Young colt
- Thread starter MurraysMutts
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TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
Murry, I always enjoy your subjects and posts. You have a way with cattle and calves but have you ever ridden a horse? If not, maybe you could ask your vet for the name of a good stable in your area and sign up for two or three riding lessons. That way you could ease into it and tell if you like riding.
As many have said, it's a bad idea for a newbie to take on a young unbroken stud colt or any young horse for that matter. In fact, it is a dangerous idea. What people generally do is put novice riders with experienced unflappable horses and put novice horses with experienced riders. Inexperienced people with inexperienced horses seldom turns out well.
Also, when riding shorter horses there is not such a long way to fall.
(kill the sound for best effect)
As many have said, it's a bad idea for a newbie to take on a young unbroken stud colt or any young horse for that matter. In fact, it is a dangerous idea. What people generally do is put novice riders with experienced unflappable horses and put novice horses with experienced riders. Inexperienced people with inexperienced horses seldom turns out well.
Also, when riding shorter horses there is not such a long way to fall.
(kill the sound for best effect)
OP
OP
MurraysMutts
Well-known member
He ain't even sitting on the horse!!
And yep. I gave up on the colt. I remembered why I got rid of the 2 donkeys we had. 2 less donkeys, 2 more cows...
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
For what my horse costs me I could get 6 more cows 
Peace
Well-known member
I'm in a laughing fit over this thread...I really am.
If you're thinking about getting a horse and don't have experience, here's what you do. Take 10 $100 bills and flush them down the toilet, if you like that experience, get a horse. If you enjoyed that, now spend 2 hours every day for at least 6 months trying to teach a 5 year old to dance with perfect steps to 8 different dance steps. If you accomplish that, flush another 10 $100 bills down the toilet. When you're not sure where all your money is going, don't worry about it, the vet will be coming by soon to tell you that you need to get a farrier and the horses teeth need to be floated, goodbye another $500. If you get this far, let me know I'll give you some more into on costs. You know, things like wormer, getting a saddle that actually fits and then you can add in all the stupid stuff you don't need but other morons talk you into. In fact, screw it, call me after you've burned up $10k and ridden probably less that 10 miles, then we'll discuss what a horse actually costs.
Want a horse and never owned one, find a 12 year old or older horse that actually know something, since you don't, and ride that around. Buy all the tack they have also, if you're shrew enough they might throw it in for a couple bucks if you remind them that it's probably just taking up space. There are plenty of them out there.
You're welcome to choose either option, just remember they both have the same actual annual cost, one just has a much smaller learning curve and mental well being cost.
If you're thinking about getting a horse and don't have experience, here's what you do. Take 10 $100 bills and flush them down the toilet, if you like that experience, get a horse. If you enjoyed that, now spend 2 hours every day for at least 6 months trying to teach a 5 year old to dance with perfect steps to 8 different dance steps. If you accomplish that, flush another 10 $100 bills down the toilet. When you're not sure where all your money is going, don't worry about it, the vet will be coming by soon to tell you that you need to get a farrier and the horses teeth need to be floated, goodbye another $500. If you get this far, let me know I'll give you some more into on costs. You know, things like wormer, getting a saddle that actually fits and then you can add in all the stupid stuff you don't need but other morons talk you into. In fact, screw it, call me after you've burned up $10k and ridden probably less that 10 miles, then we'll discuss what a horse actually costs.
Want a horse and never owned one, find a 12 year old or older horse that actually know something, since you don't, and ride that around. Buy all the tack they have also, if you're shrew enough they might throw it in for a couple bucks if you remind them that it's probably just taking up space. There are plenty of them out there.
You're welcome to choose either option, just remember they both have the same actual annual cost, one just has a much smaller learning curve and mental well being cost.
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
It is true that horses are money pits and a plaything for the wealthy, but there are a lot of people here that keep their stock horses in their pastures, train, worm and vaccinate their horses with stuff from the feed store. They also trim their hooves themselves. I myself am not wealthy but I have had long distance trail horses all my life and I bought the first and best with my babysitting money. I cleaned my mom's house to pay for her feed. Later I worked my way though college still with horses and made a good living working as a nurse. Now I am retired and with horse #14. I already had all kinds of tack and a stock trailer.
The inexperienced person thinking of buying a colt will have bitten off more than they can chew. They should not make a spoiled pet out of it and keep it in the backyard. This is not some kind of cowboy fantasy. They are going to need lots of money, especially if they board the horse and have it trained. If they want to get a horse they should look a middle aged experienced horse. Horses are expensive to buy these days, thats just because they have become rich people's playthings and the old plugs have been sold for meat. The price of hay and feed has gone sky high too. Thats why people keep them on descent pastures.
The inexperienced person thinking of buying a colt will have bitten off more than they can chew. They should not make a spoiled pet out of it and keep it in the backyard. This is not some kind of cowboy fantasy. They are going to need lots of money, especially if they board the horse and have it trained. If they want to get a horse they should look a middle aged experienced horse. Horses are expensive to buy these days, thats just because they have become rich people's playthings and the old plugs have been sold for meat. The price of hay and feed has gone sky high too. Thats why people keep them on descent pastures.
Travlr
Well-known member
Horses are much harder on pasture than cows are... so one horse equals three cows.
He ain't even sitting on the horse!!
And yep. I gave up on the colt. I remembered why I got rid of the 2 donkeys we had. 2 less donkeys, 2 more cows...
OP
OP
MurraysMutts
Well-known member
I know that's right!
Neighbor had one on 2 acres. End of year there was NO GRASS!
And I don't know what they do. But that 2 acres has been hard as a rock ever since. I chocked it up to not enough pasture
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
Yes horses bite off the grass. Sheep are even worse. Cows just pull the grass because they don't have any upper teeth. My 2 horses are on 16 acres of bottomland pasture with a few cattle. It's cool season grass.
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
Oh MurrysMutts I did not know the person thinking of buying a colt was you. I thought it was some tin horn.
faster horses
Well-known member
Pat Parelli is a famous horse trainer...I remember so well what I heard him say.
"Green on green=broken bones."
Meaning, in case you don't know. Green is you--not having any experience riding and
green is the young horse who doesn't have any experience being ridden. The broken bones are you. FWIW
Now on a lighter note, a good horse-trading friend of ours was moving to Australia. This guy was a really good horse hand (so was his whole family). He had a great sense of humor. (You need one when you are a horse trader.)
He sold all his horses before he left for the 'land down under' by holding his own sale. He had an auctioneer, the whole bit. In the catalog he wrote, "We have tall horses for tall people, we have short horses for short people. We have horses that don't like to be rode for people who don't like to ride."
"Green on green=broken bones."
Meaning, in case you don't know. Green is you--not having any experience riding and
green is the young horse who doesn't have any experience being ridden. The broken bones are you. FWIW
Now on a lighter note, a good horse-trading friend of ours was moving to Australia. This guy was a really good horse hand (so was his whole family). He had a great sense of humor. (You need one when you are a horse trader.)
He sold all his horses before he left for the 'land down under' by holding his own sale. He had an auctioneer, the whole bit. In the catalog he wrote, "We have tall horses for tall people, we have short horses for short people. We have horses that don't like to be rode for people who don't like to ride."
coachg
Well-known member
I'm not a horsey person . I have owned ponies ( never again , even for the grand babies! ) and 1 quarter horse that had been barrel raced . His name was shorty and he was small and short for a quarter horse but he could go from 0 to 60 in a heartbeat ! His favorite thing to do was walk slowly away from the corral and as soon as you turned him around he was wide open . He left me on the ground on a few occasions and scared the life out of me on several . I vote NO on the colt !
CowboyRam
Well-known member
I have a friend that has a couple wild horses. A mare with a foal on her side that she got off the desert about a year ago. In my opinion just not worth keeping around, but at least someone is feeding them, and it does give the stable a constant income. I would rather have 10 year old horse that is broke to ride. My bones don't bend so much anymore, and that ground is not getting any softer as the years go by.
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
This is my other horse. He doesn't eat much.
He has a job.
He has a job.
Travlr
Well-known member
Okay, gotta ask. What does he pack?
CowboyRam
Well-known member
Hey, that is the type of horse for me, that way I don't have very far to fall to the ground. Maybe it won't hurt so bad.
Lee VanRoss
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My first and only horse was a genuine Nevada mustang . older and broke to ride. Broke to ride that is after he had
gone air borne at least twice without warning. You could stake your next meal on it the first time up for the day.
He would clamp on a bit like a 6 in screw vise on a sickle bar. Never bit or kicked but the way he looked at you was
warning enough. I paid $40 dollars for him at the sale barn. I was 14. I was 14 when I sold him for I don't remember.
I have never thought about having a horse to this day.
gone air borne at least twice without warning. You could stake your next meal on it the first time up for the day.
He would clamp on a bit like a 6 in screw vise on a sickle bar. Never bit or kicked but the way he looked at you was
warning enough. I paid $40 dollars for him at the sale barn. I was 14. I was 14 when I sold him for I don't remember.
I have never thought about having a horse to this day.
greybeard
Well-known member
I broke colts for my father off and on for several decades. The last time I got on one of his young ones I was 54 and as I picked myself up off the muddy ground, told him "That's it. I'm done. You gonna have to find someone younger and that heals better than me".
Growing up, we never had really good blooded horses (or good anything else for that matter) but our horses were all gentle and home raised except for the original old one eyed mare we started with.
They did ok for us, as a tough horse was required for getting the cows out of the thickets our old place was covered in. Dad probably had 1/2 doz or more by the time I went in military and then had a young family of my own.
I've boarded and fed several for other people in the last 8-10 years but I didn't ride them.
Feeding them and training them for riding is only part of it. Got to be able to handle them for shoeing and hoof work and teach them to load in a trailer too...
Growing up, we never had really good blooded horses (or good anything else for that matter) but our horses were all gentle and home raised except for the original old one eyed mare we started with.
They did ok for us, as a tough horse was required for getting the cows out of the thickets our old place was covered in. Dad probably had 1/2 doz or more by the time I went in military and then had a young family of my own.
I've boarded and fed several for other people in the last 8-10 years but I didn't ride them.
Feeding them and training them for riding is only part of it. Got to be able to handle them for shoeing and hoof work and teach them to load in a trailer too...
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
Dinky packs picnics and camping gear. He was also in a parade with picks and shovels tied on top of his panniers. We were dressed as dirty prospectors.
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
The first and greatest horse of my life lived to be 40. I bought her with my babysitting money. We must have traveled 1000s and 1000s of miles in the West Coast mountains, hills and forests. She never refused to go anywhere, wherever you pointed her she would go. She would swim in lakes and across rivers, she would slide down bluffs then jump creeks. Half thoroughbred half quarter horse, Tamar had the mind and muscle of a quarter horse with the skeletal structure and heart of a thoroughbred. She went towards a screaming mountain lion another time towards a bear on the trail because I asked. She outran every horse I ever raced her against because she would allow no horse to run in front of her. She brought me home safely through the hills in storms at night. She would put her head low to see her way, flinching whenever a tree fell with a crash. A teenage rider will take take such foolish risks. She saved my life a few of times and I saved hers. She made me survive my youth and I made her survive her old age.
I came home from one night from the hospital and found Tamar dead on the ground. I could see by the marks in the sand that she had not suffered. She had gone in to get drink in the barn, come back out and fell dead. I sat on a bucket by her head and did not cry. She had been with me for 35 years. Could I have wanted her to live longer? No.
My cowboy friend came the next day with his tractor and dragged her body away into the woods. I walked behind her body and he kindly covered her head with his coat so I would not see her dead face. I covered her body with flowers and built little fence around her so scavengers could not scatter her bones because I wanted to keep them. Years later I went back to her grave. But the forest had overgrown and I could not find the place . Then in 2011 there was a forest fire that revealed to me her white horse bones. So now I keep them in a box because it is my will that she be buried with me. Such a one comes once in life and does not come again. Now I am married to that cowboy. He is another that comes only once in life. How fortunate we are to know such creatures - for a long time or even for a short time. Let us count our blessings.
I always used to scorn those horse controlling people who rode in riding arenas in those days. I wanted to run free with a horse over the hills. Yet 50 years later I know to strive for that touch, the mere suggestion of it, and it's instant release, to get that aliveness between the rider and the horse that they whirl and skitter away, dance sideways, tuck themselves and prance. This is what I strive for. These are more ways of talking. I have learned that a horse is talking to you every minute, even just standing there, with their body language.
I came home from one night from the hospital and found Tamar dead on the ground. I could see by the marks in the sand that she had not suffered. She had gone in to get drink in the barn, come back out and fell dead. I sat on a bucket by her head and did not cry. She had been with me for 35 years. Could I have wanted her to live longer? No.
My cowboy friend came the next day with his tractor and dragged her body away into the woods. I walked behind her body and he kindly covered her head with his coat so I would not see her dead face. I covered her body with flowers and built little fence around her so scavengers could not scatter her bones because I wanted to keep them. Years later I went back to her grave. But the forest had overgrown and I could not find the place . Then in 2011 there was a forest fire that revealed to me her white horse bones. So now I keep them in a box because it is my will that she be buried with me. Such a one comes once in life and does not come again. Now I am married to that cowboy. He is another that comes only once in life. How fortunate we are to know such creatures - for a long time or even for a short time. Let us count our blessings.
I always used to scorn those horse controlling people who rode in riding arenas in those days. I wanted to run free with a horse over the hills. Yet 50 years later I know to strive for that touch, the mere suggestion of it, and it's instant release, to get that aliveness between the rider and the horse that they whirl and skitter away, dance sideways, tuck themselves and prance. This is what I strive for. These are more ways of talking. I have learned that a horse is talking to you every minute, even just standing there, with their body language.
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