I’ve been working with my 13 month old appaloosa colt for three months now, he came from nothing. He literally knew not a human touch when he came to me. Now he’s a wonderful willing partner but I find whenever I take him out on the trail and road he’s bored. I’ve also have been doing some saddle desensitizing and lunging. So what are some ways to keep him him engaged on the trail? I also have been wondering about working him. I went to watch the one year old lunging class and I was amazed on how well they lunged, they must have done hours of practice. But some articles and veterinary studies say lunging before two is extremely unhealthy for their legs?! I don’t want to strain his legs I want him in the best possible health but I would like to exercise him. I’m looking for round pen ideas that won’t strain his little legs 
any ideas and advice is appreciated as long as it’s positive! He isn’t going to be some crazy athlete mainly used for halter classes and local trail and maybe cattle penning. I would also appreciate some exercises to build surefootedness on the trail.
Are you riding him or ponying him?
If you are riding him out on trails, he’ll be a lot more surefooted if you waited until he was closer to three+ so he can adapt to his ever changing balance. The best exercise is turnout in pasture with buddies young or old to play with.
Since most round pens seem to be smaller than the recommended size longeing circle of 20m or a little over 20 yards in diameter. Round penning isn’t helpful at this stage of his growth either.
He’s only a year I’m definitely not riding him! I take him in hand as we don’t have a good older horse he can go along with. The herd doesn’t really play with him, he tends to stay by himself a lot in the pasture sticking to the outskirts of the herd. And when I say round pen work I mean just desensitizing and respect exercises in close quarters. I’ve only lunged him at a walk to teach direction changes.
If I am understanding you correctly, it sounds as if you’ve made good progress getting him used to being around people and having basic manners. Also if I understand what you mean about being “engaged” on your hand walks, it sounds as if you don’t have his full attention. Is that what you meant?
If so, there are a couple of things to say about that. First, he is young and naturally has a shorter attention span than a mature horse. Second, you may have more work to do to get him really watching you for leadership. In other words, he is happy to follow you as long as there’s nothing more interesting or scary or . . .
I think your challenge is to find activities that reinforce your leadership and end before his attention span is exceeded. On trail walks (which by the way are wonderful for his confidence and his relationship with you), I think this means enforcing some ground rules AND giving him breaks along the way so that he has time to relax. There’s probably a book that would help here, but I don’t know it personally. “Bringing up Baby” by John Lyons comes to mind, but I haven’t read it.
Keep up the good work and stay patient and positive.
Honestly, just keep doing what you’re doing.
My Arab was a flailing mess of legs off and on until he quit growing at 6… He’d figure his body out, then he’d grow and things would get out of whack. He’d relearn how to use his legs and be fine again…until the next growth spurt. He couldn’t really canter under saddle with any amount of coordination until he was 5.
At that age, I wouldn’t concentrate much on “working” so much as just getting him out to see the world. As long as he has decent manners on the lead while out on the trail, I’d let him do some exploring and kind of follow his lead to an extent. I have some extremely simple rules on a lead:
1.) Don’t touch me
2.) Stay behind my shoulder
3.) Don’t pull on the lead
I don’t care what my Arab does as long as he accomplishes those three things. If he has enough slack in the lead to do it, his favorite thing is to stop, grab a bite of grass, trot to catch up, stop and grab a bite, trot to catch up, etc. People laugh and think its hilarious. He never once hits the end of the lead or makes me break stride in any way. If he doesn’t have the slack to do this, he’ll just follow along on a loose lead with whatever slack he does have.
I took my boy as a 3yo (I got him just before his 3rd bday) on lots of hikes where I’d just walk along and basically just let him do what he wanted as long as he adhered to those rules. He seemed to enjoy our outings. These days (he’s 9 now) he’s a pretty fearless trail horse and is extremely sure footed. He’ll be my daughter’s horse once she’s old enough.
How exactly are you enforcing those rules, Candygirl? Break it down for me?
When my appaloosa was that age we went on HIKES. Is he really bored out on the trails? There is so much to see - I find most horses are pretty engaged when they get to go out in a new area / see new things.
Any way, my long yearling went for lots of hikes - and even trail runs. I would “walk” her much like a dog, and go explore. By the time she was 3, she was SOLID out doors - so much so, her first ride was in a halter in an open field.
Now as a 7 year old, she is a confident, go any where solo trail horse - and I credit that to the many hours the two of us spent on foot out in the woods and the hills. People call her a “trail machine”
Unlike the post above though - I ask for a bit more discipline. I don’t want my horse snatching grass while I ride - so I don’t allow her to snatch grass while leading. Instead I will REWARD her with a graze - but once we are going again, we are going. I ask the horse to behave in the same manner I would want them to behave undersaddle. We don’t mosey, we MARCH, I ask for a forward not “lagging” walk etc.
As for yearling lunge line classes - just NO. Lunging is really bad for young legs. “yearling lunge line” classes are a very very bad idea for long term soundness. But these are the same breed shows that have “two year old futurities” - big guys with huge saddles on tiny, barely 2 year old horses - again, a good away to cripple a horse. Many are started under saddle well before their 2nd birthday. I can point you to many 6 and 7 year olds with arthritis and navicular due to these practices.
Learn to long line (drive). I used to long line my horse out on the trails. It is a great way to get them used to walking forward on their own and listening to your commands without putting any strain on their legs. I wouldn’t do a lot of round pen or lunging; with long lining you can go straight.
I challenge the concept that horses get “bored.” A “bored” horse in the state of nature, one suffused with ennui, would quickly become dinner for a more “engaged” predator. 
I highly recommend a book entitled Evidence Based Horsemanship. Google it and you’ll get to the author’s website and can read about it and the concepts behind it.
With a 13 month old yearling I’d do basic ground work, get them thoroughly acclimatized to handling, instill strong ground manners, but not worry about much more. They are too young to even think about saddle work. Ponying out on a trail is OK and will introduce new sensations in a “safe” environment (“follow the big horse and you won’t get into trouble”). Be aware that you can “overload” the brain of a yearling and that can lead to problems later. I’d stick with basics in a quiet way and leave it at that.
G.
He is a baby, and my advise-just let him be a horse for now. I only handled our young horses before they were at an age to be started under saddle, to trim feet, teach them to lead and tie, and regular de-worming and vaccinations
Only exceptions were young horses that I showed at halter, where of course they must be fitted up. Those I ponied.
Yes, once I started them under saddle as late two year olds or early three year olds, I did some basic roundpen work and some lunging, while bitting them up
I also ground drove them
In your circumstance, I would try and find a situation where he has some horses his own age to play with. That alone does wonders for their co ordination and conditioning, not to mention, social /herd knowledge
While we raised most of our horses, I did buy some un handled PMU colts that were between 7 and 9 months old. Once I had them leading, etc, they also did fine with just the above handling, until they were ready to start under saddle
Sure footedness was really learned once they went on some mountain rides
I have somewhat of a similar situation. A rescued a horse, who hadn’t been around people in a long time. Prior to that he was very green broke by a person who had no business owning him.
I brought him to a stable and trained him as much as I could before having to bring him back to my house.
At my house it’s just him and my old guy. We have a grass arena and 100 acres of fields, but no arena with sand or round pen. He became very naughty…very barn sour and hyper there. He would toss his head and threaten to buck, rush towards the arena gate, just be stiff and miserable.
I basically had to restart him. I lunged with side reins. When I ride I do lots of transitions (especially downward). When he is really in a mode I walk and ask him to bend right, left, and constantly turn him into circles…different sizes, directions, etc. I also put down poles for him to walk over. It has been a lifesaver. He is much better now.
As far as lunging, I do play it very carefully on lunging. I use it as a way for him and I to connect mentally. Once that happens, I stop lunging and get on. I don’t lunge for longer then 10 minutes because it is hard on their hocks…plus it’s boring for them, you loose them mentally anyways. I do a lot of walking on the lunge line too.
The horse is 13 months old, not an older horse that has been negelected
[QUOTE=KIloBright;7899398]
The horse is 13 months old, not an older horse that has been negelected[/QUOTE]
I’m not so sure that is a distinction with a difference. Green is green. Age can be relevant in terms of maturity and experience, but green is still green.
I like olim’s approach. We’ve used similar approaches with horses that had some sort of “spoiled character.” Quiet, correct work will cure a lot of equine ills, no matter the age of the equine.
G.
Not sure of your stance on round-penning - but it can be very hard on the legs and it is easy to pop a splint, or do other damage.
I took my suckling up into the hills and she followed her mother from a very young age…managed very well, learned her footing, and when she was thirsty would go under the reins and stop her mom, have a drink, and then we could get going again.
She learned to come down very steep slopes diagonally so she would not go splat by coming down too steeply.
To develop sure footedness I kept my babies on a very steep and heavily wooded mountainside w my goats for the first five years of their lives.
The results were fabulous.
