07/24/2026
This is dedicated to my friend Emma and to every capable, hardworking professional who starts and develops horses. I have a great deal of respect for Emma, the work she does, and the people willing to take on young horses when the outcome is never guaranteed.
If you are fortunate enough to have Emma as your trainer, make the investment in her. Invest in her program, her instruction, her experience, and the relationship she is trying to build between you and your horse. Let her help you find the right horse, teach you or your child to ride, guide the horse through its development, and manage the process when it gets difficult.
Trainer Is More Than Thirty Days
A good trainer is more than someone who rides your horse for thirty days. They are a coach, an educator, a problem-solver, a safety net, and often the person who sees problems before they become disasters.
Trust does not mean you cannot ask questions or stay involved. It means you chose a professional carefully and give them enough consistency, respect, and room to do the job well.
What Does âStarting Coltsâ Actually Mean?
We need to be honest about what we mean when we say âstarting c**ts.â
I worked for operations where we would bring in two- and three-year-olds, halter-break them, and then turn them back out until they were four, five, six, and sometimes even seven years old. When those horses came back in, they were physically stronger, more established in their bodies, and often more established in their opinions.
Starting a two-year-old can be a challenge. They can be flighty, reactive, and immature. But a six- or seven-year-old that has spent years developing strength, balance, habits, and confidence can be an entirely different challenge. They may be more solid physically, but they are not necessarily easier to start. They can be much harder to move off balance, more committed to their reactions, and less forgiving when they decide they do not like something.
If you know, you know.
Starting horses is not a clean, predictable process. A horse may buck. It may kick. It may resist, panic, test boundaries, or have a difficult day. That does not automatically mean somebody abused it, ruined it, or failed it. Horses are individuals. Training is a process, not a short internet clip.
Difference Between Training and Abuse
I am not talking about excusing abuse. There is a clear difference between abuse and the normal, sometimes uncomfortable reality of training a young or difficult horse.
Horses deserve fair treatment, capable hands, safe facilities, appropriate veterinary and farrier care, and trainers who put safety and long-term soundness before ego. But we also need to recognize the difference between a horse having a real reaction and someone mistreating a horse.
If you have never been in the battle, be careful about condemning the people who are.
Contradiction Hurting Horse Trainers
There is a serious contradiction developing in the horse world:
- People desperately need good c**t starters.
- People criticize every moment of a c**t being started.
- People compare real training sessions to highly edited internet videos.
- People expect a young horse to be quiet, safe, and âfinishedâ immediately.
- People sometimes refuse to pay because the horse did not progress exactly as they imagined.
- Then a more advanced trainer takes over and may criticize how the horse was started, despite not being willing to start those horses themselves.
Eventually, someone has to throw a leg over the horse.
When there are five, ten, or twenty more horses waiting to be started, time matters. The work still needs patience, feel, timing, fairness, and sound judgment. But it also requires someone who understands the risk involved and is willing to do the job in real lifeânot just explain how it should look from a chair, a camera, or a comment section.
Experience Does Not Fit in a Comment Section
I am fifty-three years old. I have ridden hundreds of young horses and spent much of my twenties doing that kind of work. I rode enough at the time that I thought I could throw my hat in and become a saddle-bronc rider, which I did, and I was reasonably good at it because I was riding for a living.
When I was doing it, there was no internet audience. There were no secret cameras, recording glasses, social-media clips, or comment sections ready to tear apart every decision made in a training pen.
That does not mean we should excuse bad training. It means we need to be capable of recognizing the difference between a horse having a real reaction and someone mishandling a horse.
As a farrier, I could often tell from quite a ways away who had genuine horse experience and who did not. The horse, the rider, the ownerâs handling, the barn routine, and the feet usually told the story long before anyone had to explain it.
Find a Trainer and Commit to the Program
My advice to people entering the horse worldâespecially families bringing in a horse for a son or daughterâis simple: find a reputable trainer whose values, methods, results, and communication you respect. Then commit to that relationship.
The happiest owners I have seen were not constantly searching the internet for another opinion or criticizing their trainer because an influencer presented a different method in a polished video. They found a capable professional, followed the program, listened to coaching, let the trainer haul and manage the horse when needed, and focused on their own careers and families.
Those were the people who had safer kids, better horses, more confident riders, and more enjoyment in the long run.
If you have someone like Emma in your corner, recognize the value of that. Pay her fairly. Support her work. Let her teach you or your child to ride. Let her help you make good decisions before a problem becomes a disaster. Let her help you find a horse that suits your ability, goals, and budget.
There Is No Bulletproof Horse
There are good horses, educated horses, experienced horses, and horses well-suited to certain ridersâbut no horse is immune to fear, pain, poor footing, confusion, or a rider being in the wrong position at the wrong time.
What protects people is not a mythical perfect horse. It is competent riding, proper instruction, good horse-and-rider matching, and miles in the saddle.
A trainer can also become your riding instructor, and that matters. A child or adult who learns balance, position, timing, confidence, and how to read a horse is far safer than someone who simply buys a more expensive horse and expects the horse to compensate for every mistake.
Learn From Practitioners, Not Just Influencers
The television version of horseback riding is not the standard. If you are watching Rip ride on *Yellowstone*, he is not the example to model. If you watch the men and women riding at the Four Sixes, many of them are outstanding riders and trainers.
Learn from people who consistently ride, produce useful horses, teach riders, manage real problems, and do the work when no camera is pointed at them. Be cautious of anyone who spends more time making proclamations about horse training online than they spend horseback.
Keeping Horses Accessible
If we want horses to remain a middle-class sport, we need to respect the people who produce safe, usable horses.
Not every family can buy a finished horse for tens of thousands of dollars. At the elite level, proven jumpers, cutters, barrel horses, and breeding stallions can sell for hundreds of thousands or millions because they represent years of risk, skill, training, veterinary care, feed, hauling, and management.
For most families, the practical path is to work with a trustworthy trainer, buy the right horse for the budget and riderâs ability, take lessons, and build knowledge over time.
I was raised in a middle-class family, and we had a horse operation. Even when I was a teenager, we learned that buying carefully, developing our own horses, and selling when appropriate often made more sense than trying to constantly buy someone elseâs finished product. That was true long before the internet.
Support the People Doing the Work
Pay good trainers a wage that reflects the risk, knowledge, responsibility, facilities, time, and years of experience involved. Do not expect a trainer to absorb the cost of every difficult horse, every unrealistic expectation, and every online criticism.
Do not film every second of a training ride looking for something to judge later. Do not let an influencer who spends more time talking about horse training than actually riding become the final authority over the professional you hired.
If you do not trust your trainer enough to let them train, teach, and guide you, find another trainer. But once you find the right person, give them room to work.
Final Thought
My hat is off to every capable trainer willing to start young horses, deal with difficult ones, and keep showing up to do the work. We are going to lose good c**t starters if we demand perfection while condemning the people willing to take the risk.
That will not make horses safer. It will leave more horses unstarted, more owners frustrated, more riders injured, and more internet personalities making confident proclamations they cannot support in a real training pen.
Respect the work. Respect the horse. Choose your trainer carefully. Pay them fairly. Learn to ride. Give the process enough time to work.
And if you are lucky enough to have Emma in your corner, make the investment in her.All Around Equine
