what other training can I start my colt on?

Question
I recently (about 6 wks ago) purchased what was supposed to be a 6mo old colt from auction. I am beginning to suspect he is a bit older...perhaps 9-10 mos, though can't really be sure. He is currently intact (due to the immense amount of rain and muddy conditions of late...however, he has recently taken to some studdy characteristics and will be gelded within the week and kept stalled where it will be dry for several days). My question is essentially "what else can I start him doing?". I refuse to lunge him due to his age and the possible effects it will have on his soundness in the future. He is a super fast learner and incredibly eager to please. He loads in a trailer without effort (he literally follows you in when you step up). He leads like a dream (no pushing or pulling...he stays right with you and only needs a little nudge if you need him to turn away...he stops when you do). He has been sacked out and isnt afraid of anything, though he wasnt much afraid of anything to start. In the event he does find himself a bit scared of anything, he doesnt run away, but instead runs to me. He thinks plastic grocery bags are super fun to play with. You can throw a blanket over his head from five feet away and he stands there. He will pick up a T-post and carry it around like a dog would a stick. He follows the running lawn mower around like a puppy dog. You can walk him across a sheet of corrugated tin (like from off a barn)and he not so much as bobs his head (this was an accident...I would never intentionally walk a horse across a sheet of tin...it was buried in tall grass and we couldnt see it...I only knew what it was when I heard it crunch as we both stood on it and I looked down). He decided he much liked the thought of getting on the back porch and climbed 6 steps up to the porch where he hung out. Getting down was a bit more of a chore. He worked for hours trying to figure out how to get down. He tried going straight down, then tried side stepping, but was never comfortable with his balance. I grabbed a few landscape timbers and a sheet of plywood. Threw the landscape timbers up against the steps and threw the plywood over them (no nails or screws to hold it secure...just a wobbly makeshift ramp...which was VERY steep). Gave him the option to go down alone, which he tried, and would stretch his front legs as far as possible down the ramp but then couldnt figure out how to get the back ones going with it and would pull himself back up. I snapped on his lead rope turned him in a circle squared up to ramp and we walked right down it like he had done it a million times. He now thinks the ramp is the best invention ever and goes up and down it all the time. He has learned to stand and wait for help if he gets tangled up in something (which as a colt afraid of nothing he manages regularly). He stands quietly for the farrier. You can fly spray every inch of him (face included) with him standing unrestrained in a pasture. He thoroughly enjoys a bath. We have started doing "carrot stretches" (forcing him to bend and stretch his body to get to the carrot) which he does well at (mostly because he likes food). He is doing well at yielding to pressure. He very much enjoys all the time spent working and training. Even after being with him for several hours he will follow me to the door and wait right outside for a good 15 mins to see if I am coming back. I would like to further his training, though due to his age we are a bit limited it seems in what we can do. He picks things up very quickly and as such gets bored very quickly doing the same things. I am sure most would suggest "just let him be a horse". But he craves human interaction and to be "doing something". I figure if we are going to "do something" it might as well benefit us both in the long run. I have contemplated teaching him to start packing a bit and ground driving. Any opinions on which direction to go with this guy?  

Answer
Hi Joanne!  

What fun but be careful.  You don't want to create trouble for your guy.  It is important to preserve his natural curiosity and make it work for you.  These can be very special horses, I know, I raised one.

Her name was "Me-Too".  Everything I did she wanted to do too!  If my Dad hadn't come home early from work, I would have had her in my bedroom!  As it was, I was able to scramble out the back door and down the steps into the garage without getting caught!  I was 8 at the time and Me-too was about 10 months old.   She was a wonderful horse.  There wasn't anything she would not do.  I rode her in the Grand Floral Rose Parade, showed her in the 3'3" hunters, trail rode for miles, she was a multiple 4-H State Fair champ and a showmanship Queen.  She was a simple little grade horse and I will never forget her.  I had to sell her when I had young children and couldn't afford a horse.  I was heartbroken.  She finished out her life packing around handicapped kids.  The lady I sold her to said nothing ever bothered her, she was the best horse she had ever owned and a real gift to her disabled son.  

Raising her was a trial to say the least.  Her curiosity and zest for life kept us all on alert.  She escaped the barn one winter during a silver thaw, slid about 110 yards down a hill into a creek.  My Dad had to call a tow truck to get her out.  She climbed into the hay shed, we had to tear apart about 60 bales of hay to perform that rescue.  And then there was the time she opened the garden gate and trotted through the tomato patch ending up with  wire tomato cages on all four legs...sigh.

Do what you can to keep your fella out of trouble.  Don't make obstacles unsafe or unfair.  You never want to shake his confidence or scare him.  Hold off on bits and driving.  He has not developed enough to physically to handle this stuff and training for the long term is the direction to take.  

Keep doing your ground work.  One of the difficulties to this type of horse is that they can build resentment if the lesson is not to their liking.  We still need an obedient horse that is willing to follow direction even if they don't want to.  Become a leader that this horse can trust and follow.  He still needs to know where he is in the herd order.  He is NOT the leader.  You are leading the dance.  You can continue to build trust, confidence and obedience without creating a spoiled monster.  

Have you ever seen Buck Brannaman do the invisible driving lines?  This is something your colt will really be good at and it is a skill that will help prepare him as a saddle horse.  I think Buck demonstrates this in his colt starting DVD...In the round pen, send your colt off at a  walk.  Stand in the same position you would be in if you were ground driving your colt.  By drawing your horse in (hooking on) or putting pressure on an eye, you can "drive" your horse around the pen with invisible lines.  It is a fun thing to do and a great skill for your horse.  

You can work on saddling your colt as well.  I keep a small youth saddle for just this purpose.  Make sure you have roped up his belly/flanks and exposed him to the feel of the cinch.

Teach him how to lead by both front feet.  Use a good cotton foot rope, hold a feel on the rope that is around a front foot, when he so much rocks his weight in the direction of the pressure, RELEASE!  Keep building on this until  you can lead him soft and smooth by both front feet.  When you have that good, teach him to lead by an ear.  Lay a loose loop of lead rope around an ear, if there is much more than the weight of the rope pulling on the ear the rope will fall off.  This is a real test to see how soft and sensitive to pressure you can get your horse.  Getting them to lead by the ear is like getting them to follow a whisper.  

Get control of all four feet.  Teach him to stand square, teach him to stand stretched.  Do tons of work with ground poles.  Place the one front foot over a ground pole and then put it back.  Do this with all four feet.  Then have him place a toe on top of a ground pole, do this with all four feet, one at a time.

Work on any, all trail horse obstacles.  Teach him to back soft and smooth.  Back lots of circles.  Back around "stuff", bales of hay, barrels, jump poles etc...All of this stuff should keep the both of you out of trouble for a while!  

Have fun!  This will be an adventure!  Keep me posted, Denise