[QUOTE=Just Not Native;8467858]
I am making an observation. The barn I am at is not strictly Quarter Horses, it is close to my home and the care is good.
Is it not true that The AQHA and some members are concerned with the trend of training young horses?[/QUOTE]
That is not so easy to answer, there is so much more to horses, here athletes, having injuries and which ones and why than meets the eye.
Horses, like humans, will get injured in all sort of ways just being alive.
Horses, like humans, depending on what they do that requires physical exertion, will have injuries from that exertion, just as pasture puffs will have the kinds of injuries that happen there.
Now, are you sure you can say this kind of training and competing is better or worse because of the kind it is and that is all?
Or the way they are trained and competed?
Or the kind of horse?
Or … ?
Break all that down and there are in depth answers for all of that.
We know today that starting training for any task, for humans and horses and any other, will make the ones so trained better and help them stay fit and sound better than starting later.
In horses, there are now enough studies showing that colts started as early two’s tend to end up with better bone, soft tissue and metabolic adaptations than those started later.
The trick to that is that you have to train right for every stage to achieve that.
If you take any horse and don’t know what you are doing and overdo it, no matter when you start their training, you may cause injuries to happen.
We know today that, when you start each horse, as long as your program fits that horse, they should train to their best, which is the goal of any training.
Many decades ago, in our gymnastic team, most of us started training seriously at 8/9 years old.
Who was the best heads and shoulders over the rest?
The trainer’s girl, that had started in the gym as a 4/5 year old.
She was best because of her training and talent, but also because she had been growing already into it, her body as it matured already adapting and refining her talent.
When starting horses early, that is what we are doing, giving their growing bodies and mind the tools to learn to be the best they are going to be at what they were bred for.
Lets talk about injuries and rehab and any needed maintenance.
You can’t believe how much more we know today about all of that.
Training and conditioning and maintaining is a veritable science today, trainers and vets right on top of it all with tools that were not available just a few years ago.
You can’t believe how much more we can do for anyone competing, injured or in rehab.
Unless you have some way to compare between barns, you know the whole training, competing and vet history of all those horses, you really don’t know which barn was doing the best for their horses, which horses may have problems.
The reasons, without knowing any more, are a mere guess, generally a biased one if we don’t know the discipline we are being critical about.
Then, lets see, the type of horse, that too enters the picture here.
You will stress a larger, lean type TB if you expect it to train and perform against horses bred for short, athletic bursts.
You may end up with a very sick horse if it is built and trained for short distances and you expect it to now run a 1 1/2 mile against TBs.
What that shows you is that, when you have the right horse for the task at hand, train it correctly for that task, is talented and performs that task well and the lucky stars align for everyone, those horses, that is many that compete, will do well.
Two years ago, they looked at the performance horses in the NFR, the National Finals Rodeo.
Those are horses that have spent years training and hauling down the road and competing and qualified by money earned on them that year to be at the top.
The median age of those was 17 1/2 years old and more than half were over 20.
Those are not the exception, at the lower levels of competition in many disciplines, there are many horses that were started young, now older, sound and happy horses competing at whatever level their talent, training and in their older years less intense competing permits them.
My point, I don’t think it is valid to question in a negative way a whole group, with no more to go by than the OP brought to the table here.
