As a breeder, rider and veterinarian I don’t think there is any detriment to the horses if done correctly. Yearlings can be jumped through the chute at low heights or even just ground poles and then moved up as two yr and up. Horses do far more damage to themselves playing in the pastures spinning and standing on their hind legs. Its not the jumping that does damage to most young horses, it is the quick start and stopping and twisting that stresses the joints and ligaments supporting them. Again, done right and under controlled conditions (ie not running them around the ring into the chute) and not done often, any horse can take the work. I agree that the market wants to see horses in the jump chute if they are supposed to be a performance horse. I am included in that group when looking at young horses. The jump chute is more about the willingness to jump, forward canter in the chute and the ability to correct mistakes in distances or jumping technique then the height of the fences they jump or the amount of times the horse has jumped. I think it is a great training tool for all ages of horses to gain experience and confidence.
I have to laugh Trinity, because I have seen all our youngsters do exactly the same. For some reason, the babies get really amazed by their dams rolling, and almost always jump over them in their excitement, even as newborns. Those Rubbermaid tubs? They are jumped over all of the time by the babies.
In preparation for Winter rains and mud, we now put in another layer of fresh sand in the areas where the youngsters gallop and do sliding stops. All of them, every year, do this.
We put in the deeper sand to the areas where the babies invariably do their gallop/stops to hopefully prevent injuries. I call those areas the “runaway truck ramps”.
We just laid the fresh sand out yesterday, and you should have seen the rearing, bucking and bouncing that the babies did just to feel the “bounce” in the new footing.
And I wish there was a “like” function on these threads, because I would surely “like” iconicbayequestrians post, and a couple of others.
Allliecat,
What your on about I see no problems with. Horses are at home and there’s no stress, at least there shouldn’t be.
Fo jumpers I like to see reflexes, a good hind end, and the ability to think for themselves. I’ve kind of noticed my fillies are a bit “brighter” early on and sometimes the colts leaving thinking, dressage maybe their first time! LOL! I don’t even have a chute. I set up a little something but if they so choose to get out of it they could. But so far mine have enjoyed the process. I had a laugh when the woman who bought my Iroko weanling colt last year Facebooked me to tell me about his chute experience this year. 1st time he fell through near enough and the 2nd experience he had figured it out and looked super doing the job. But I was laughing with her because that’s Stella’s colts to a T.
But this is very different then to be training one specifically for loose jumping as competitions. Just gives you an idea of what they can be!
Terri
We’ve loose jumped 2 year olds in the past to get an idea of where they are/career path. But - it’s not every 2 year old - one of the current (2009) ones is almost 17 hands and in no way coordinated enough! The others are slightly more mature but there is no sense in doing it too soon/we’re in no rush with them. Plenty of time down the road to see where their talents lie (but I’ll bet there is 1 fancy hunter, 1 jumper/eventer and 2 super FEI dressage horses). 
But they all look like gangly oversized yearlings who need the Neck Fairy to come stay for a while with her cousin the Rump Fairy!
For teaching them to loose jump - we start with an older/experienced buddy in the indoor usually in the winter of their 2-3 year. 5-10 minutes max a couple of times. But we use loose jumping as a gymnastic exercise in our training program, not necessarily a test of building up to a certain height. So it is not really a ‘jump chute’ per se. All of the horses (regardless of discipline) loose jump as part of the ‘program’.
Most of the time, we opt to just let them grow up and do more as 3-4 year olds and we’re stuck in the indoor for the winter. We taught quite a few to loose jump this summer, so the working students could learn how it’s done, and they were the 2007’s (I think). The 08’s were not mature enough (open knees, etc), so there was no sense in doing more with them than the basic going around with their buddy. We’ll see how they all look in February and proceed from there.
I guess my disgust was heightened by the fact that the foal was weaned at 2 months and was seen free jumping at 4 months old - so there is a background issue that added to my disgust.
Weanlings doing things like this on their own is one thing, being chased to do it is another.
[QUOTE=TrinitySporthorses;6050303]
My weanlings have done the following in the last few months while playing in their field:
- leaped over a water tub rather than go around it (it’s just a 20 gallon plastic tub-less than 2 feet wide and quite easy to dart around)
- done dramatic airs above the ground
- jumped over a sleeping companion
- reared, spun, slid, bucked, and jumped into the air repeatedly
When I see them doing this I SMILE, knowing that they are building healthy little bodies. [/QUOTE]
So do I, especially when I am fortunate enough to catch it on film! How about the invisible jump? 
We believe it depends on the individual mental and physical development of each youngster. They mature at different rates. You can learn about their athleticism just watching them at play in the field (or the few that jump out of the field). With the bloodlines we are working with, every one jumps well so we feel no need to explore their range and reactions at an early age. But as a tool to start somewhat more serious training in a late 3 or early 4 yr old, it is very useful. By then most are mature enough to benefit from some free jumping and one can learn a lot from their reactions in the chute. We know in Europe the youngsters are free jumped much earlier than that, but then there is a large auction industry there that pretty much demands for some demonstration of ability and attitude towards jumping in order to make the sales.
It is good to remember that it takes to age 6 for a horse to be fully mature.
KTF, I’m pretty sure everyone here knows that a horse is not fully developed by 4 years of age.
Do your youngsters get out? Are they out on all ground types? Have they ever jumped over something in the field? If so then going onto a nice surface to pop a couple of fences in a chute is not harmful. I guess it’s harmful if done everyday and at excessive heights.
I’m not a big fan of the auctions myself, but not all horses in Europe do or treat their horses in an auction manner. And not even all auction horses are done badly. Please show me the evidence that says if you wait til 6 to get on their backs that they never have problems because you waited. That if started at 6 and older they can compete into their 30’s at the top level.
Not one single person on any of these threads has recommended ruining babies and jumping the legs off of them. There seems to be a lot of perspective missed somewhere.
Terri
