Ranch Horse Agility Training
- January 23, 2025
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life, Uncategorized
My Dad had a really good, home raised gelding named Reno. He was my Dad’s horse of a lifetime. A
golden buckskin, he was a smooth made combination of a Thoroughbred mare and a Jack McCue bred
stud. Foaled in 1960, by the time he was five years old, there just wasn’t anything he wasn’t capable of as a saddle horse.
When I was little, Dad would keep Reno up as a winter horse. It was understandable as Reno was broke and solid, never any nonsense, and reliable. Early winter, Reno’s regular shoes would be traded in for sharp shoes so he could get around on the snowy and icy ground and have less chance of falling. Reno was already an absolute cat on his feet. Quick, collected and aware, he was as agile as a horse could possibly be. With sharp shoes, he was even more so.
One of the jobs Reno had every winter was to babysit any weanling colts that were on the place. He was kind to them, yet taught them manners and made them tow the mark. As part of his horse schooling, he apparently thought agility training was also crucial. The corrals that Reno and weanlings had access to on an everyday basis were what we called the horse corral, where the hay manger was. It opened into the corral around the barn, which was U shaped and had the water tank in one corner. The long side of the barn was probably 70 feet, plus the north, short side was probably 50 feet wide. On the far side of the barn from the horse corral was the snubbing post corral. This arrangement gave the horses plenty of room to move around. The ground sloped away from the barn to ensure good drainage.
Even when alone in the corrals, Reno would regularly lope around the barn, make a lap around in the
snubbing post corral, and lope back around to the horse corral. He was an energetic horse with lots of
“go” and just needed to lope a little of that off every day.
Once the weanlings were with him, he set in on making them handy on their feet, as they would need to be as ranch horses. Now remember, Reno had sharp shoes on, so his feet would grip the snow and ice. The weanlings were barefoot, of course. Reno would wind them up in the horse corral, then drive them around the barn and up into the snubbing post corral. Faster and faster, they would be flying along, and they’d really have to pucker up to go around the two corners of the barn without falling. Especially if the eaves had dripped a bit and made that slope into a skating rink.
Fall they did, over and over in some cases, but soon they had figured out how to best keep their feet and make those sharp turns while at a high lope. Mind you, Reno wouldn’t hurt them, he was just playing, but I would imagine they sometimes wondered when he’d pin his ears and act like he was going to nip
their little fannies if he thought they weren’t going fast enough.
Before too long, those colts would be as agile as cats on any kind of ground, scrambling to keep their feet on the ice, but able to collect up and stay upright. They’d run, circle and race until everyone was a
little sweaty under their winter hair. Then I can remember they’d stop and blow and snort, tails flagged
above them, sides heaving, nostrils distended and eyes sparkling. It seemed they were simply reveling in
their strength and ability.
I watched many times as Reno “trained” his young athletes, usually from the top of the haystack by the horse manger. What I couldn’t see from there I could hear, and it sure didn’t take them long to run to the far side and then back.
As I grew older, I rode some of those horses that Reno trained. They were all good on their feet and kept upright even on slick ground. I also rode Reno, who was the epitome of “good on his feet”. Even as an older horse, he was still as catty as when he was young.
I’ve since watched other older horses exercise the weanlings when they were run together, but no one
ever did the thorough agility training that I witnessed with Reno and his students.

Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life, Uncategorized
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....