How Hard Do You Work Your Younger Horses?

[kathy_s]

[QUOTE=rainechyldes;7096031]
sorry I have to totally disagree . QH and TB people - that’s their defense but it’s untrue. Most horses - including scrubby range bred mares are not skeletally mature until they are5/ 6 give or take 6 months for environmental factors. . Causing excessive amounts of microfractures in horses as young as 2 is not beneficial to long term soundness. People mostly concern themselves with grow plates in the knees… every bone in the skeleton has growth plates and they ‘close’ as we like to say at different rates or fuse - depending on what you prefer to call it. The cervical bones don’t fuse in ANY breed of horse until the 5th year. - meaning starting a horse young, you are more likely to do permanent injury to a horses back and neck then any ‘unsoundness’ you may think you are doing to their legs. I’ve seen horses with slipped backs - ridden at 2, bred at 3 - it’s a mess.

And male horse mature skeletally slower then females - and the bigger/taller your horse is means it matures even slower. So your 17.2hh WB with the lovely elegant neck? might look all grown up but it’s possible he might at the age of up to and beyond 7 years still be maturing.

You are more likely to have a much healthier (talking physical soundness only of course) horse the later you start them - not the earlier.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for this ^^

My sister & I debate this issue constantly. She rides and shows Paints and I raise & train Arabians but have a wonderful young lady ride and show them for me. I don’t understand riding the huge 3 y/o gelding whose knees aren’t together much less mentally ready for hard work. My sister swears it doesn’t hurt them but her horse is 8 and needs hock injections while mine never have. And IMO, geldings have a better chance of living a long life if they stay sound. And besides, what is the hurry? And fwiw, I am disgusted by AHA adding 3 y/o saddleseat futurities to the larger shows. Again, IMO, this creates throwaway horses.

[longride1]

The studies the NC State did were about the effect of different types of exercise on 2-3 year olds. As I remember they looked at muscles development and legs. They found that babies whose work consisted of short sharp bursts of exercise had better remodeling and tolerated the work better than those doing ring work with lots of repetitive motion. Those youngsters had higher bone density and stronger skeletal development. I don’t think at that time any attention was paid to their back and neck nor do I know if any of the horses were followed beyond their 4 year old year. My take away is in a perfect world I’d have my 2 year old ponying with an older horse and getting the miles in with lots of speed play, ridden work with a light rider, mostly trails at three, and beginning serious flat work at 4. It’s not don’t get on at all, it’s who gets on and what do they do. Mentally geldings are very trainable between 2-3, with mares taking longer to reach that malleable stage but catching up very quickly once they do. As someone else mentioned, 4 year old males can be very trying. OTOH I’ve had great success with mares started at 7 or 8.

[whiskey]

Well, I highly doubt my definition of ‘serious work.’ Is comparable to many others. When I say work, I mean arena riding, working on fine tuning some training, helping her be balanced at different gates. I am guilty of riding in an arena for an hour or more, mostly because I wasn’t trail riding that day. When I trail ride, I keep an eye on my horse’s energy level and we just go as far as we go.

Before I owned my horse, she came to me. Broken at 2, sent to a cutting trainer at 3 for a month, and other than that she had light trail riding done on her. She was sold because she was too much horse for the owner because in the arena, she quickly loses control of her speed and has no handling. We’re working on it.

I obviously, don’t want to damage my horse, and hope that she’s around until 30. A friend of mine who is an old school cowboy had a horse, broke him as a colt, rode him hard and put him to work right away and he lived to be 32 but that’s a moot point.

I don’t show. I pleasure ride, and am tuning up her basic training. If I ever do anything else with her, such as cut cows, dressage, whatever - it won’t be for a few years. It’s obvious her mind needs maturing and I can see it, but trail rides being harmful? I don’t know there’d have to be some strong evidence for me to believe that I shouldn’t be riding my 4 year old, who’s already probably 15 hands and it’s harmful for her. If anything she’s become so desensitized to everything and with every TRAIL ride, HER confidence in ME grows and she understands what’s expected of her.

I can obviously understand and agree with not wearing down the horses joints, but if nothing strenuous is truly being asked, I don’t see the harm in riding a 4 year old.

[Beverley]

My horses started at two (20-30 minutes a ride) have generally been going well in their 20s, save the one killed by lightning at 14.

At 3, a bit more, all day slow trail rides occasionally, frequent shorter trail rides, 30-45 minutes for arena work.

At 4, a bit more, periodic hard works (all day moving cattle for example). At 5, start over fences (which is to say, in prior years, a bit of lower gymnastic work is fine) and nothing wrong with a good hard day of foxhunting.