[QUOTE=Bluey;7520458]
I guess I will be the dissident voice here.
Growing up in Europe, we started horses at four generally.
I only remember one filly I started as a long three year old under saddle and another on the wagon with an older draft horse.
We started all kinds of horses, some feral horses that were anywhere from 4 to 8-9 years old, best we could guess by their teeth.
We also had horses to start from South America, about 4-5 years old those.
All horses made fine horses for school, endurance and jumpers.
Dressage is how we started all horses and the few really talented for that went on to be trained and shown in the higher levels.
Then I came to the West and here most horses, race and cowhorses, were started as early twos and the difference was enormous, so much easier to talk a two year old to go along with whatever you wanted.
I love working with the real young ones, from the time they are born and on along until riding them as twos, so much easier than having to first teach a four year old, more mature and reactive horse to trust you.
Many of the horses we started as twos, for race and ranch horses, we followed thru all their lives and I can say they stayed as sound and healthy and happy working all their lives as those started later did, plus they never had to go thru the stress of their lives at four, that is fairly mentally mature and set in their ways for a horse, changing so drastically and needing to adapt then to work for people.
Talking about work ethic.
While that is to some extent depending on the horse’s character, I think that teaching a two year old to work with you and spending those two years doing so, to starting a horse as a four year old, well, a two year old is learning mentally to adapt for his coming life long task much easier than they do if you wait until four to start.
That is not even considering his physical adaptation by growing already fit for the job life will demand of him.
A parallel could be made with keeping kids at home until ten and then sending them to school to learn to live with others and learn to read and write.
No, we start them right along in the human world they will have to be part of and keep that up all thru their childhood years.
Why not do that with horses, why lose those two years?
Given the choice of two identical horses, one raised carefully and started as a two and one raised carefully but left alone until four to then start, well, I would say the two year old will fit better in the human world.
Texas A+M did some such studies now maybe 12-15 years ago and they also found that those started as two, compared with those at three, the ones at two were easier to handle and train and less stressed than the ones started at three, although the differences were eventually erased by the time they were mature at 6.
We know that, if you want physical fitness for most that demands that, you have to start very young and train and condition for those years, if you want to be at your best, in horses and humans.
Now, of course you have to take maturity, physical and mental, into consideration and work with what you have, at any age you want to start a horse before it is a mature individual about 6-7 years old.
That doesn’t mean we have to just not touch them until they are mature, any more than we would not teach or train kids, but have them wait until they are in their 20’s.
The critics of early start point at when training is not done properly, ignoring that bad training is harmful at any age.
Plenty of horses started later, if not done correctly, also don’t turn out well.
As for the 8 year old mare, that ideally we should start horses early doesn’t mean that the ones that were not should not be considered.
Some of the feral horses we started were close to 10 years old and learned just fine, just like the younger ones and were in a few weeks very nicely trained horses.
If you like who she is today, why not give her a try?
Now, if what you want is a horse for a task that requires an already trained horse, or a competition horse?
Then get something closer to what you want to have or need, no sense in trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.[/QUOTE]
Well, that was a rambling dissertation.
The truth is, modern training techniques are designed for the immature horse. If horses were started at four or older, it would diminish greatly the number of so called professionals starting horses. A trainer would have to be more of a horseman.
Sounds to me like she is the perfect age to get into hard work, as another poster mentioned she can be ridden and mentally challenged much more than a 3 yo.