The first baby steps towards a new career

Since it was relatively warm today (above freezing, IOW) and I was off work I had grand plans to spend lots of time with ponies today... Well, that didn't happen as I got sidetracked with a mountain of laundry and a visit from the landlord to work on my bathroom. Instead I got there after dark so let them all out in the barn area to forage for grass while I cleaned Seamus' stall and set it up for the night.

After I let Seamus in to eat and rounded up the girls and threw them hay for the night, I decided since I wasn't bundled up to the hilt to go ahead and try laying across Seamus for the first time. Like the lunging, I want this to start while he's still going to be fairly quiet in order to set the foundation for retraining him later. I do have some back issues and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia last fall so I'd like things to go as smoothly as possible. There's a reason I gave up riding TBs 6+ years ago, so I hope Seamus proves to be quiet or I won't be able to do much with him involving riding later.

Tonight seemed to be a good a time as any for the first time messing with him like this- he's getting a little bit of padding over his ribs, the rainrot areas aren't sore anymore, he is getting around well outside, and he hasn't been tottery for about 10 days now. I let him eat most of his dinner while I fiddled with putting my gaming reins on his halter, both sets end to end actually so I could hang onto them while his head was down (he's much longer than my little mares!). I pulled up an upside down bucket next to him and stood on it, he couldn't have cared less. I leaned on him, ditto. I leaned more on his back and again, he kept on eating his hay unconcerned. So I finally jumped up and lay across his back and he didn't even flick an ear... so then I made the decision to go ahead and throw a leg over. Still no worries on his end so I kinda sat on him and lay on his withers in order to not put to much weight on his back for a minute, then I sat up. Seamus was perfectly quiet throughout this experiment so I sat on him for about 5 minutes then slid off. It went off without a hitch which is exactly what I wanted. Seamus got a pat and an apple for his tolerance of my antics and then was tucked in for the night.

I'm sure it won't go so well once there is a girth and a bit involved, he raced so much that those will probably be cues to act a bit hot. Ah, well, one can only hope he's smart enough to figure it out quickly because, oh man, he's a lot bigger than my little mares! :)