Saddling Blowups
Richard Boatwright Mr. Boatwright (and the rest of the B1 Community) - I'm puzzled by some recent behavior by the 7 year old gray horse I've got. Recently he has started blowing up with the saddle on once saddled.
What it looks like:
I've included a video, but he generally starts blowing/snorting once I saddle him. Once saddled, he'll pop once I start moving him around a little bit. This started a few weeks ago. He was tied and popped a cork - I was unable to see anything that scared him or pushed him back. Since then he's been 100% consistent in some kind of blowup when saddling. Once he wraps up he rides around just fine. This is entirely new - he's never bucked doing warmups since his first few rides.
Video: https://youtu.be/fUi__L1UbGc
What I've tried/am trying:
Different saddles, cinches, stirrups, back cinches, tightening back cinch, moving back cinch.
Warming him up before saddling.
Currently I'm on day 5 of putting him in the round pen and attempting to get him to think about it. In these sessions I attempt to associate the saddle with rest and work him without it, then put the saddle on him and let him rest, etc.
What I'm thinking of trying:
Getting him checked for 'beans'
Saddling him from the off-side to see if it's an issue with seeing movement there.
Continuing the work with the saddle is rest approach (he has seemed to lose some of the intensity in these).
Any ideas you or the group at large might have.
