Weanlings and newborns – I don’t halter a colt until they are a month or more old. My first goal is make friends with them by scratching those itchy spots. They won’t usually let you catch them unless you corner them next to the mare the first few time. But as soon as they find out you’re nothing to fear they look forward to those scratching sessions at feeding time and in a week or so they start following you around.

2-6 months – Newborns need their feet trimmed about every 6 weeks after the 2nd month. It’s best to halter break them. I use a nylon halter. They will not allow you to pull them around by overpowering them. Horses learn from pressure and release. The easiest way is to pull their nose to one side while pushing their hips away with your hand or a training stick. Pressure until their feet move (hips away and nose following you). A few minutes of turning and you can gradually widen the turn until you’re leading them in a strait line. If you need to move colt before he’s halter broke, use a long halter rope (15 ft) and loop the end around their butt. Standing on the left side you can control their direction with your left hand on the lead and put pressure on their butt by pulling the loop. They don’t like to leave mom at first, but it’s good for them to learn to trust you in her absence. You can reward them with treat pellets (I call it cake).

Backing – When I halter break them I start them backing and teach them to circle on a lunge line. Both are easy exercise that take 10 minutes for them to learn. I use a stick to tap on their front legs until they take a step back (pressure). As soon as they take their first step back I reward them with a rub (release). Pretty soon they take several steps in succession when they get the idea. In the end I can just step into their bubble with no other signal and they will back.

Lateral Flexing - After colts are halter broke and can back it's a good idea to teaching them to bend their nose around to the side (Lateral flexing). This step is the foundation for reigning. They learn to give to pressure and turn their nose and neck at the ground work stage. Then when we get on them they turn on the first ride. Here's a picture of Robin teaching Molly Lateral Flexing. Takes about one session.

We do this with a halter. Notice that Robin is using a Clinton Anderson Halter with knots in the nose piece. The feature makes the halter a little more uncomfortable with pressure. Robin bends the nose around and holds until the instant the colt stops pulling against her, then she releases quickly to reward Molly's response. At first the colts will follow you around in circles. If you stay with it, they will pick up later flexing in the first session. This is also a foundation for vertical flexing (tucking the notice in from bit pressure). We do this same exercise (lateral flexing) after we start riding with a bosal or a D-ring snaffle.

The first ride at 2 to 2.5 yrs old – I tie our colts to the horse trailer, put the saddle on and cinch it up lightly. I put the back cinch on loosely. Not every horse has had the opportunity to have a kids ride them bareback as weanlings and some don’t get the benefit of having a small saddle on when they are yearlings. Regardless of the background, I ease the saddle on and lead them off with a 15 foot halter rope, nylon halter, and I hook up the stud chain to go under their chin. The stud chain gives enough leverage to control them in case they decide to try and buck the saddle off. I do all this without a round pen (because we don’t have one). Now here’s a little secret. I like to see colts try to buck the saddle off the first time. Just like learning not to pull, they learn bucking doesn’t work either. I’m a decent horse trainer, but a damn poor bronc rider. Some of the old timers let them buck when they got on and just spurred them to punish the buck out of them – those guys usually walked with a limp after they got to be 50. The ground work doesn’t take long – I dedicate one or two days to it even for horses that haven’t been touched before I start them.

Getting on the first time – I use a bosal to replace the halter when I ride for the first time. You can use a snaffle bit with no shank, but the bosal just feels more like a halter in the beginning. So now I’ve lunged and backed with; 1) no saddle, 2) with a saddle, and 3) with the bosal and saddle, and 4) with the cinch tight enough to get on. I also lunge at the trot to make sure none of the new equipment flapping around scares them. My bosal has a loop rein and a lead. I gather the reins, stick my toe in the stirrup and lean over the saddle without swinging my other leg over. This is a delicate step because it’s the first time they’ve felt all 180 pounds. I get on and off until they will stand still when I get up and relax. Then I swing my right leg over and just sit for few minutes. It’s nice to have a second person to take the lead rein and lead, back and lunge them for a few minutes. It’s also a good safety precaution – if they do take a few jumps the guy on the lead rope and pull them up and at least keep them going in a circle. Note that the lunging feels the same to them as the 4 step process we described 5 sentences ago.

Problem horses – I’ve been through this training process for 15 Papa Durr colts and it's usually a piece of cake. One two-year-old (Ace) came from Montana untouched and tried to call my bluff at the "getting on stage." He wouldn’t stand still to get on or he’d start to buck before I could get my leg over. I didn’t really want to get on him in that frame of mind anyway. My solution was to lunge him with more weight on so I tied him to the horse trailer (saddled) and put a 50 pound sack of feed on the saddle and secured it with bungee cords. I put the stud chain on before I untied him to try out his new rider. Sure enough he took off bucking and I put the breaks on with the stud chain. After about the fourth jump, Ace changed his mind and never bucked again. He couldn’t buck the 50 pound sack off and he couldn’t get away from the stud chain. He looked at me with a wry smile and said, “just checking.” Another trick is to lunge them with a slicker on the saddle to temp them to buck. Again – If they want to buck the goal is to get them to do it before you get on. We want them to learn that bucking doesn't gain them any release from pressure.

Spurs – Once I’m on and can do some turns and back and slow trot (all repeating the lessons learned in lunging). I like to go for an hour long ride with another horse and rider. If I don’t have a second horse and rider, I take the colt out saddled and pony him for a few miles. Then I take the same route the next day riding him alone. Those first few rides should be long enough and have enough elevation change to get the colt to focus on being a little tired instead of wanting to spook. If the colt is relaxed when I first get on him I’ll wear my spurs and take a 3 foot crop. The crop feels like the stick we used to touch them on the butt to get them to go during all those lunging exercises. 2 yr olds are lazy when you first ride them because they’re not in shape. As the first hour long ride progresses and the colt relaxes I start adding the spurs in tandem with the crop to get them to go. Depending on the colt, I leave the crop home somewhere between the 2 and 5th ride. Too much spur too early is a good way to get bucked off or run away with.

Bit Selection and Rides 2 through 5 – I use the same 2-4 mile route and go for a 1 to 2 hour ride and add more elevation change as they get in shape. I switch from the bosal to the snaffle bit with no shank as soon as the colt starts to keep his walk in a straight line and maintains a steady pace at the walk or trot. I usually have them in the snaffle after 2 or 3 rides. When they come to a quick stop after loping I switch them to a snaffle with a short shank (Tom Thumb snaffle). That usually happens after 5-10 rides in about 3 weeks to a month of riding every other day.

Shoeing – Our country is a little rocky and we have our horses on irrigated pasture so their feet are a little soft. I shoe the front feet for starters after the first ride or two and after 5 rides or so I have to shoe the back feet as well. I wait until I’ve ridden them down a little because those first few days get the adrenalin out and the trust up. When I put the shoes on I tie them solid to the same horse trailer and a rub them and feed them cake between each step in the process to make it a pleasant experience. Since they’ve had their feet trimmed this way since they were colts, this isn’t a totally new experience. However filing, hammering and standing on three feet for a longer time period is new so they usually pull a foot away at some point. I alternate feet before they pull away if I can (Usually I can’t). Hence, “the spanking.” I learned this from a cranky vet and an older Ferrier. The minute the horse pulls the foot away I wind up and kick them right behind the front legs in the belly. Now it’s mostly for effect because I connect with my instep and not my toe and land the blow on their rib cage. I do it way before I get mad or hurt as a means of discipline – it’s very premeditated and timed for maximum effect. The results are amazing! It’s pure horse language. I’m keeping myself one up in the pecking order and kicking is exactly the way horses communicate with one another when pecking order violations occur. One or two of those kicks and they know I’m serious about standing still. If you let them jump around it will get worse and worse until you’re physically too tired to shoe them.

Teaching them to walk, trot, and lope – I dedicate the first ride (one hour and several miles) to getting by without an incident. The colts confidence grows quickly from these longer rides. I always focus on making them walk fast and use my spurs to keep their attention. They don’t always respond at first so I trot them to help keep their interest in the ride and communicate my interest in going some place in a straight line. Loping is a little tricky because it’s another excuse to buck and feels different. I’m working on two fillies right now and one didn’t want to lope until her 4th or 5th ride. A round pen is best for loping but since I don’t have one handy I ride them out a couple miles and get them relaxed at the bottom of a long hill headed toward home. I have all the initial energy out of them and I encourage them to lope up the hill until they are too tired and want to stop. That keeps out of danger of a run-away. If they want to run up the hill fast I just let them wear themselves out until they want to go slow or stop – the decision is theirs. On about the 5th ride I have them in the habit of a slow lope and I ask for it a half dozen times during the ride; Initially all up hill. Then when they are comfortable we lope level ground. I never lope colts down hill especially toward home – it invites a run-away. My goal is to give the signal to lope with my spur and have them skip the trot and break right into a slow lope. I control the speed if I have too, but I like to lope them enough that they are used to being tired and choose the slow lope.

Spooking – All colts shy and some things. During the first 5 rides especially, I make them go toward whatever is bothering them and show them it’s OK. Rocks, cars, shiny objects, water, tunnels, bridges… are all potential boogie men for horses. No matter what age or obstacle I make them face their fear by keep their nose pointed at it and using my spur to encourage them to go to it and smell and give them time to decide it’s OK after all. I never let a colt do a 180 turn because they shy from something and I never let them win an argument with me over going toward an obstacle they fear. It can take some extra time, but the reward is they will start to trust you to take you through “any” obstacle if you show them who’s boss over the first 10 things they naturally shy away from. 

One of my favorite obstacles is a motorcycle track next to my normal exercise route. Most colts resist dirt bikes if they haven’t seen them before. I get the bike rider to let me walk up to them and smell the bike. If they are willing I ask if I can ride beside them after they start it up. In 5 minutes – no more fear of motorcycles.

Reining – Teaching colts to neck rein starts in the first 10 rides. I like to get them out in the sage brush and teach them to let me pick the trail around each bush. That way they see that I’m picking a trail that works for them and they get the idea I can lead. It’s also repetitive pressure and release. We don’t have cattle, but moving cows makes a huge difference in colts after about 10 rides. You’re past the stage of worrying about bucking and spooking and free to concentrate on reining at various gates. Quarter horses in particular naturally enjoy turning cattle. It gives the reining meaning and they start to turn cattle on their own. Nothing changes a colt faster than a day behind a bunch of cows - after they get in some kind of shape and have 10 rides in.

Arena work – Any horse needs the basics of learning to lope figure 8’s, side passing, sliding stops, and roll backs. Those are all maneuvers you’ll really use no matter what direction you take your horse. We'll save that lesson for starting colts 201.