This is unnecessarily rude for no reason. My gelding is fine if I take a week off for weather or life reasons. Same horse. I’m not letting him sit for a month then taking him for a hard lesson.
My mare would need to be lunging and she’d still be a wild ride the first day back. I’d say she’d do better in a program where a trainer can ride her if I can’t and not in my backyard.
This happens to everyone. They have time off for injuries to rider and the horses. Due to work and family commitments and of course weather.
What it means is generally if you don’t have the time and money every day to train a horse, it is cheaper and more productive to get lessons, as the horses are kept in work and swapped for another one if injured. There is no worry about vet bills.
A bike does not change if kept unridden and more importantly you don’t have to pay for boarding and feed and more importantly around here lately, also does not need water.
I ride both horses and a bike.
I think needs to be in a program is different from just needs daily work.
It’s usually said as a qualifier. OTTB under saddle for a year, would be suitable for a junior in a program.
As far as workload my own mare does much much better with 4 or 5 days on, one day off. Especially in hot weather. And she can come back from 3 months on pasture and start getting legged up with no bad behaviour.
But I also feel that if I wanted to upgrade to a horse that really was competitive in something I would need much more trainer help.
I’m assuming you’re talking about seeing this phrase in an ad, yes?
IMO…it means “keep looking.” All horses benefit from pro rides. It’s a good idea all around. But the ones that NEED them to stay in line? I don’t love that. Remember that ads are supposed to reveal the very best aspects of the horse. If they’re saying “needs a program” right off the bat, it’s a red flag to me. Even though my horse IS in a program, sh*t happens. My trainer recently broke her leg. I had to do all the riding for two months. If my guy needed pro rides to keep going decently, I would’ve had to send him elsewhere.
I think it really depends. A horse that needs to be in a program could need it to “stay in line”. Or he might be one that does best with 5-6 rides a week to stay in shape. Some horses need to be in a program to keep certain buttons sharp and crisp. Or to keep their confidence up after the imperfect ammie rides. It could be any number of reasons.
If the ad states “needs a program” I too would be tempted to assume the worst about what that might mean, especially if the price appeared to be overly cheap for what the horses can do or has accomplished, but one won’t know for sure until they ask the seller.
I’ll echo the posters who have said that it can mean a lot of things. I recently posted an ad for my OTTB gelding. This horse is exactly the same personality if you ride him daily or give him a month off in the winter. He is just naturally exceptionally quiet and easy going. However, he is on the green side and generally sedentary even in turnout. He does best with a program to keep him moving, in decent shape, and to continue his education. I don’t take tons of lessons myself, but I have brought along every horse I have ever owned (yay having champagne taste on a beer budget!!!), so I have been able to create my own program, and would be comfortable with him going to a similar adult.
It’s not a warning about my “explosive horse”, it’s parameters I have set to make sure my horse is successful. With every person I have spoken to about him, I have described the “programs” I feel he would do best in. I don’t believe my horse would ever hurt someone, but I want him to maintain, and, if possible, increase his value. Being in a program will accomplish this.
When I advertise my mare for lease, I stipulate “to an approved program only” and by that I mean I will only let her go to trainers I know and trust to provide a specific standard of care, training, instruction, workload management, etc. while she is out of my direct and daily control.
Has nothing to do with the mare’s personality or need for pro rides to maintain anything. It’s about getting the same horse back that I sent out.
In an ad, I take it to mean that the seller intends to sell the horse only to a person who will have him with a trainer. They might mean he needs training rides or that he needs a routine or that they just prefer to see him maximize his potential by being under the daily tutelage of a pro.
A friend end of mine used the phrase when selling a super quiet but somewhat green horse. Horse was a nicer local type, but she really wanted to avoid horse being sold to someone who would ride once or twice a week or who might let stuff slide. She’d had that happen with a prior sale and ended up taking the horse back. For her it was more about weeding out certain buyers or types of buyers.
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