After I played with him on the ground until he was calm and connected, I asked Mathilde to start with the mounting routine. For horses like Aslan it is very important to have lots of consistency, keep a certain routine when doing things so that the horse can anticipate what is coming next.
Is he ok with movement on his back today? He has one ear on Mathilde and is not moving - good.
Next I asked Mathilde to carefully crawl on his back but not sit up yet.
And then get off on the other side! Why? To keep him out of his usual way of shutting down when he is unsure - doing something just a little bit different can help him to think differently about what we are doing. Like this he stays more mentally engaged and present in the process. In the end it should just simply be a friendly game with a human body.
We repeated this sequence about 3 times on each side, then we decided it was time for the next step - sitting upright. Note his sceptical look on his face. You can see I attached the reins, not that Mathilde would be able to control him, but to help him connect to her.
We are making sure he realizes that it is just Mathilde up there. If you have a relationship of trust with your horse on the ground and he realizes it is just you on his back, chances are way higher that things turn out well.
It is important the horse checks both sides. Mathilde is riding with the bareback pad because it is a lot easier to get off in case things get wrong.
Good boy, Aslan! It is so important to allow horses to think and process! He had a big lick and chew after this.
When we went to mount again, Aslan went into his old pattern of not standing still. Instead of just helping Mathilde on, I just kept her jumping on one leg pretending to get on, until he decided that also this was ok. Whenever a horse starts moving while mounting it shows that the horse is either not confident or mentally not connected - both can potentially lead to uncomfortable situations later on.
Aslan finally decided to stand still and gave green light for Mathilde to get on. The look on his face was a bit like: Oh, it’s just you!
After all this green lights finally it was time for the next step: Learning to follow our energy for walking but most importantly - to then also find a stop. At first I just walked with him, Mathilde just being a passenger and gently stroking his neck.
Then we introduced lateral flexion from walking. He already knows it well while standing still, but to ask it while moving in order for him to stop, can cause horses like him to get really claustrophobic. So going slow and soft is absolutely essential to make sure that the horse can stay in the thinking mode. When teaching this, it is important that prior to using the reins, to breath out, relax and stop riding. The result is that later in the horse will stop just when we relax and quit riding.
We did the same thing several time on both sides. Watch closely on this picture: Can you see that his nose is pointing to the left just a little bit and the neck behind his ears is bulging out just a tiny bit? He fighting with his instincts - should he brace and fight or be soft and trusting? It is a very fine line between softness and brace. I asked Mathilde to not ask any more or firmer, but just hold the rein and keep the feel very softly and wait. She called Aslan while scratching him with the other hand on the withers….
And he made his decision. Connection and softness is more important with him than obedience and responsiveness. It is important to adapt to every horse - with him it is sometimes better to just set things up and wait for him to think his way through it.
We ended when he was able to walk and stop with confidence and give us lateral flexion without fear and softness. Well done, Aslan!
