Kaya M worked alongside Ciara at the November Joel Conner clinic and had the following experience:
“We learned a lot about Ciara during this clinic and unfortunately discovered she wasn’t quite as comfortable being saddled as we’d thought she was. I threw my saddle on her on the first day of the clinic, not really thinking anything of it and Ciara had a really hard time feeling comfortable changing eyes on it and dealing with the pressure of the back cinch. We worked through it that first day and ended with a mostly relaxed mindset. The next two days of the clinic, I groundworked Ciara without a saddle on and focused on getting her to turn loose to things on her off eye and feel really comfortable with the flag and rope all over her. Lexee saddled her on the lunch breaks and, while she still bucked more than she had been prior to the clinic, she got better each day. We have a plan to saddle Ciara every day to make sure that she can feel comfortable being saddled so that we’ll be able to start her as a riding horse in the spring!”
