COLTS: Some people say that about older horses (refer to them as colts), when they’re maybe four or five or seven and haven’t been handled much, but in this book we’re talking about the younger horses that haven’t been handled much. And that’d include geldings and fillies.
COLT STARTING: It’s the “starting” that really deserves our attention. And where that horse is (in his development) determines the way you’d go about starting him. But one thing’s for sure, you’ll be using feel when you start a colt, or any horse.
Colts that are worked horseback in a group, like those shown in the next picture, can learn a lot about feel from someone who’s experienced at applying it. As they move around like this, they are getting used to the saddles and are beginning to understand what it feels like to travel in the different gaits. They are responding to the feel of the fella who’s driving them around the pasture. They can get an understanding of how to hook on this way, and how to separate between the feel to go left and right, to speed up and slow down and to stop.