I’m a newbie, and got my first horse last fall. I’ve been doing tons of groundwork with her and basic riding. She is doing awesome except for one thing… she is saddle shy… has been ever since I got her. She comes into the barn, happy to be groomed, perfect ground manners… but when she sees the saddle come out, she stares at, starts tossing her head and tries to get away from it… but then as soon as the pad is on her back she settles down and gets on with the job of getting tacked up. She isn’t sore, the saddle fits perfectly (had it fitted). I do up the cinch in 4 stages so I’m not making her uncomfortable with placing it on her and she rides just fine without any attitude. She also will put the bridle on all by herself lol. I just can’t figure out what to do about getting her to be happy about seeing the saddle… Any thoughts to help with this???
My gelding did this when he was sore.
I know you said that she isn’t sore and the saddle fits, but is it possible she may need a chiropractic adjustment?
Also, once my gelding gets in better shape, he seems to be less sore overall.
And, even if she isn’t sore now, she ‘might’ have been sored or scared by a saddle in the past. Hard to say for sure without seeing the reaction, but I’d consider just spending a session or two ‘just’ grooming, and calmly saddling and unsaddling. When she settles in and accepts the saddle without reaction, end of session, maybe time for something fun like grazing or more grooming. My mare, owned for 6 years now, has never objected to the saddle but does still bloat defensively- I observed the sellers were the type to ‘cut a horse in two’ girthing up, so even now, like you, I tighten gradually.
Assuming that there are no pain issues, try treats.
Associate the appearance of the saddle with something pleasant. Walk out with the saddle on one arm and a treat (I use Alfalfa min-cubes) in the other hand, walk over and hand her the treat. When you pick up the pad to put it on, walk over and hand her a treat before you put the pad on.
I really like using alfalfa cubes as rewards/treats. The horses and mules like them, but they don’t seem to get pushy or grabby like they often do with real horse treats.
You didn’t say if you have had her checked by a chiropractor. If that has not been done, I would do that.
As someone already said, it could be a learned response. She may have been in pain at one time and now still thinks that the saddle is going to hurt. You just need to work on retraining her. Pretend she’s a green colt who’s never had a saddle on her back. Approach and retreat and approach and retreat. You might have to go a few days without riding her so you can simply work on this problem. Get her to accept the saddle pad first. When she’s fine with the pad, then add the saddle.
Also, is it possible the type of saddle pad you are using could be bothering her? I’m known horses that wouldn’t tolerate neoprene pads (as one example) but were fine with a good-quality wool saddle pad. Just a thought.
I had a mare years ago that I got from a horse trader (my very first horse) and when she would see a saddle coming toward her, her eyes would roll back and her head would shoot up…
Clearly she’d had some bad experiences before coming to me.
I just talked calmly to her every time I brought out the saddle. It took a while, but eventually it stopped being a trigger for the nervous behavior.
I have an older mare that pretends to be saddle shy. She is extremely well broke, but she’s a crafty old broodmare. She’s learned that pretending to spook at the saddle will cause people to just give up. As soon as I bring the saddle and pad out, I can see her eyes get larger and her ears tip to the side. Then she starts shuffling her feet and looking to either side. And then she throws herself into reverse and acts like the saddle pad is about to eat her.
She’s not in pain, the saddle fits… she’s just trying to get out of working. All I do is quickly sack her out with the saddle pad and tell her not to be silly. I hit the saddle pad gently against her shoulder twice on each side and then we have no other issues. She’s very odd.
