It's a good day when.......

my horses and I have good training time together. Yep, had one of those today and we all feel good.


I'm not one of those tough types when it comes to training. I don't coddle my horses either. I am patient and calm. They make mistakes, I make mistakes. We just take things as we can get them.


I've been working with Bo, my 10 yo Spotted Saddle Horse to ride with a bitless bridle. Personally, I don't like bits. I realize there may be horses and situations out there where a bit may be better, but I'm of a mind, your horses are only as good as you take the time to train them to be.


Bo is doing much better than when I was first working with him with his new bitless bridle. He was trained to a bit. As I was told upon purchase three years ago, a Tom Thumb. I changed that when I got him. Put him in a snaffle. He does well with it. But now I'm on a mission to train both of my guys to going "bitless".


It is possible. I've seen show jumpers go in sidepulls and stories of dressage horses working without bits. I believe it comes down to trust between you and your horses. Maybe I'm too innocent thinking on this but my gut tells me to go for it.


I think my horses and I will be much happier in the long run.


I'm not training my guys to be show horses, or jumpers or dressage. They are trail, nothing more, nothing less. A good trail horse needs good intuition in the first place and riding bitless puts the horse's trust in the rider, and the rider's trust in the horse.


Spirit, my 6 yo Spotted Saddle is the complete opposite of Bo. We're working on saddling right now. Yeah, I know, I've had Spirit for 3 years and we haven't even gone riding but this summer we will. He's a little more sensitive than Bo, but amazingly smart. He picks up on the lessons quicker than I expected. Soon, I'll get Hubby out there to be my assistant while I finally mount and do some walking on Spirit.


So, me and my guys had a good hour this morning. Life is good today!