My older young horse (3.5 years old) just went under saddle and he is amazing. He looks relaxed, but he is not matching his natural trot under saddle (he is in canter and walk) and we are working to find his rhythm before any contact is expected. I had a chat with the colt starter (who is a top hunter/jumper rider) and she avoids the young horse tests just because it may require that you overtrain or override to compete at that young of age–when the goal for all of us is FEI. If you have horse whose spectatular natural gaits aren’t disrupted by being put under saddle, or whose horse has no tension, that’s great and you should go for it. With mine, I think (at least for the four year old year) we are going to take him to some big H/J shows where he is just going to school in big atmospheres and learn to be a show horse. I showed him in hand last year and he did well, but he really did not ever end up comfortable with the show environment. If the end goal is FEI, the young horse classes may not be the right path for some horses.
I figure if I have a young horse already showing that general level, than why not see what it’s like for the experience 
. I think he’ll be an FEI prospect regardless since we have the start of piaffe now and we can do a rough cut of 4-1 at home, but time will tell. I’m an amateur and it’s a learning experience for me!
That’s why I did Young Horse with my warmblood. We had a lot of fun doing it as well as I got to do some big shows with him.
I’ve got a 4 year old Friesian just coming under saddle now. We may go do a few YH classes for the sake of it. She won’t be competitive in any sense, but it’s good exposure and I find the tests a lot less stressful than regular tests.
Certainly you should do it for the experience if you are interested! But they really are looking for international level FEI prospects, not just a horse that could do FEI someday. If you are scoring in the low to mid 60s at 3rd you will probably not do well on these classes - the judges won’t be rude or mean but they will be honest and sometimes that can hurt too! I’ve scribed for a lot of these classes and it really is intended to be a pipeline for future team horses.
Oh I have no illusions! I’m going to try 3-3 again first to see if we can’t get high sixties / maybeee break 70 with a clean test (those earlier tries earlier this year when he was 5 have some 3s / 4s for spooks etc. and he is way more mature now). I know what he is, but I want the feedback regardless and to say we did it (and again I think we have a good shot of best IAHLA doing it since the field is sparse or empty 
). We’ve gotten at least 7 and some 8s on every movement in the third tests so far, just not at the same time 
.
Also the honesty on training and strengths/weaknesses is invaluable too I think - I think I like the idea of feedback tailored to the horse itself, which you don’t necessarily get in as much detail in the regular tests.
These classes are fun because you don’t have to be “perfect”. You can have a few bobbles and still get a good score.
The 4 year old test I love the flow to but it really sucks that you have to do it sitting - even the stretchy. That’s hard on a young horse.
A day after I come here all mom-bragging about my 5 year old the poor buddy gets a runny nose and cough, just in time for us to miss our clinic 
. I have learned my lesson about announcing plans 
.
Also I looked up last year’s world championships results and the highest Iberian horse placed 14th with a 77.2 (7.4 trot, 8 walk, 7.5 canter, 8 submission, 7.8 perspective). If we get scores over 6.5 in anything I’d be very proud.
Jumping in for a quick question - I have a lovely 4 y/o PRE, but he has the misfortune of being born in October - he literally just turned 4. He is working on first level movements, but we are still balancing his giant canter and trying to avoid exuberant departs. How does the YH competition year work? Can I show him in the four year old test in 2022 until he turns 5 next October? Or am I stuck campaigning him towards the 5 y/o test? I’d rather show him materiale and training level if that’s the case.
For Lamplight (the finals) it’s calendar year, if I read correctly. For other shows, I’m not sure. The test itself doesn’t say.
Also FYI I’m looking at the guidelines and they don’t say “international team horse” (not that they would). It’s about finding horses with potential period - marks shouldn’t be 6 or lower unless there’s significant deficiencies and so I think a person can be happy with anything > 6 ish and very happy with over 7 (only the top 6 year olds in the world scored in the 80s ).
