<\/p>\n
At the Colt Starting Challenge Friday, a crowd of 40 watched the variety of styles used to gentle an untrained horse.<\/p>\n
The new competitive fair event features six trainers who are introduced to an unbroken horse they have never met.<\/p>\n
They get two hours to halter, saddle, and ride the horse in a small pen while being judged on natural horsemanship techniques.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur event speeds up the process of gentling, and is useful for problem horses as well,\u201d said announcer Cristy Beatty.<\/p>\n
The event begins, and the audience observes six professional trainers as they attempt to control steeds.<\/p>\n
Methods vary<\/p>\n
At first skittish and panicked horses flinch and flee from the trainers. Then gradually they give in to trust, some taking more time than others.<\/p>\n
Russell Beatty, a nationally known horse trainer, and host of the event, takes the casual but firm approach with Pearl, and halters her. Then the work begins. A habit of crowding is immediately dealt with and within 10 minutes the horse gives Beatty a nice buffer while on a rope lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoticed how I did not sneak up; that looks like a predator and will scare her off,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In pen five, trainer Boone Mooneyham is rounding up Melissa Ramsey\u2019s horse, Lil\u2019 Bit, of Dolores.<\/p>\n
He first needs to \u201cget the horse to respect me by looking me in the eye. I don\u2019t halter until I get respect. It makes it easier in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI train horses, but this one is a bit young for my experience,\u201d Ramsey said. He\u2019s acts immature and emotional like my toddler, but much bigger. He will be broke in two days, then I can take over training after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within 40 minutes, Mooneyham has persuaded Lil\u2019Bit to simulate ranching chores around him. The mare only slightly flinches when the trainer drops off piles of lumber near her, suddenly whips tarps around, and marches back and forth as if on the farm.<\/p>\n
Mooneyham is a fast worker, and the horse is responding, looking at him for the next move. In little time, he lies his large frame over the horse\u2019s back, and then releases just before she starts to buck. After 50 minutes, the young horse is warming up to a saddle.<\/p>\n
Affordable option<\/p>\n
Ramsey, of Lewis, said she jumped at the chance for a professional to train her horse, and the $200 fee is affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally it would be a month of training time, really expansive \u201d she said. \u201cI am training myself and my horses to work in the field of therapeutic riding.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other pens two horses have given into panic and are wildly bucking and running around their pen, quite a sight up close. Hefty trainers laugh it off and seem to enjoy occasionally getting \u201chorse-checked\u201d into the pen fences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used to just saddle them up fast and ride the buck out of them,\u201d says Laurel Davidson, of Dolores. \u201cNatural horsemanship is better, easier on the horse, and safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wants her horse Pen Becket to be broke for trail riding, one of the toughest, says trainer Sophia Cherkashina, of Grand Junction, Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a trail ride, there is so much that can happen,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I train the horse to always look to me for guidance, to know there is peace with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davidson appreciates Cherkashina\u2019s lack of props or ropes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe uses body movements and is calm. She\u2019s a true horseman, not a cowboy who works a horse after its been trained,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday each rider rode their horse through an obstacle course in the arena. After the previous day\u2019s lessons, the mostly gentled horses seemed willing to accept a rider guiding them over a tarp, weaving through vertical poles, walking through zig-zag poles, roping a barrel, and dragging a pole.<\/p>\n
Judges announced Vic Sundquist as the winner and a belt buckle was awarded.<\/p>\n
His horse, Tiger, had a pushy attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a dominate horse and did not want to do what I wanted at first,\u201d Sundquist said. \u201cHe did exceptionally well in the obstacle course once he figured out I was the boss.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second-place winner was Lanny Leach, of Dragoon Ariz., working Sansa, owned by Michael McFarland of Dolores. Third place went to Sophia Cherkashina of Grand Junction.<\/p>\n