Teamwork Between a Kid and a Colt
- March 13, 2025
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Horse Training, Ranch Life
I recently told you about some of the daring ideas that a kid will come up with when teamed up with a
green colt. Son Colin’s filly was two and he was 10. He had officially “started” Callie in August, but he’d
been sneaking off to ride her bareback in the pasture for months before that, so “starting” her was kind of a non-event.
She was a gem and did anything that he came up with and was just glad to be with him. He rode her all over the place both bareback and saddled, and I still don’t know of all the adventures they surely had.
The ones I know about would have been alarming if it had been someone else’s kid and colt, but I knew
the partnership they had and though I sometimes was surprised, I never panicked. Colin had a lot of
saddle horse miles on him at 10 and couldn’t be deemed a green, just his colt was.
During the fall of her two year old year, I was working in the house and hadn’t been outside for a bit.
It was a nice day and the windows were open and I heard him talking to Callie on occasion, so knew they
were close by. I’d gone to the back of the house for something and when I came back out, I passed through the living room which had windows that looked out toward the driveway and the county road past our house. I glanced out and stopped in my tracks.
Toodling down the gravel road at a steady walk, was Callie, saddled, and pulling the old red wagon I used around the yard. The tugs were pieces of baler twine tied to the stirrups and hitched to the handle of the wagon. Colin was riding in the wagon with the driving lines in his hands. The lines were also baler
twine, as none of the bridle reins were long enough. They were walking right along and I watched as they went down the road a piece, turned in the wide entryway to the pasture across the road, and came back to the house.
I’d gotten my shoes on by this time and gone outside. I waited by the garage as he turned in at the
driveway and drove his “buggy horse” around the garage and into the back part of the yard, where he
stopped her and looked at me. He was grinning, and I think Callie was too, and pretty proud of their little
rig. What could I say? Be careful and you could get hurt seemed kind of moot at this point.
Whether that was the first time they had done that I don’t know, but she was certainly unconcerned about the squeaky wagon behind her. Many scenarios ran through my mind about what could have gone
wrong, but, none of it had happened. The only suggestion I made was to tie the tugs to the wagon itself,
not the handle, so that the handle could be back toward the wagon and less likely to poke her in the hiney if she stopped suddenly. That done, away they went to continue their adventure.
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Posted in: Featured, Horse Training, Ranch Life
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....