Go Forward
After the colt's break, John returned to the pen. Still working at liberty, he resumed encouraging the colt to come to him and to go forward on cue. He began to teach the colt to follow that "go forward" cue no matter what was in front of him. First he cued him to walk over a series of poles. He then introduced a tarp on the ground. When the colt spooked at that, John quietly re-presented him to the tarp and rewarded any "try" whenever the colt even thought about stepping on it until he willingly walked over it four times.
"Good job, Dad!" came a shout from proud daughter Brandi up in the stands.
John then draped the coiled lariat on top of the colt's head and began getting him used to the feel of it all over his body. When a colt is "sacked out" with a rope or anything else that can be used to get his attention, he only incidentally learns that the object won't hurt him. Since there's no way to desensitize a horse to everything he might encounter that might scare him, it's much more important that he learns to follow a cue no matter what else might try to distract him.
Saddle Time
At this point, John had handled all four legs and began rubbing the colt with a rolled up, dark blue, striped Navajo blanket. He shook the blanket out, put it over the top of the colt's head like a cumbersome wedding veil, flapped it at him, and eventually had the colt walking quietly with the blanket on his back.
Next, John's colt stood still without a lead rope while John put his saddle on him. He pulled the cinch close to the colt's belly, then released it. He took the saddle and blanket off. The colt spooked when John re-approached with the saddle and a different (light-colored) blanket. To the colt, the light-colored blanket was something entirely new and scary, so John used this as an excellent opportunity to repeat and reinforce the earlier lessons of turning and facing him.
John's colt stood to be saddled from either side. John led him around with the cinch dangling, then held it against the colt's belly again. With ten minutes left, John tightened it up and moved the colt around to get him used to flapping stirrups.
By this point, the colt was accepting John's leadership in a highly visible way. Whenever John turned his back, the colt followed him.
He attached the lariat to the saddle horn and flipped it from side to side and around the colt's neck like a big jump rope as the colt stood quietly. He wrapped the rope around the colt's hind legs, feet, and chest.
With four minutes remaining, John put a regular snaffle bridle with full reins on the colt and put his foot in the stirrup. (It was a stretch-this was a big colt!) As he put more weight in the stirrup, the colt got nervous, so John started swinging his leg forward and back while the colt stood still.
John then unsaddled the colt and was out of the pen with all of his equipment with 30 seconds to spare. The colts were done for Day 1.
