Colt Starting Questions Answered with Clinton Anderson

Featured in the Winter Edition of the Horse Downunder Magazine
Starting a colt is one of the most rewarding things you can experience as a horseman. But in order to lay a solid foundation for your horse, you have to be confident in your ability and knowledgeable enough to handle any situation that occurs.  Remember, the most important thing when training horses is your safety and then the horse’s safety. Below, I answer some of the most common questions I’ve been asked over the years about starting colts.

Q: What is the right age to start a young horse? I’ve heard various recommendations from horse people and trainers throughout the years with answers ranging from the start of the horse’s 2-year-old year to waiting until he’s 5-or 6-years-old.
This is always a controversial subject, and whenever it comes up, there are usually two lines of thought. The first is that it is unnatural to ride a horse before he’s fullgrown, and you should wait to start him until his body is done developing. The second line of thought is that the earlier you start a horse, the better he’ll progress. While everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, I personally don’t ride my horses until they’re at least 24 months of age. However, deciding when to start a horse really depends on his size and maturity rather than his age. All horses mature differently both mentally and physically. But as long as I feel that the horse is mentally capable of handling the information I’m teaching him and physically capable of carrying a rider at the walk, trot and canter, then I feel he’s ready to start. Think of your horse’s training just like your child’s education. Why not keep your kid home from school until he’s 18? Why expect him to do chores and not let him lay around the house all day playing video games until his mind and body are full grown? The obvious answer is that the younger children are, the better they learn. Your 18-year-old child is more than capable of learning and cleaning up after himself. The same holds true for your horse. While you have to wait until your colt is at least 2 to start him, there is plenty of preparation you can do to prepare him for his first ride long before you get on his back. I’m a huge believer in imprinting foals and starting their education the moment they enter the world. That way, by the time you’re ready to ride them, it’s not a big deal – it’s just a natural progression.
Q: I was taught to only walk and do light trotting the first couple of times I got on a colt. While watching you start a colt on TV, I heard you say that you prefer to walk, trot and canter a colt in his first ride – why?
I want my colts to walk, trot and canter on day one because it teaches them to move forward and frees their feet up. When you get a horse’s feet moving out in the very beginning, he is a lot safer, his attitude is better and he’ll progress quicker. The more you babysit him and do a little bit of walking, a little bit of trotting – what I call the cutesy, cutesy stuff – the worse his attitude will get. The worst thing you can do with a 2-year-old is treat him like a 2-year-old – meaning that you really don’t do much with him. One of the most difficult things to do when starting colts is getting them to move forward. If you just walk and trot, what usually happens is you’ll ask the colt to canter on day four, and he’ll kick up with his back legs. The whole thing becomes a fight. You want to teach your horse from day one to be respectful so that when you say, “Go.” He says, “Yes, Sir!”
Q: How often and long do you ride your colts during their first few months under saddle?
I ride all of my horses six days a week no matter if they’re colts or advanced horses. Horses are creatures of habit and learn best with consistent repetition. The more consistent you are in your horse’s training, the faster the’ll learn. However, just because I saddle and ride my colts six days a week doesn’t mean that they get worked as hard as my finished reining and cow horses. I spend anywhere from half an hour to an hour riding the colts and gradually add more time to their rides as their fitness and ability improves. The most important thing to remember when working with colts, or any horse for that matter, is to quit them before they quit you and not to work them so hard that you completely run them out of air. When a horse runs out of air, you have to let him stop and regain it. Think of your horse as having a gas tank. At the beginning of every lesson it is set on full, and there’s only a certain amount of fuel in the tank. When he runs out of fuel for the day, you have to let him rest and rebuild it. So it’s not so much about how long you ride the horse as it is about not completely exhausting him.
Q: How do I know if I’m ready to start a colt?
When it comes to starting colts, you need to be as realistic of your ability as you possibly can be. One of the first requirements is having an independent seat, which means that you can walk, trot and canter on a loose rein and you don’t need to squeeze with your legs or pull on the reins to stay in the saddle. It’s important to have an independent seat because colts are going to do silly things from time to time. They’re like kids – you love them to death, but they’re going to do things that drive you insane and embarrass you at times. Colts will jump left and right and do things you aren’t expecting. And when they do it, they’re not going to send you a big telegram five minutes ahead of time saying, ‘Hey Fred, I’m going to jump left in twenty seconds. ‘A good horseman can always feel something coming, but there might only be half a second before it happens. An inexperienced person or someone who hasn’t started many colts isn’t going to be in tune with a colt to that degree and can quickly find themselves in dangerous situations. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to stay with the horse, then you’re not ready to start a colt. Instead, you need to spend more time gaining experience on a trained horse.

The Winter Edition of The Horse Downunder Magazine is out on the news stands now or can be purchased online as an e-mag. Go to www.horsedownunder.com.au