Natural Attraction (32 page)

Giving him another half strength death stare I ask, “So what
do
I do with this rope then?”

“Just drop it on the ground right there in front of him,” he replies simply. He also replies as if it's the most natural thing to do.  Mortified that that is even more dangerous than not tying Maverick up, I hesitate.

“What if he stands on it?”

Jax grins at me before replying. 

“If he does it close enough to his head he’ll probably yank his head backwards and then not stand on it anymore.   If he does it further down, nothing.  Leave it up to him to make the choice.  Believe me, he’ll work it out and he won’t bother standing on it anymore.”

I roll my cheek and shrug at him before dropping the rope on the ground. 
“If you say so.”

I see Jax smiling at me again as I begin saddling Maverick. 

Grabbing the saddle blanket first, I plunk it down on his back and then realize the mistake I have made.  His head is high in the air and once again, he’s not blinking.

“I stuffed that up didn’t I?” I look to Jax for moral support.

“Pretty much,” he nods his agreeance.  “What do you think you did?”

“Direct line, just whacked it on,” I respond guessing my mistake instantly.

“Yep, your catching on little girl.”

He grins at me as he steps in to take the saddle blanket off Maverick
’s back and hands it back to me again.

“Think like we did with the rope, try rubb
ing him with it and sliding it on and off a few times.  You won’t need to do this forever, but by the way his head just shot up, I’m guessing no one has bothered to let him enjoy being saddled.  I’m also guessing he’s never been given much choice about it either. 

Also, it never does any harm to hold it out for him to sniff and touch it first before you start touch
ing him with it.  Wait for his head to come back down and for him to start chewing again before you start touching him with it and make sure you give him plenty of time to chew between on and offs.”

“Okay. 
Got it.”  I accept his advice.  I then decide to give him a scratch while I’m waiting for him to chew and relax.

“Perfect.” I hear Jax mumble as he starts fiddling with his phone again. 

What is it with him and that phone? 

I finally see Maverick
’s head lower and he starts blinking slowly again while licking his lips.  As far as I can see we are good to go so I hold the saddle blanket out for him to sniff. 

He hesitates briefly before jamming his nose into it and almost shoving it out of my hands. I figure he’s giving me the go-ahead to progress, so I do.

It takes a few more rounds of me rubbing him and slowly dragging the blanket off before he stops jamming his head in the air and he’s chewing within seconds of me taking it on or off. 

I figure he is over whatever it was that was bothering him and I look to Jax for confirmation.  “Do you think he’s okay with it now?”

“Yep, you’ve done a good job.  Now do the same thing with the saddle.”

It doesn’t take anywhere as long for Maverick to relax with me putting the saddle on and off and I quickly have it settled on his back ready to do up the girth.  I decide that it has been the longest saddling session I have ever experienced in my life.  Usually it's a three-minute job.  I’ve just spent over half an hour and I still haven’t done up the girth.

Leaning under Mavericks belly to grab the girth and preparing to slide the leather straps through the buckles to do it up, Jax breaks what has been a long silence.

“Gunna give you a tip before you keep going ‘
cause I’m sure you won’t know this one.  Only do the girth up to the point where it
just
contacts his belly, lightly, but firmly.  A girth should always been done up in three phases.  I know most people are taught to just yank it up as tight as you get it, but that is not a nice way to go about it.  Doing it in three steps gives a horse a chance to adjust to the feel.  It also saves you the need to do that ridiculous stretching thing that you see folks doing where they pull a front leg forward.”

This was a new idea to me and one that I had not been taught at pony club with Twinkle.  It made sense though, so I went with it. 

After fitting the girth up loosely by my standards I looked to Jax asking, “Groundwork time?”

“Yep.
  Do a few things, tighten the girth, do some more and then tighten it one last time.”

Well at least I got something right for the day.  I knew when it was time to do more groundwork.

Going about my business, Maverick seems fully on board with saddling as he continues to respond to my ground commands, quickly and calmly.  It doesn’t take long and I have finished my third adjustment to the girth and I look to Jax for my next set of instructions.

“Bridle next I assume?” I ask.

“Nope.  No bridles until you can convince me you know how to use one.”

What the fuck?

“What do you mean convince you?  How the hell am I going to ride him with no bridle?” I throw him yet another of my death glares and start to wonder if he’s gone mad. 

Keep me safe, my ass.  He clearly wants me dead.

I hear him chuckling
again.
 

Not funny Mister.

“You don’t need a bridle to ride a horse.  You should know that, you’ve seen me on Trouble.  And before you launch at me,” he adds quickly, “I don’t expect you to go completely bridleless.  You can most definitely still use the rope halter.  Swap the longline for the short lead and I’ll show you what you need to do.  Bits are a savage tool in heavy hands and until you can convince me you are soft with your hands, no bits, not bridles.”

“You’re the boss.” I concede defeat and head to the side of the round yard to swap the ropes over.

“And don’t you forget it.” I hear him ru-mble teasingly as I’m walking away.

Following me over to where I have now swapped the ropes over, Jax puts his hand out gesturing for me to give him the rope.  “Got a few things to show you before you get on.”

Handing him the rope I watch him step over next to the stirrups while he starts to explain what he is doing.

“First thing we need to do is make sure that he is flex
ing his head.  One of the first cardinal rules of riding is that once we get on, we need to be sure we can stop our horse.  Stopping a horse is a bit more than just yanking on two reins.  Sometimes, if you’re horse has a mind to, no matter how much you yank on both reins he’s just gunna ignore you and not stop. 

One thing a horse can’t ignore is a flex.  If you bend his head to the side, flex
ing him, he has no other real choice but to slow down and stop.  The worst he’s gunna be able to do if he does get a mind to ignoring you is circle, but most usually he’ll just stop.”

“Okay
,” I let him know I am listening before he continues.

“First we practice on the ground.  Tip his nose towards you like this.  As soon as he gives
, you give.”

I watch him do this a few times on each side and notice that he does it for longer each time.  He does it until Maverick is quickly turning his head as far as he can to the left and right.

“Your turn.  Don’t forget to give quickly,” he says handing me the rope.

It doesn’t take me long to work out the pressure needed.  Soon Maverick is flexing for me nearly as good as he was doing it for Jax. 

Feeling confident that it is all going well, I look to Jax for further direction.  Nodding his agreement, he leans in and takes the rope from me and throws it over Mavericks neck.  He then brings the end of the rope back to the bottom of the halter and ties it off it at his chin.  The lead rope now forms a set of reins.

“Time to mount up little girl.”

Finally!

With a burst of excitement I feel my heart rate start to increase as I rejoice that it’s time to ride.  We’ve been out over an hour already so I’m feeling very relaxed about the whole idea and ready to move onto the next phase.

“Yay!” I give an excited little applause, clapping my hands together quickly.

“Don’t get too excited, I’ve got two more things I want to see you do before you get up there.  The first is put your helmet on.  It’s on the ground outside the gate where I left it earlier.  The second is
learn to make sure he is solid and standing calmly before you throw your leg over him.  Go grab your hat.”

I sprint to grab my hat I am so excited.  I can’t remember the last time I felt this excited about climbing on a horse and have to resist the urge to squeal. 

Putting my hat on, I realize the ponytail is a hindrance so I drag my hair tie down to form a low ponytail. Buckling the hat in place, I race back to Jax and Maverick where Jax then gives me a demonstration on
bouncing
. 

Bouncing involves jumping up and down next to Maverick.  This jumping is carefully timed to make sure that as soon as he stands still and relaxes, I stop bouncing.  This lesson goes on for a while as we discover that no one has ever
bounced
next to Maverick.

At first it had scared the living crap out of him. 
Literally.  It seemed that every time I bounced, he panicked and then starting pooping all over the place while he shuffled and jumped about.

Almost exhausted after about
twenty minutes of bouncing we finally get Maverick to the point where I could have been bouncing on a trampoline and he wouldn’t have cared. 

Looking to Jax, my excitement now waning considerably, I ask him in a droll tone, “Are we there yet?”

“Nearly babe.  Hang in there.  Not long now.”

He smiles softly at me. I can see he is seeing my exhaustion and my exasperation. 

“Next you need to do more bouncing with your leg in the stirrup.  Then you need to pretend you are going to mount up by lifting in the air but not swinging your leg over him. Wait for him to chew then gently lower down again.  This is a good way to test that he’s ready to mount.  It has the bonus that if something is going to go wrong, you can just push yourself backwards away from the horse.  Pushing yourself away usually means no one is hurt.

Do that a few times and if he is stand
ing quietly, then go for gold and swing your leg over to sit in the saddle.  Again, wait for him to relax and chew and then get off.  I’ll wanna see you do that three times before we go on to the next step.” 

Sighing heavily, I nod and carefully place my foot in the stirrup and start bouncing.  Maverick appears unaffected by this, so I decide to stand in the stirrup.  This bothers him slightly and I hear Jax softly say, “Wait for him to stop shuffl
ing his feet, then drop back down again.”

It only takes a few more seconds before Maverick relaxes.  He then starts chewing and l lower
myself back to the ground.

“Good, go again,” I hear Jax urging me.

Repeating the process, Maverick makes the slightest of movements but decides to keep his feet still this time.  I lower myself to the ground again.

“Again,” Jax urges me quietly.

I go again and this time Maverick is solid.  He chews quickly and as I lower myself to the ground, I feel his head come round.  He gives me a nudge with his nose.  I almost sense him telling me to get on.

Grinning happily I decide it's time.  Putting my foot in the stirrup once more, I bounce, lift, hold, and then gently swing my other leg across to lower myself into the saddle gently.  I hear Maverick sigh and he chews happily.  No head lift, no shuffling, just relaxation.

Holy shit!

It feels incredible to be sitting on a calm horse. I am so relaxed and happy I feel like squealing again.  The only reason I don’t is because it will probably scare the daylights out of Maverick. 

I decide to hold my joy.

“Good job Ash.  Now blow out and roll your butt right back into the saddle.  Relax as much as you can.  Count to ten then
get off again.”

I do as Jax directs and soon find myself standing on the ground beside Maverick again.

“Again,” Jax urges.

I once again bounce, lift, swing and take a seat.  Maverick is chewing before I even set my butt in the saddle this time.  I relax, wait and get off. 

I look to Jax for confirmation that I should go again, he nods and smiles.  I am now starting to enjoy myself as I follow the process to find myself sitting on Mavericks back a happy girl.  A huge smile beams across my face.

I see Jax looking at me and he starts beaming to.

“What next!” I chirp, excited but waiting for instruction this time.  I am aware that Jax knows
exactly
what he is doing and unless he tells me to do something, I am not moving a muscle.

“Flexing again.
  Both sides.  I wanna see his nose touch your boot and stay there for the count of ten each side.”

“Okay.” I reply and set about flexing Mavericks head left and right.  He’s a little stiffer than before but doesn’t take long to soften up.  I soon have him nibbling and licking at each boot as he waits for me to count to ten in my head.