BASIC HANDLING, CRITICAL SKILLS
They’ve learned the basics of being a horse, now it is time they learn the basics of safe handling. We believe short sessions now teach critical fundamentals ensuring the safety of you and your horse.
Duration: 15–30 Days
Horse Age: Yearlings
Course Description:
This course is designed to give yearlings a head start in solid foundation through basic handling and desensitization. The focus is on teaching young horses to be caught, handled safely, and understand pressure and release, without asking for more than they are mentally or physically ready to provide. No saddles are used at this age.
Focus Skills:
• Teach the horse to face up and be caught
• Accept a halter
• Basic handling: leading, backing, yielding shoulders and hips
• Basic desensitizing: sacking out, blanketing, exposure to ropes and movement
• Soft rope around feet and legs
• Lead by all four feet (can save a horse if ever hung in a fence)
• Feet handling and preparation for trimming
• Standing tied quietly
Training Philosophy:
Sessions are kept short and consistent, with an emphasis on calm, correct responses. The goal is to create a willing, confident young horse with good habits that will carry forward into later training.
Equipment Policy:
Only basic groundwork equipment is used, including a rope halter, lead rope, soft training rope, pads or tarps. Absolutely no saddles are introduced at this age. We prefer to saddle when our colts are physically and mentally more mature and ready to be ridden. Saddling is an important part of the starting process and helps put colts in the correct mindset to carry a rider.
Completion Standard:
A yearling is considered complete when it can be caught easily, accepts a halter, leads and yields individual body parts softly, stands tied, allows all four feet to be handled, and remains calm during basic care, handling and grooming.