The Colt Journal, ride 13: Wilson Arena

I am almost a week and a couple of rides behind in my journal, so bear with me. I have been a little concerned for the health of my colt given that he is only two and a young two at that (physically speaking). He has a lot more physical development to go through, so I am going slow. I am watching him closely. I may or may not get 30 rides in by the end of the season, but he will be ready for some hunting this fall, and he will be ready for mounted patrol next spring. I wanted to address this age issue because many horse people are unilaterally against breaking a two year old. The concern is that their bones and joints are not developed enough to sustain the weight of a rider without possible permanent damage. There are a lot of horses out there that are racing, roping, and doing all kinds of performance activities while they are two year olds. And a certain percentage of them break down by the time they are 4 or 5, or even younger. That's not what I am doing. In fact, a certain percentage of horses aren't sound enough to make it through their first 30 days no matter how old they are. I'm not an experienced horseman, so I only have expert advice to go off of. I have chosen to go with the advice of people who tell me it is ok to ride my two year old. I am inclined, in my inexperienced opinion, to think that the advantages of an early mental and physical development during a "light" first season as a two year old will in the long run produce a better horse. If I ruin my colt with the light work I am doing with him, then there was probably something wrong to begin with. Counter to the argument of a two year old not being developed enough to ride, I think that a certain amount of exercise and riding will help better develop a healthy colt. It is well known that performing athletics physically changes the skeletal structure of a body. It adds muscle mass, thickens and strengthens bones, adds flexibility. Conversely, injury at such an early age can do the opposite. So it is my goal to find that balance of athletics and safety in these early days so that Smooch is still active and athletic when he is in his 20's. It's kind of like children, there are some parents who shelter their kids their whole life, and there are some that have them playing soccer and football by the time they are 5. I tend to believe that an early development is better, as long as the proper care is taken. Enough of that...onto ride 13.

I took Smooch to Wilson arena again last Wednesday. There was a group (a children's clinic) there ahead of me that was still riding in the arena after their class ended when I went in at 7 pm. It irked me that the woman in charge couldn't rein in her riders and teach them arena etiquette. I was immediately confronted by a child and her horse who "has to greet every new horse". It was obvious that the girl's horse was in charge of her and she had little control over it. I had to tell her to back her horse off so I could go about my business. Not my job. If that woman is going to let her children ride with other people during open riding, she needs to teach them control and etiquette. And it got worse when the fathers of the children got on the horses and started "riding" (for better lack of a word) bareback around the arena. It was a rodeo. Good thing Smooch could care less about such goings on. I did have him bridled for this ride. It is amazing how quiet he is with the bit so soon. I was working a little on bending again, but with so much going on in the arena, my main focus was on avoiding the circus and letting Smooch soak it all in. I'm not complaining. I seek out such places because it is good for a youngster to be exposed to such raucous. So I started working on side passing, and then on transitions from walk to trot and my diagonals. To add to her discredit, the clinician woman left four horses tied to the inside of the arena rail while she took the first batch of horses home. That's a no no at any time, let alone to just leave them there unattended with people using the arena. You don't tie horses to the inside rail of an arena. You just don't. Ever. Got that?

Then, the coup de crace (not really, I just wanted to use the word), a work crew with a very large cherry picker (you've seen them at construction sites, they have four wheels and a boom and bucket for getting people into high places) drove into the arena to adjust the lights. They did warn us in advance. And I was excited to see how Smooch would handle things. I took Smooch to the opposite end of the arena when the cherry picker drove in. He didn't even notice. So I rode him across the arena past it. He was concerned about crossing the tracks it had made. After the guy got it situated and got the boom up to the light fixture, I asked if I could ride up next to it. Smooch walked right up to it and spooked when my foot got caught on the tire. But when Smooch spooks, it isn't so much a spook as he is just a little alarmed. He just kind of scoots a few steps. So I turned him to face the tire, let him sniff if and then let him examine the rest of the machine. Remember that I've already desensitized Smooch to tractors, so it didn't surprise me that he was not concerned. The guy started it up, lowered the boom and drove to the next light. All without so much as a blink from Smooch. We followed right behind (in it's tracks) and watched from close by as he raised the boom to the next light. While my horse sat quietly by and watched.

After that I decided it was time to quit, with just one more task at hand...open and close the arena gate. Which Smooch did without too much complaining. Much better than last time.