Amusement Park Training I

The next several posts are dedicated to how we use the Amusement Park to train colts and wild horses. The course was given its name by one of my youngest riders. I have not run across any type of training that gives a young horse more confidence and does it as quickly as the Amusement Park. The entire course required a lot of work to construct but very little money. Rebecca designed the course and cut the bright fabric which she used to make some of the stages a little more frightening to the horses.
The series of photos features Ice, a colt about 20 months old. I do not believe that he had ever had on a saddle or been longed before yesterday when these pictures were taken. He is the son of Cherokee Boogie of Karma Farms lines and will be registered with the AIHR. I expect him to be gaited as he matures.
This whole series of pictures was put together on a whim. We had not planned to begin his training yesterday but the weather was great and I was tired of doing fence work and planting so we took a break to have some fun.
The pictures began about 10 minutes after he was first saddled. He took the saddle with no complaint and only gave a few animated bucks as we started down towards the Amusement Park.
Most of the stages in the Amusement Park are self explanatory. In these shots he is simply walking over a tarp and then being lead into a sloping pit that is about 2 feet deep.