11” x 13” x 4 ¼”
Limited Edition of 20 Bronze
$3,100.00
Let Curt Tell You About It!
I have spent a lot of time starting young colts under saddle. It is one of the greatest pleasures to work with a youngster and teach them things that they will use, remember and enjoy for the rest of their lives. It is a big responsibility because if you start a colt wrong it may cause problems, they remember for the rest of their lives. Everyone after you who rides that colt will have to deal with the problems you created. It is critical to establish a bond of trust every step of the way. The buckaroo tradition involved in starting these youngsters are time tested and yield superior results. It requires knowing the personality of the colt you are working with and then adjusting your training methods to their needs. It takes years of experience to become a really good horseman. It is well worth the time and effort.
With young horses, there are many steps to establish leadership and trust. No matter how careful and thorough you are, something unexpected can happen. It is in those moments that you can build more trust or destroy it. Bucking is a result of horses being claustrophobic. The cinch around their heart girth is constricting. It is the feeling they would have when a predator attacks them. The result is that they try to remove the cause of the restriction, the feeling of being attacked. Once a colt is going along pretty well, an unexpected movement or seeing something they see as a threat will bring up that response. As well, sometimes, when it is early in the morning, he is feeling good, he just can’t hold in his energy. In either case, how a rider deals with this is very important.
In this piece, you see a colt feeling good and really ready to go. His ears tell you he isn’t being ‘broncy’ or just trying to get rid of the rider. He just feels good. If you start to punish the colt for this, it will degrade the trust you have built up. The thing to do is just get his few bucks out and then ride him forward to the job at hand. Beating him up will make no sense to him.
This buckaroo knows these things and is handling the situation as it should be. Everything about this piece tells you this is pure buckaroo. The flat hat, Wade saddle, reata, snaffle bit with mecate reins are all a part of the buckaroos gear. He is wearing chink leggin’s and big rowel spurs. Big rowels like these are used as signals and won’t hurt the horse. They are a valuable tool in the trainer’s tool kit. You can see this rider is taking the moment in stride. He knows this good colt will settle down and they can move forward into the day. This is just a colt having a “Fresh Start” to his day!