Early learning - Stage 2                                                           Please click the thumbnails to view a larger image.

Once our colts are weaned, and on up to about the age of a year and a half, we like to take a little time to expose them to some of the things they will encounter later on.  I like to either pony them, or “ground drive” them out on the trails up in the hills, at the walk, trot, and canter.  We’ll go through barrancas, take them through creeks and into the King’s River, and build them up to where we can take them out along busy roadways.

I have learned that there is great value in “driving” colts over, around, and through obstacles.  I might use a halter rope for this, or I might ground drive them with lines. We set up little courses in our arena and practice different exercises, and we’ll also drag noisy objects behind the colts.  These objects might be a grain sack filled with crushed aluminum cans, or a yellow plastic slicker, or a “travois”.  We use the colt’s natural curiosity and desire to see and touch new things, to help us create an atmosphere of learning without the colts even realizing they are being “taught”.  Within just a few minutes though, I get very particular and ask that the colt becomes very exact.  Pretty soon, the colts will go anywhere I send them. 

As yearlings, I like to let the colts wear a pony saddle for a few minutes a day, a few days in a row.   They have already been prepared by doing rope work - where we let them wear a rope around their belly, and then their flank, and under their tail.  I work them at all 3 gaits while they are wearing this rope, until it feels like something they were born with.  Then once they are saddled, I work them at all 3 gaits again. When I am satisfied they are absolutely comfortable, the colts go back out to pasture.

Around age 2, the colts come back in to learn some different skills.  I have discovered that there is something wonderful about a horse who is comfortable with wearing a pack saddle, and carrying packs filled with noisy objects.  As in each of the training situations mentioned here, it is all about the preparation. Without proper desensitization beforehand, what I might inadvertently accomplish is to frighten the colts - instead of build their confidence. So we work hard at preparation. Once the colts reach the stage where they are perfectly happy wearing the pack saddle at all 3 gaits, I start placing objects such as metal serving spoons inside the panniers.  We go back to working at the walk, trot, and canter again, until the colts are ready for more objects to be added. I work them up to carrying a variety of metal cookware, all placed loose in the panniers so that it makes a great deal of noise.