Today I want to get into your first lesson with your colt- one of the most important lessons you will give your young animal!

First, It’s critical that you contain the colt in an area that’s manageable. If you don’t have a small enough corral, you will need to construct something. This can be done easily and cheaply…

Turn the colt loose in an enclosure, about twenty-five feet square without any harness  whatever on it. A good portable enclosure is made as follows: Build eight panels of  fence, each twelve feet long and from five and a half to six feet high. Use poplar or  any light timber except for the uprights. These should be 2 x 2 pine timber, without  knots and straight grained. Five boards to each panel is sufficient.

These eight panels can be joined together with “pin hinges” so they can be put  together and taken apart easily. When ready to make the enclosure, simply fasten  these panels together, then form them into a square, two panels to each of the four  sides and this will make a pen twenty-four feet square.

Drive stakes at each of the four corners and fasten the corners to these stakes with  ropes.  The stakes will permit the fence to give if the colt runs against it; however, it will not  break, but will spring back into position again.

I used an enclosure like this for years while on the road and never had a horse tear  one down.

After he has gone around the enclosure two or three times, you should walk directly towards the corner, giving him an opportunity to turn his left side towards you. If he rushes by you, strike him around the hind legs with the whip and keep him moving  until he is again ready to stop.

You then approach him quietly. If he turns his heels  toward you, either to kick or run away, strike him sharply around the hind legs.

You will find that colts of different temperaments respond quite differently to the  action of the whip.

Some are very sluggish and slow, and it requires quite a sharp  stroke of the whip to “waken them up,” while others, just a mere crack of the whip is  all that is necessary to make them give you their undivided attention.

To finish this lesson, and discover hundreds more valuable tips and techniques to training even the most recalcitrant horse, you must grab your copy of Train Wild Horses today:

Originally posted 2008-06-05 10:09:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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