Horse Training
Today my husband and I started a horse training contract different than any before, a partnership. He has trained horses for forty years in many different disciplines and has always specialized in starting young horses. These horses have been trained for many different people as well. They have been rich, budget-minded, young and old. He has trained many of own horses as well. These were horses he or our kids went on to show in the cutting pen or working cow-horse. If they were around long enough, without being sold, I would also get the opportunity to show them as well. Many horses were purchased by customers before they even made it to the show pen. This time is different.
He purchased this horse as a yearling after riding one of his brothers for a customer.
He was so impressed with the “trainability” of that horse, that he went and bought his brother. He may have planned to resell him at the time he purchased this gelding. I began to hint around that since we’ve been married, I never really had a horse I would call my own. When this colt’s personality became obvious, Coleman decided he could be a horse that fit. So, this time he is training a horse specifically for me. I’m going to be a part of the process and it’s exciting and a little scary.
I had horses I rode to show, but they were a part of the ranch remuda, and were often used for other people to show or practice. Most had been ridden for two years before I had ever ridden them. The horses that were really good were sometimes kept as brood mares and were out of commission for months. We also have horses that as they aged became designated grandkids horses. Having safe horses for these precious kids learning to ride is a blessing that took years in the making. I really appreciate these mounts and treat them with the very best attention.
The colt he purchased as a yearling was ready to start a couple of weeks ago. Coleman has been riding him outside of the arena only 9 times. He is going to be tall, which is his only drawback, since I am very short and not young enough to just jump into the stirrup. Normally a colt this early in the horse training process would not be ready for me to ride. This gelding, however, has a very easy-going demeanor. Today was my first ride on “Smokey”.
On our ranch, you can travel a mile loop up and down the hills around a pond and back to the barn. It’s enough to get a horse into a sweat. Going with Coleman, on this maiden ride, made me more confident that this would work out between Smokey and myself. I followed behind Coleman riding our new stallion. To his credit, he just let me ride giving very little instruction. We made it back to the barn. I will admit I was a little tense thinking about doing this on such a rookie colt. But we did well together. Smokey wasn’t done yet, however. Coleman climbed aboard and to the arena they went for phase 2 of the process, loping circles.
Tomorrow we will repeat the process. Coleman said it was great that I was riding this horse already. This means he’ll have one less to warm-up every day.
Great videos on horse training: