Working Two Year Olds

"You must start at the beginning not the end."

We had a busy, but cold week at the farm. The cold was motivation to keep working or else freeze our fingers and toes off. This time of year we start all of our two year olds. By now they have learned to tie, lead, stand hobbled, and have been saddled at least three to four times, and have someone sit on there backs. We do all of that in the fall when the colts are late yearlings. Once they turn two, by the change of the new year, it is time to start tacking in the cross ties and learn the basic fundamentals; turn left and right, stop, back up, and maybe trot or canter depending on the colt's learning ability. It is amazing to work with so many different young horses in the same day and see how each one learns a little different from the other. Over the years we have adapted our techniques that we prefer to use to start the colts. My Dad uses the saying at the top of the page all the time. "You must start at the beginning not the end." That is so important to remember when working with horses of all ages. The rest of the horses life depends on the very first time you lay your hands on it. We want to make sure that the first time the horse does anything new it is a comfortable, secure situation.

Adam, Clarence, and Jordan walk towards top pasture to gather the two year olds and herd them to the barn. This is a normal routine for them now since they have already been rode a couple of times.

The trip down the hill was very slippery. There was a thin layer of ice. Thankfully they didn't feel like trotting to the barn today.

As long as there is an older horse to follow these young horses would go anywhere we wanted them to. As you will see in many of the pictures we use our broke horses all the time when we are working with the young stock. Horses will act like the other horses they are around, and they seem to catch on much quicker when they have a mature and confident horse to depend on.

Jordan on Beachy. He uses Beachy a lot when working with green horses.

The trip back to the barn. By now we are ready to get into the wind free sanctuary of the barn.

Just like in life this drive way has two options on which road to take. Right, is towards the busy state route road, and left is towards the warm barn. We always put a man guarding the hole towards the road. None of the horses have ever chosen the road to the right, thankfully.

These are all of our yearlings. They get to look forward to this next year. They have only been haltered and tied once, so they have a lot of work to be done to them by next year. There are twenty yearlings in this pasture.

We pony all of our colts before we get on them. That way they get used to seeing someone above them. This has made our life so much easier. The colts learn things so much faster this way. Jordan is shown here rewarding this colt for good behavior. When we pony we can teach the colts to back, lead, and move off of leg pressure by pushing our toe into their side. When we end up getting on the colt the only thing new he has to get used to is handling the extra weight on his back.

Here Jordan is shown saddling Smokey ponied to a broke horse. This is how we saddle a horse for the first time.

Getting on and off is something that is so simple, but very important. We want to make sure that good habits are started the first time. We get on and off several times to make sure that the horse will stand to be mounted. We will also get on and off of the right side for the first few rides.

Sometimes the colts need a little coaxing till they get the hang of things by following another horse.

Smokey is off to a great start. He is showing a lot of promise. By the end of the ride he was trotting and cantering. At this stage if they want to go into a trot or canter we don't hold them back. We want them to be comfortable with with whatever we do with them.

Homer hanging out until his next shift.

Cowboy is another horse that we use to pony horses.

After all of the two year olds were ridden they were taken back to their pastures.

With the snow almost melted and temperatures warming they got to go back to their pasture with hay and feed waiting.

It was a good day and we made a lot of progress. We take it very seriously to make sure these colts make great horses for people to enjoy. They have a big future ahead of them.

Until next time, Tiffany