I have back-dated this post to be more accurate for the time-frame that it actually happened. This is from April 2019 when Beth Olson was working at EC. She put the first 20 rides on Sedona and did a great job, so I wanted to share with you a few of her rides on Sedona so you all can see what Sedona’s starting process looked like! This is in no way intended to be instructional on how to start a colt. Please work with a competent professional when starting your youngsters.
It seems like everyone has a little different take on starting colts.
When I start colts I prefer to do it with two people in a round pen. I will ride the horse while I have someone roundpen the horse from the ground. This method works well for me because roundpenning is a critical component of the groundwork education I put into my horses in preparing for that first ride. I also usually have access to a second person that can assist me when starting colts.
Beth worked alone for a number of years before working at EC. Her method reflects not having someone to help her with the starting process. Both methods work well, I do feel that hers works slightly faster however because the horses get used to riding in a large area from day 1, instead of needing to transition to an arena several rides in.
The starting process is built around what you have available to you and what you are comfortable with.
When I was first getting started I leased a small stall barn from a lady who would let me ride in her 80 acre hay field. There was no arena, no paddock or any small area that I could ride in. My turnout was all electric fence, so that was not an option. I scraped some money together to buy a roundpen. I set that up in the hayfield and my husband and I would start colts in there. On day three or four we would just open the gate and hope the horses didn’t run off too bad. I had some techniques for making all of this work out in my favor, but I’ll tell you those horses rode out in the open better than anything that I train today. They were just used to it, that was all they knew. In the same respect, Beth’s colt starting method in the arena gets them used to being ridden in a large area right off the bat.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this Sedona update! As always feel free to comment below.
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