Trials and Tribulations of training the 4 year old!!!

[Xanthoria]

Well my turned-4-in-June almost 17h WB baby is a peach, but can I say sluggish? He’s been under saddle 4 months and I get he might be growing, and the hot sun and all the things… but my dog: I’m getting a workout!

I ride with a liberally applied dressage whip and spurs. I realized I was nagging with the spurs and removed them yesterday - no difference. He really moves off voice more than leg.

Walk is the problem. He’s SO POKEY. Even on the trail he has to jog to keep up with smaller horses. Even IN HAND he has to jog to keep up with me! He barely tracks up, and it’s tiring me out…

In trot he gets motoring along, and while he can’t canter for long he can motor down the long side with his giant flailing brontosaurus strides then miraculously do a 20m circle at the end in more of a frame with very little help. He has a very balanced canter.

But ZOMG, how do I get him to march at walk? At the weekend I would sit quietly and he’d grind to a halt in a few steps, so we’d LEAP forward at trot or canter when I’d light a fire under him. Did it 5 times and no change.

And PS this was on a very windy day when other horses in the arena were high as kites. So, pros and cons…

TL/DR: he’s not a TB.

I also had to let his bridle out a hole yesterday. Can his head be getting bigger?!? It’s an O/S Nunn Finer Eventer on the last hole on both throatlatch and noseband, and only 3 holes left on the cheeks… :eek:

[IPEsq]

Xanthoria, when you figure out the walk, let me know!

[Xanthoria]

[QUOTE=IPEsq;8742544]
Xanthoria, when you figure out the walk, let me know![/QUOTE]

I may die of exhaustion before that happens. I suspect it may have something to do with a dream I had the other night where I put the horse on a trailer and sent him to my trainer to fix

[woodhillsmanhattan]

@Samotis;8739860

Still working on balance and him not leaning and building to the jumps. Meh hasn’t learned to rock back yet when he gets a little tight. Mount there are moments of brilliance.

So excited for this one!! So fun to ride and so athletic!!! Meeks like he can jump the moon!

Wheelbarrow jump. Genius!

[Samotis]

Ha ha. Yes, I have to get resourceful when I have babies. They like to eat all my wood jumps and standards. :eek:

I use water buckets, wheel barrels, holes in the fence. Ha ha.

He is going to see an actual show jump and spook probably!

[IPEsq]

Our go button is back! Although it still comes with a side of attitude.

ETA - we did a bending line of poles today. He moved one of them a little bit going on the left lead canter. He overreached a bit behind and rolled the pole backwards a little bit. So, of course, when we approach on the right lead there’s that little bit of flattened dirt on the approach side that meant he had to stick his nose down and snort and jump it 3’ in the air with the front hooves up by the ears. :rolleyes:

[adelmo95]

My youngster is by far the easier of my two horses: he has had a “born broke” attitude from the day he arrived as a yearling (don’t worry I did NOT start him as a yearling!!!) where he would follow me anywhere, stand patiently for brushing, watch reiners, jumpers, dressage horses etc all without getting phased. He was easy to start, went to a dressage show at 3 to experience the show atmosphere, tried a couple schooling jumper shows at 4, and then an indoor jumper show at 5. He still makes baby mistakes, and if he gets really unsure will default to trotting jumps (thankfully we haven’t shown higher than 0.90m so still very trot friendly) but I have never felt so confident on a youngster.

My green 11yr old gelding is far more entertaining to deal with. He was just started this January which rocked his world a bit and took a few months for him to accept that he needed to find a work ethic and do more than stand in a paddock for his whole life. He tests the boundaries constantly, has opinions about everything, and a few little quirks but on the same token is progressing faster than a typical youngster. The funniest thing with him jumping is that he is EXTREMELY brave: colours, boxes, liver pools, flower boxes etc do not phase him, but he seems convinced that x-rails are a trap to WAY over jumps them.

[rainpants]

My guy’s second show.

Found him a kid, very nice little rider but not a lot of schooling time pre-show (ie, she rode him exactly once before the show.

Had some issues (both of them) in the over fences which led to refusals. But when she did get him over the fences: he is pretty darn cute!

Got a 7th in the Pleasure Hack and an 8th in the Green Under Saddle (I think she was probably sitting in third before someone passed her way too close and he spooked and broke gait, but such is show life!)

Think next show we’ll put them in the whole hack division. She showed her pony in the Show and Road, but he just isn’t really a hack pony. With a few tweaks and given a the same level of competition, there is no reason she and my guy won’t be top 3 next show in the hack.

Going to take a few more tweaks before they ribbon over fences (or you know, complete the course…), but they’ll get there, just need to get the both of them feeling a bit braver!

[IPEsq]

Super cute, fallenupright!

[IPEsq]

Last week, tried our hand at a trot in 1 stride of small Xs. Has been about 9 months since we last did this (or anything more difficult). He has forgotten how to pat the ground at the trot jump and add that one last step smoothly. So, he fumbled the in a bit and then shot straight up in the air. And we spent the remainder of the time jumping it 5’ in the air even when we put the out down to just a ground pole. IT WAS GOING TO BITE HIM!!! I need to go to the chiropractor to put my pelvis back in place.

He’s been acting like an old pro over ground poles, though, so it is time to push small jumps more times per week again. Today, we went with a 1’ straight cavaletti rather than Xs and did a single jump with either a straight line or a bending line option to poles and vice versa. We only had one moderately big, snorty jump. Lots of jumping the cavaletti by Braille when trying to add that last little step. Sigh. He will figure out the happy medium again eventually. At least he didn’t panic this time and stayed slow (he was SO! LAZY!) and got his lead changes as needed.

[rainpants]

Thanks IPEsq.

Gotta love horses and their big jumps. I’m just happy that my guy, while fully capable of big snorty jumps (and throwing a few “wooohooo” bucks on landing) is a lot smoother overall than my mare! (I’ve only jumped him over x-rails and fill with no poles on top, I’m a weenie, his kid is much braver and probably a better rider already than I’ll ever be.)

[IPEsq]

I’m way more of a weenie than I used to be. Thankfully, this doesn’t scare me, but it’s way harder on my body than I remember. And I used to jump big jumps on purpose (versus making the giant effort over the weenie baby jump). I think he hasn’t quite figured out how much power is in his hind end yet and where his front legs need to go, this being our first time jumping with a more mature body…but still having the 4yo brain!

[greenbug89]

Oh man you guys… I got the feels reading this thread! I’ve got a 4 year old mare… currently my farm has a ton of hills and its great for conditioning, but to do any ring work I have to haul out. Well each summer my mare decides that cantering more than a few steps is too hard and will run sideways and stop all forward movement and then if I press she will rear… sigh. But here’s the kicker… put her in an area… canters around like a charm, no questions. She’s a doll W/T but canter… its out of the question if we aren’t in the arena… Which is frustrating since I just don’t have time to haul her away to the arena everyday!!!

[Samotis]

Well my baby is doing amazing. Starting to act like a grown up!

I hear you on the weenie stuff! I am not as brave as I used to be and also not as strong!

The other day I fell off my baby and it was totally my fault. We jumped a jump, he jumped it hard and amazing and he went left, and well, I went right. ;(. Messed up my knee pretty bad and am now limping around. ;(

Luckily my friend has been riding him until I heal. But man, that was a long fall and I don’t bounce back like I used too!

So excited for my baby though. He really has been doing great. Really looking forward to the 4 year old Sally Wheeler stuff in California!

[greenbug89]

I attended a horse show this last weekend with my girl. The day started in a way that worried me. The warmup ring was CRAZY. Like 20 horses. She’d never been in a ring that busy and was spazzing. To the point where I couldn’t stop school and teach a bad habit, and I couldn’t wait til it calmed down as the schooling was just a short one! I’ve never had to school her that hard! She was running, bucking, stopping, rearing, complete hissy fit. Well she was so hot by the time we were done I decided to scratch our Eq flat and pleasure division to allow me time to sponge her off and cool down before our jumping divisions. I go in the ring and she lopes around like a winner! I even did a good job and didn’t pick to the fence(as I like to) and when I was in doubt I sat up and kept leg on! I still am not giving the release I should be, and my elbows and toes are sticking out, and I’m still throwing my body at her (yes… The jumps are only 2’) haha! BUT she was a trooper! Then we did our hack and she was again a rockstar. We won one classes over fences and got a second in our second over fences and the hack, finishing champion in the division of 11 horses! We then completed the low hunters (also 2 foot just no restriction on horses like the previous class). She was a rock start again, but since we were competing against more experienced horses the fact that we have to do some simple changes knocked us out of the ribbons in the class of 11 over fences. Then we had to ride out a major thunderstorm before the hack in the barn. She slept. Then they ran the hack in the warmup ring (still a huge puddle but not nearly as bad as the main ring) and right as it started it starts pouring again. Considering she had just stood in a barn for 30 minutes, didn’t warm up at all, had never been ridden in sludge or pouring rain before, she really did great! Only five of us hacked and we got fourth, so I was pretty stoked we didn’t get last! So proud of her. Oh and, because of al this heat I have only ridden her twice in the last two weeks… 1) a walking trail ride last week, then trailered her to school at a friends barn on Wednesday… Proud mamma

[Madison]

Always helpful to share in the trials and tribulations of the baby horses! My guy recently turned 5, and his 4 year old year was full of major life changes, started as a dressage horse then sold to be a hunter. I’ve had him since January, and we finally got him to a show 2 weeks ago and he was a nervous wreck, compounded by the fact that in his first class, a hack, another rider turned off the rail without looking and plowed right into my horse with my trainer at the canter. They were right next to a jump and had nowhere to go, and had to pull up hard. NOT a good first experience and I came out of the weekend thinking whose horse was that, what have I done! He was at about the 3 1/2 year old mentality that weekend. So, we took him back to another show this weekend, and apparently he had to lose his mind the first weekend to find it again this weekend, because this horse I recognized: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKQFPjN0W0 By the end of the weekend, he was cantering his whole courses quietly, huge improvements. It was a good reminder for me that you just have to be along for the ride with the baby horses, and don’t let the highs get you too high, or the lows get you too low!

[PNWjumper]

I love seeing the videos of the babies! I took my guy to his second show(s) (each time out we do two weeks in a row, though he only shows 2-3 days of each week) and here he is jumping around the jumper ring with zero schooling in that ring prior to the class since his other classes were in one of the hunter rings. And here he is seeing his first liverpool…I had my helper video tape it so she could show the EMTs what happened to me, lol! Didn’t expect this much of a non-reaction to it.

So that’s to set the tone that this horse is as bold and brave as any 4yo I’ve ever met.

So this weekend I decided to take him on a trail ride by himself. Ha ha ha! The 4yo brain entered and we lost steering, and braveness, and steering (did I mention steering?) :lol: He eventually settled (about 20 minutes into the ride), but I sure wish I had video of the ride. I’m pretty sure I could market him as a dressage horse as he was doing all of the upper level movements plus some extras for bonus points (though to his credit, he never bucked or reared, preferring instead to just get creative with his leg and body placement).

Gotta love the babies!

[Due_s_Mom]

Mine has been off for a month due to hand surgery for me and mega hot weather. Tonite I put her on the lunge and it was not great BUT not unexpected. Will lunge her a few more times before I get on. Am anxious to see how she is about her mouth after having her teeth done.

[Stitch_In_Time]

I am a newly appointed member to the training a 4yo club. I just purchased a 4yo Hanoverian mare last week, in fact her 4th birthday was 2 days after I bought her.

I’ve been referring to her as the “baby giraffe”. I spent the last 5 years riding a barely 15h paint mare, and now I own a 16h baby horse who probably has a few more inches to grow yet! :eek:

So far we are in the honeymoon stage. She is very quiet under saddle, she wtc’s and has a baby leg yield. She needs to put on some weight and muscle so we aren’t working on anything difficult.

I would welcome ideas for strength building exercises. I want to get her out walking on hills, but I want to have a buddy with me for her first trail ride, and it’s been raining every day since I brought her home.

[rainpants]

^ poles, poles, more poles. When ground poles get boring, make them raised ground poles. Raised alternate ends is fun, too.

I’m visiting my chiropractor this week after an incident involving a tarp and my young guy on Friday (the sudden flying sideways and me running after him so he didn’t get loose has put out a rib, it likes to go out after a back injury a few years ago, doesn’t take much).

He’s really not the bravest pony. Speaking of that…

How does one make a brave jumper? He’s has lovely gaits and balance and is adorable over fences. But he’s spooky about fill and while I’ve finally gotten some “real” jumps and fill at home, every “new” jump at a show (even if its literally identical to something he’s jumped before) is still spooky for him and he’s definitely inclined to stop and look, not just leap. Is it just a matter of more jumping til he’s confident?

I’m used to bold mares who save my ass, he’s definitely an adjustment…