The Colt Journal, Day 7: Driggs Fairgrounds

I am told that if a colt is going to buck, he'll do it by the 7th ride. I figured this was no. 7, and I had nothing to lose, and besides I thought he was ready, so I bridled young Smooch up for the evening. After letting him sack out with the bit until his mouth was calm, I hopped on to see how he was going to react. I know some people want to drive, or longe the colt with the bit before riding the first time, but I decided to do it this way instead. The arena was being used by 4H, so I took him to the warm up ring and jumped on. It took him some time to figure out what was going on. In fact, by the end of the ride he was still figuring things out, but that's ok. I worked on helping him translate the cues he had learned on the ground and with the rope halter into what he is supposed to be doing with the bit. All and all he did pretty well. I didn't think I was going to need to do as much teaching as I ended up doing. And he did go into a bucking and rearing fit at one point. Hopefully it's a good thing because he is learning he can't throw me, and he can't use rearing to try to find a way out of the bit.
After we were semi comfortable, I took him on a walk over to the trail course to let him use his noodle, forget about the uncomfortable hunk of metal in his mouth, and have a little mental work out with the obstacles. While in the obstacles I tried working on his back up (which if you recall I worked on a little in a previous session). This time I got off and backed up with the lesson, teaching it from the ground. After a few rounds, he began to get the idea. I took him back over to the warm up ring where a family had set up some poles, rode him through those a little, and called it quits.