyed as he swung up. Sunny's pretty witherless, and it's hard to keep saddles from shifting on him, no matter how snugly cinched. Still....

I wanted to check the saddle one more time, so he took Pennie, "Why don't I just ride her?" Pennie was dozing, back foot tipped up. "Okay - let's try that." So I held the off stirrup while he mounted, (Pennie stood politely) and they walked off as if they'd done it a thousand times.Sunny just plain didn't want me on that saddle, either, even readjusted. He'd stand on loose rein until I put weight in the stirrup, then scoot away.

But with T on Pennie, that was an easily solved problem. Lose the saddle - which I promptly did. Bareback (I still couldn't find anything on the pad or his back that should have caused a problem, but he was definitely reacting to something) he was fine for mounting, and mosied along around the pasture like always.

The only thing we can come up with is that either something was pinching or poking somewhere, or the saddle fit is uncomfortable enough with someone's weight on it to make him protest. I've avoided using that saddle with him more due to the length of the skirts (he's so short-backed) than anything else. Don't know if that's what was bothering him, but whatever it was went away when I took the saddle off, so....

In any case, we probably rode 45 minutes to an hour all told. A lot of looping in and out of the ground poles and winding around the pasture - then we tried riding tandem figure eights & took turns playing follow the leader & mirror image for a while. I took some very wobbly video from Sunny's back, and a few blurry pictures (not enough light).

Before we quit, I popped up on Pennie and asked her for a bit of a trot. Not sure if it was the failing light, stiffness, or something else entirely, but it proved difficult to get her out of a walk, although she does have a lot of different speeds at the walk! We'll keep working.