horse breaking

Belle is now proudly trotting with a saddle on. Okay, proudly may be the wrong word. More like, confusedly. (not a word, but works here). Everytime I work her I've been putting on the saddle, so she gets the idea that it's part of work. Then I walk her around with it, and let her know that she still has to obey me. Then we work on the longe. She was pretty good-- a little confused as to how to trot--she kept turning around and looking at her back, and was a little grumpy and irritated by it, but then she settled in and worked a couple of circles well.
The riding approaches...

So Belle wore a Western saddle today. Mike came back out to do part two of needle desensitization. We worked for a long time on ground work, playing with her in the front of the pasture where she would be quite distracted--she was pretty good, even though my neighbor was stnading ON TOP of his truck, through stuff off the back, and the sprinkler next door came on, and so forth. It was a pretty good session. Mike has a saddle pad that has silicone beads in it, and she thought that was pretty darn scary, but then she settled in, and by the end she was all cinched up in his big western saddle.