I know some people break horses young and others later, but how do you decide that TODAY is the day?
Define “break”. Mine depends on the “baby”. All of mine do the Hunter Breeding shows which acclimates them to bridles, jogging in hand and all that jazz. That is obviously not needed but it certainly has helped mine with the basics.
My 3 year old told me when she was ready. I had acclimated her to the saddle and ground driving etc as a long 2 year old. She got the winter off for the most part. Then I started working with her again in the spring.
When all the ground work got to be old hat and she would yawn when I backed her, I honestly just swung up on her one day. Huh, she looked at me and walked around. Done.
So, for me, there is no “set” answer. It just was right.
Let them be a baby
Training
Conditioning
Repetition
I’m sure you will get lots of answers. I was not in a hurry, she was the foal I decided to keep. Literally, she told me she was ready. I did it myself and was totally comfortable.
Most people don’t break horses in a day. It’s a process.
For me, I believe in starting them as 3 year olds. How much they do is dependent on their level of physical & mental maturity at that age.
I’ve typically done about a month of ground-work (for the horse pulled straight out of the field - less if they have had more handling), then 3 months under saddle. Their work would top out at w/t/c on the bit, shallow leg yields, some big figures that incorporate bending, and hacking when I’ve got a lead horse.
However my 3 year old is more like a 2 year old physically, so he will do light walk/trot and get turned back out until next year.
With him, I waited until he wasn’t in a growth spurt and the weather is warm enough that it’s too much effort to be silly. (He has a seriously quick spin-a-rama spook that I’d like to Not experience!)
But it’s not about the time frame (i.e. 1 week of this, 3 months of that), it’s about acceptance at each step. It takes as long as it takes.
I do start them in a day, and mine all get started at 3. The horses don’t need more then that, and the market demands 30 days w/t/c, stop and turn. I wait until I have a long weekend early summer of their 3 yo year and get to work. They are under saddle the first day, but the progress after that is up to the horse. Comfort, Confidence, balance and aptitude drive the speed of learning. Day one is like orientation, this is your uniform, you will wear this uniform(sadle, bit, etc) every day that you are in class. This is how you will learn, this is the language we will use, and I am your new best friend. Lets go have some fun.
Tim
Love your analogy Tim.
[QUOTE=Anteup;6318007]
I know some people break horses young and others later, but how do you decide that TODAY is the day?[/QUOTE]
For me, it’s not a day, but a time I guess, that is dependent upon the horse. I had every intention of starting my own pony as a 3 year old, but she just looked too much “baby”, so I gave her another year before starting her undersaddle. She just didn’t look physically mature enough and since this was my own personal mare, I was in no hurry. It was the right decision for her.
It depends. We start considering the starting process during the summer of the horse’s 3rd year, but may wait until the 4th year if that is what is necessary. Here is our process:
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We look at the horse physically – this is subjective, but if the horse is small, looks overly “immature” or is in a wonky growth stage, we wait for further physical development – we don’t look for perfection, but like to start when the horse looks somewhat harmonious;
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Somewhat related to physical maturity is the horse’s coordination – if the horse has a strange growth spurt that puts him/her overly butt-high or if the horse has not broadened through the chest and is base narrow, they may not be at their optimum place to learn how to balance with a rider on their back.
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Mental maturity – again subjective, but some horses are just more ready than others at 3. Because we do a lot of in-hand and ground work ahead of time, we have a pretty good idea of where a young horse is mentally before introducing them to tack and rider.
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We use a combination of round pen and traditional techniques (I personally like Chris Irwin’s outlook/approach), and do it relatively slowly. The basics of w/t/c can be done over a long weekend, as Tim notes, but we generally don’t have ours competing until 4, so we often have the luxury of an extended “starting” period, followed by a more intense period of training for specific performance requirements. Our experience is that the competition learning curve goes pretty quickly using this approach.
Thanks for all the good answer so far!
So here’s a little background. I bred my little guy and he’s my only horse. I’m not in a hurry, but I am, meaning that I’ll wait as long as it takes, but I’m itching for my little boy to be a grown up.
He wears a saddle and bridle and lunges WTC and has also long lined. So basically the next step is getting on. But he’s not yet 3, his birthday is in June. So do I wait until he’s literally 3? I like the idea of his appearance being the deciding factor, but sometimes I look at him and think, “Wow he’s so grown up! Just yesterday he was romping around on stilts!” and other times I look at him and say, “Wow he looks like such a baby!”
I guess I’m stuck in procrastination mode. Im at a perpetual, “Not yet” I guess I’ll just wait until he speaks to me 
Good suggestions. Add me to the list that appreciates a hot, humid, summer day 
no need to back them when its chilly & the wind is howling. If you able to afford that luxury.
[QUOTE=goodmorning;6320108]
Good suggestions. Add me to the list that appreciates a hot, humid, summer day no need to back them when its chilly & the wind is howling. If you able to afford that luxury.[/QUOTE]
Hot and humid or deep DEEP snow!
I think you do basic training all along. My babies lead, tie, hold up legs, etc. at a month. Then, you do everything with them. I would not do more than maybe sit on them and wander at a walk before 3 1/2. Maybe a little more than that and starting lunging. Don’t “start” riding until four. I’m a firm believer of the Deb Bennet Ranger piece about bone development, and you should really not be on their back before four to insure the best bone development. She even advocates being very careful until 7 or 8 of collected, heavy work because the last bones to close in the skull and spine are done until then and a lot of damage can happen.
You can do a lot of conditioning and working and “training” without getting on their back. I just think for all of the time and money put into a horse, that extra year at the beginning helps insure the extra 5 or 10 or 15 sound years at the end of their lives.
Mine just turned four in May, and while it’s not a day, that’s when I “started” to work on w/t/c and acting like a real horse and she will slowly work into a five day regime of half hour rides over six months or so. She’s clearly still developing, but has changed a lot in stature and balance in just the last six months. I can’t imagine trying to have worked with her six months ago and realistically expecting anything.
Interestingly, I also have her two year old full sister. She looks like a mature horse right now (unlike the now four year old who looked like a giraffe/wildabeast comb. until after three.) She’s big, heavy bodied, and if you had no clue her age, you’d think she was fully grown. I think it’s a bad road to go on just to go by how they look.
I don’t start my horses myself, I send them to my trainer. But I am a firm believer in not backing until their 4 yr old year. And I hate the term “BREAK” :no:
I start breaking mine as weanlings. How a person halter breaks their horse whether it be a foal or older will have a significant impact on how they will go undersaddle. So to me, the breaking process starts the minute I touch the horse for the first time.
I expect my weanlings to lead with a float in the rope, I expect them to step over with their hindquarters and forequarters. I expect them to be able to lower their heads and stick their nose in the halter. I expect them to be able to pick up their feet and not try to pull their foot out of my hand. I expect them to back when I apply some pressure to the halter. All this being done without drilling but on a consistant basis. I try not to be critical but particular.
I also handle the girth area and put pressure behind the foreleg and say to myself, this will be the girth someday.
I will swing a wintec lightweight saddle (without a girth or pad) on their backs and just let it sit there so that they will get used to seeing something from above and feel it on their back. I hold on to it and don`t leave there for long but remove it before they have a reaction.
I teach them to stand back when I feed and not to try and leave before I finish politely taking the halter off when I turn them out.
All these little things are elements (and others) that I work on that will make it better when I first actually get on and I consider part of the breaking process and may start years before I actually get on. They are the basics; the foundation from which all communication will start from. There will be no surprises.
For some good information on when to “physically” start horses Dr. Deb Bennett has written The Ranger Articles on her website
Personally I dont actually put a horse to ridden WORK until they are 4 and I take each horse as an individual. Some dont get seriously worked until 6, just depends.
Beentheredonethat…
I see that we think along the same lines!
Ok, I’ll start this by saying that I am sleep deprived thanks to a lovely fat mare. But, I am sorry, but if I see another mention of the article on Ranger, I’ll scream.
I am not saying the findings are not true, BUT, empirical evidence from years and YEARS of starting horses as young as 18 months for racing, for instance, proves otherwise. Or cavalry.
Nowadays, where horses are used for sport and leasure, we forget how hard we can make those animals work. Starting even a two year-old to ride, by sitting on it and taking it out on trails or hacks won’t break it.
Off my soapbox now.
I am with the others that treat it as a gentle progression from day one… be the foal, yearling, 2yo. Each and every time is an opportunity for learning.
I like to do short, but multiple sessions.
When the routine becomes ‘boring’, I introduce a new element.
For example, grooming went from just grooming with the brushes to included being rubbed with a towel, then leaving the towel on back, neck or hindquarters, then leaving a saddle pad on the back, then saddle pad/saddle. I also put and took everything off from both sides. I also worked from an elastic surcingle for blankets, to a lunging surcingle to saddle/girth.
The decision to actually sit on my guy came late in the fall of his 2yo year. I had done some free lunging in the round pen - first with no-tack, then with tack, then with a lunge line… when I could lunge him in the open field, I knew we were ready. Lay across his back a few times, then swung my leg over. He could have cared less. We walked around the round pen, trotted a bit. It was a major non-event. Rode him for 3x for 10minutes then put him back out for the winter.
At the point they start accumulating new nicknames. Like Dennis The Menace, Witchy Woman, Leroy Brown, The Terror of Anoka County…then they need a job and with Irish Draughts they will not want to stop working once they start. It is the degree of work that varies. If they are very unfit or young and still developing riders are small and light and work is more about fun positive experience. Serious work is never longer than 15 minutes to 30 minutes. I have had a 2 1/2 yo stud colt who was beginning stallion life in his own paddock and he wanted a job…yes he was only 2 but he was not happy…work made him happy. He is a 9yo gelding now and has been in happy work since without a lame step. Stallions and geldings seem ready to have a job sooner than fillies but maybe fillies NEED the structure more. That is mostly what I am after for my youngsters is experince and structure…learning about someone else being in control of them. They learn about new places and different rules. They should learn being ridden is fun. I have also had 5 yos who were just getting physically in control of their geeky self and were finally ready to start work at 5 so it varies. If you want to get them ready for sale as a backed horse I aim for starting the winter before they turn 4 so by spring they are solid and can start outside in the open fields. I find they look me in the eye and say “What is the point of my existance?” PatO
[QUOTE=mikali;6321345]
I am with the others that treat it as a gentle progression from day one… be the foal, yearling, 2yo. Each and every time is an opportunity for learning. [/QUOTE]
Agreed, but not everyone has the luxury of owning their horse since day 1. The pre-breaking groundwork on a virtually unhandled 3 or 4 y.o. is entirely different from a horse who has been handled, socialized, & desensitized his whole life.
