Colt Starting
"We have almost forgotten how strange a thing it is that so huge and powerful and intelligent an animal as a horse should allow another, and far more feeble animal, to ride upon its back." - Peter Gray
At PonyPros, we LOVE colt starting! We specialize in ponies so we know how to maximize ground work and minimize ride time on young ponies. When they're ready for more miles, we're light weight enough for most ponies 12 hands and over.
For the first month of training, we are very careful to reward mental and emotional collection and avoid becoming task oriented. Our goal is to increase the horse’s confidence in her self and confidence in her handler so that she increases her attention span, becomes less reactive, learns quicker, and becomes increasingly interested in playing with humans. We work on catching, turning on the forehand/haunches, sidepassing, circling, backing up, lateral flexion, accepting a bareback pad,
accepting a saddle, riding bareback, and riding at a walk and trot with a saddle.
The second month we continue our groundwork but begin adding more exercises that address the shoulders, hips, and topline. We do haunches in/out, shoulder in/out, and transitions. We use trot poles, jumps (if the pony is old enough), bridges, and hills to help the horse learn how to slit her attention between the rider and the environment. We gradually build up the amount of directing we do undersaddle, mostly working by setting up situations where we can blend in with what the horse offers. We are very conscientious of the horse's legs and back, so we keep the rides short by getting on and off several times in an hour long training session. We also rotate riding with and without a saddle in a single session so as to take good care of the horse's topline. Thankfully, we have a tack room full of treeless saddles, special pads, and saddles with different tree widths to accommodate growing ponies! By the end of the second month of training, we should have a horse that walks and trots nicely both bareback and with a saddle, rides like he has cruise control, is soft and light, and asks questions rather than just reacting.
Our Colt-Starting Story:
In 2005, Kali bought a 14h, 4 year old black pony who had been rescued from a feedlot. Kali named her Zen because of her calm disposition. Nine months later, Zen placed in all her classes at the High Desert Classic, an A-rated hunter/jumper show attended by over 700 competitors. At the show, Zen was purchased for a little girl's 10th birthday and the two went on to take Grand Champion in Short Stirrup Ponies at an A-rated show 2 weeks later. The took first in all their classes except for the hack, in which they took second. Pretty good for a pony from a feedlot with less than a year of training!
After Zen sold, Kali took on a new training project - a 13h, 7 year old dapple gray Welsh mare with a club foot. Heather, the mare, had always been well-loved but could be a bit of a bully. Kali worked with Heather and at 20 rides, she was already giving rides to the owner's 3 year old granddaughter. At just 40 rides, Heather took second place over-fences at a Welsh breed show! Heather turned out to be a little girl's dream pony when she'd only been destined to be a broodmare.
From that point on, it was clear Kali had a passion for starting colts. Today, almost all the horses and ponies at our barn, including all but 2 of the lesson horses and ponies, we started ourselves. We have a Quarter Horse, a Shagya Arabian, Wild Mustangs, Welsh Ponies, Minis, a Shetland cross... All are suitable for kids and most are between the ages of 3 and 7. What's more, we're sharing our passion with our students - all of our students, ages 8 and older, have started a colt. We love colt starting and believe in educating a future generation in doing things right. Even our students as young as six know how to bombproof and ground drive.
Colt Starting Overview:
Focus: A content, quiet, confident pony every step of the way, never letting it get messy. Riding with kids as soon as the first ride.- Desensitizing - tarps, balls, flags, etc
- Jeffery Method - rub all over, lay on back, slide off rump, bareback for 3-5 rides
- Sensitizing - pivot on HQ/FQ, back, lateral movement, longe/circle
- Tack - bareback pad, treeless, English, Western, (Snaffle on request only, PonyPros is a tree-cautious, bit-cautious program)
- Riding - walk with obstacles, trot small jumps, long and low trot, basic collection through laterals at walk
- We introduce canter work as the pony offers it. Normally a pony will land in a canter after a jump and from that point forward, will recognize the rider cantering in her body as a cue for the canter.
- 1st month - riding at a walk in the arena, some trail riding, light trotting towards the end of the month. 2nd month and 3rd months - trails, trot-a-course, lateral movements. 4th month - canter work, some over-fences canter work, and some trotting on trails.
Video - Colt Starting Ponies
Lilwen's Second RideBlue Longeing and Trot-a-Course
Jadyn's first trail ride, ridden by Emma, age 12
Caron's First Ride, Kids ages 8-13
Cinnamon, 12'3h, 3 year old Sec B Welsh gelding, 4 months training:
Cinnamon and Blue First Trail Rides
Cinnamon's First Trotting with a Rider
Cinnamon's First Ride
Cinnamon's First Time Wearing a Saddle
Cinnamon's Second Day of Groundwork
Thistle, 12'2, 11 year old Sec A Welsh broodmare, 4 months training:
Thistle Montage - 4 months training - Kids ages 2-15
Thistle's First Time on the Trail Obstacles
Thistle Ground Skills
Colt Starting Horses
Chavez Ground Work - 5 yo, 15h rescued Kiger Mustang
Chavez's First Ride
Shelby Ground Work - 3 yo, 16h rescued QH mare
What a good girl! Sarah ridden in 40mph winds with arena rattling
Sarah Bareback with 12 year old Conner
Sarah Ground Skills, featured on ParelliTube!
*Note- For the pony's sake, we only train horses/ponies in conjunction with lessons unless the pony is for sale. Our rates include training the pony and teaching the owner at the same time.
Colt Starting Rates
Training $150-$450/monthPlus $195-$250/mo board
Haul-in training $40/session