woahlookitsme
Well-Known Member
This has been one of my most involved and craziest semesters of my college career and I am so sad to say it is coming to an end in a week. I enrolled in Sam Houston's Basic Horsemanship class last semester to get a once in a lifetime chance in raising and training a long yearling colt. I had some advice that told me to pick a boy. I really didn't want to pick my colt based on color but i was really partial to roans and bay. Luckily enough I found one!
This was his first day in his new stall. So skinny!
It took me almost a month to find a name for him and with the rabicano gene or 'coon gene' being one of his features I heard the name Davy Crockett and decided it was perfect.
In the first semester we did things that they as 18month old colts had never seen before such as a halter, tarps, buoys, feed sacks, picking up feet, brushing, longing and round pinning. Learning cues was his best feature. He was a quick learner but the first one to get honky about things. Here is his second bath
The lovely tarp
Oh Hai
His second day in the round pin
rolling lol
In the first semester all we were doing is ground work. Oh not to mention putting on a saddle. Let me tell you Davey was the loudest of all the colts honking and bucking like a donkey. Even after two weeks of putting on a saddle he was still bucking the first couple of circles
Him and his big saddle
Then we started preparing for our final.
His last bath with me for that semester and he still hadn't grown into his halter LOL (it's for a yearling too)
As winter break was coming Davy was going to head back to the ranch with all the other colts and enjoy a nice break. this was right before he was supposed to get on the trailer
We finally got them back and boy was he a fluff ball
We basically went over everything we had done last semester in that one day and davy did awesome! I was a proud momma. This semester was the riding portion of the class. I was the most nervous about this semester because I had only had about 20 lessons on a horse with english style riding. Davy was no lesson horse and I learned that after the second ride. We worked on our one rein stops and flexing the head and yielding hips and he became really good at it. The first ride was great but after that everything went downhill. I think he threw me around 6 times and I had actually stayed on about twice. He loved to test anyone who got on him including my professor. Finally after throwing me twice in class and bucking with my professor on his back he earned a newer and more strict rider and I aquired a 16 year old sorrel mare who had been a halter and trail horse her entire life. Even she gives me problems sometimes lol
Her name is Lacey
Me and Lacey
I still mess with Davy from time to time and of course get to see how him and his new partner are doing. They have a love/hate relationship lol but she is definitely able to control him better than me.
We finally got to take the horses out to Gibbs Ranch where everyone got to go running in open pastures and even a lake. It was much fun and Davey did perfectly fine. He loved swimming in the lake and even got in cheek high water!
Now our final is next week and it will be a mix of emotions. Hopefully I can get my boyfriend to catch some pictures of me and Lacey riding but this class has definitely taught me some hard lessons including how to cowgirl up. Great experience and I wish I could do it again!
Thank you for listening
This was his first day in his new stall. So skinny!
It took me almost a month to find a name for him and with the rabicano gene or 'coon gene' being one of his features I heard the name Davy Crockett and decided it was perfect.
In the first semester we did things that they as 18month old colts had never seen before such as a halter, tarps, buoys, feed sacks, picking up feet, brushing, longing and round pinning. Learning cues was his best feature. He was a quick learner but the first one to get honky about things. Here is his second bath
The lovely tarp
Oh Hai
His second day in the round pin
rolling lol
In the first semester all we were doing is ground work. Oh not to mention putting on a saddle. Let me tell you Davey was the loudest of all the colts honking and bucking like a donkey. Even after two weeks of putting on a saddle he was still bucking the first couple of circles
Him and his big saddle
Then we started preparing for our final.
His last bath with me for that semester and he still hadn't grown into his halter LOL (it's for a yearling too)
As winter break was coming Davy was going to head back to the ranch with all the other colts and enjoy a nice break. this was right before he was supposed to get on the trailer
We finally got them back and boy was he a fluff ball
We basically went over everything we had done last semester in that one day and davy did awesome! I was a proud momma. This semester was the riding portion of the class. I was the most nervous about this semester because I had only had about 20 lessons on a horse with english style riding. Davy was no lesson horse and I learned that after the second ride. We worked on our one rein stops and flexing the head and yielding hips and he became really good at it. The first ride was great but after that everything went downhill. I think he threw me around 6 times and I had actually stayed on about twice. He loved to test anyone who got on him including my professor. Finally after throwing me twice in class and bucking with my professor on his back he earned a newer and more strict rider and I aquired a 16 year old sorrel mare who had been a halter and trail horse her entire life. Even she gives me problems sometimes lol
Her name is Lacey
Me and Lacey
I still mess with Davy from time to time and of course get to see how him and his new partner are doing. They have a love/hate relationship lol but she is definitely able to control him better than me.
We finally got to take the horses out to Gibbs Ranch where everyone got to go running in open pastures and even a lake. It was much fun and Davey did perfectly fine. He loved swimming in the lake and even got in cheek high water!
Now our final is next week and it will be a mix of emotions. Hopefully I can get my boyfriend to catch some pictures of me and Lacey riding but this class has definitely taught me some hard lessons including how to cowgirl up. Great experience and I wish I could do it again!
Thank you for listening
