Verified answer

NOOOOPE!

You need a lot more work with green horses, not riding on and off for those years with a trainer.

3 hours a day min is standard, they require a lot of time.

I would say wait another 5 years of lessons from a more well known trainer who has also trained younger horses.

Working with a colt is like working with a child. Teachers spend weeks and even months teaching a child how to do one simple task. With a colt, it's no difference.

If you don't have the patience to work with a colt, don't. Colts aren't going to magically know what you want the first time you do something with them. It takes time. It takes repeating the same action over and over again. It also takes dedication. You can't expect to halter break a colt in one day, forget about the halter for a couple months then come back and expect him to remember. You have to be out there every day doing the exact same things.

IMO, it seems like you've only been around trained horses and horses that are already broken. Imagine a three year old screaming on the floor at Wal-Mart when mom wouldn't buy her a new toy. Some colts are easy to deal with. Some colts can be far, far, far worse than that screaming child. Some colts take to learning tasks easily. Some colts take months to master one simple task.

Horses are also not meant to be by themselves. If you're planning on getting one single horse and have the horse be alone, don't do it. Horses are herd animals and can get sick and depressed from being alone.

Before you can train a colt, you definitely need experience in the other aspects of horse care. Going to lessons on and off for 4 years and riding for seven, has nothing to do with training the colt. All the work you would do with him would be on the ground. Just because you've been to ranches and camped out on horse-back, does not mean you are ready yet. I would personally get more experience, before raising a colt on your own. Perhaps you know someone that would be willing to teach more about horse care and specifically how to raise a young horse. Horses are much more than just riding, and caring for the horse is much more important than riding.

No, sorry. You aren't. I nearly bought yearling last year and thank God for kicking some sense into me! When you *really* think you're ready..wait another 5 years.

A colt at that age should NOT be worked 3 hours a day! More like 15-30 mins a day, 5 days out of the week. Of course just grroming and attention are fine, but actual training and desensitizing..? No.

My grandfather is a QH breeder and I have been handling & riding horses for 14 years. I'm still no where NEAR ready for a young, unbroke horse! Not that I'm not a good rider, I just don't have the necessary experience for that yet. And it doesn't appeal to me.

Why not NOT get the colt and save him for somebody who has experience under their belt and can bring him along the right way? Why not get a young or green horse if you like the idea of training?

Some advice: Think logically and realistically. Don't over-estimate your abilities, you WILL pay for it.

I don't want to say a solid yes or no here. I do not know you personally so therefore can not answer. It take a lot of time, dedication, knowledge to raise a young horse. You have to know how to be in charge and teach them the correct manners at this stage. If not they can become a handful very fast and later on is no time to be fixing mistakes. Even though this one can not be ridden/broke out for a while you would still need to handle it to give it the proper foundation. One wrong interpretation of your guidance on the colts part can lead to a domino effect of disrespect. Now that's not to say you don't know the difference between a horse disrespecting you and not listening, and not to say you couldn't be dominant. You might as well be the type of person who is responsible, Intelligent, and able to make good decisions for the welfare and future of this young horse. You need to ask yourself that do you fall into that category? Are you willing to spend a lot of time, can you cover the cost of this horse? Can you cover the cost in case you need professional assistance earlier than you'd think? Can you tell when you can push this horse to work harder or back off because he is still growing? Young horses can not be worked constantly, their work out program has to be changed week to week to accommodate their growth spurts? Do you know how to tailor this? Do you know what other care is involved meaning feeding properly for a growing body? Just some things to think about. Again I still can not say yes or no. He could turn out to be the best horse you've had because you put the correct time into it. Or he could turn out to be your worst nightmare.

Read your question again. Taking lessons on and off for 4 years - probably riding school horses already well trained. Just because you have been on ranches and camped out, does not make you a horse trainer!

So many things can go wrong and early handling and training and desensitizing etc is a hard process to do. You need to be consistent insisting on and correcting behaviour as it happens - not go away and read about it! You have to think like a horse at all times, and preferably ahead of him. You have to be prepared for a lot of set backs and lots of problems.

I do not think you are ready for it yet. Your best bet would be to work at a stud for a couple of years in order to gain experience and advice on raising a horse from birth to breaking in.

Riding for seven years doesn't teach you anything about raising a colt. Working with someone that raises colts will teach you something about raising colts. If you don't have any experience working with colts I would advise you to get some before you try it on your own. It's not so much about how much time you can spend with the colt, it's what you do with that time that is critical to that colts future.

No. There are two colts at my barn and they are, well difficult. The people who own them have dealt with ALOT of problem horses, yet this is difficult for them because any mistake will damage the colt more than a horse

No, you need to have experience breaking horses first. Breaking and training, then you can take on your own colt. I've personally had experience training younger horses, and I still wouldn't take on owning and raising one just yet :P

there's a woman at my barn, probably late 30's/ early 40's who has been riding since she was 7, done everything from eventing and hunter/jumper to western pleasure. she bought a yearling to bring up as a western pleasure horse and she realized she has no clue what she's doing, and now she gets to pay my trainer to show her how to train it. as I want to buy a foal next year from my trainer, she's teaching me stuff on that mare and her yearling filly so I'm learning that way, I highly recommend doing something like that if you can, if not.. well honestly maybe you should wait.