When to start formal training with youngster

[4_white_socks]

I have a 2 (almost 2.5) year old warmblood filly who is currently living out in a herd of young horses. Generally speaking she has not been extensively handled - I did a bit of groundwork with her in the summer in the hopes of bringing her to a line show, but I decided against it at the last minute, feeling that she didn’t have enough experience for the excursion to be a positive one. As she lives out 24/7, she is brought into the barn for farrier appointments every other month, and I will groom her in the field, but otherwise she is left alone.

Curious to hear others’ thoughts on the best time to start more formal training - in her case, I’m not talking about ridden work, but groundwork training later this fall with a professional, and learning the routine of being in a barn. The opportunity that is available to me would involve 30 days of formal groundwork training, then we would leave her until the spring to get her going under saddle. The turnout situation over the winter would be all day turnout (8-9 hours) and then she’d be able to live outside full time in the spring. I am hesitating because I worry that taking her away from a 24/7 turnout situation is not in her best interest at this age. However I also feel that daily handling over the winter will really do her wonders (she is a big girl, and a bit on the reactive side, so I’d like to instill some basics before she gets even bigger).

Would love to hear others’ thoughts on the pros and cons of starting with the basics early vs. waiting until the spring when she is 3.

[GraceLikeRain]

Do you have the option of having someone come to you 2-3/week instead? It would let her stay in her home environment if 24/7 while starting to gain valuable skills that will transfer over to other things down the line.

[JB]

Today

There’s no reason she can’t learn the concepts of lunging, which can be as simple as learning to walk at X distance away from you without pulling or falling in, and she can even learn to trot out there as well. You walking around with her means she’s not circling, and this doesn’t take 30 minutes a day

There’s no reason she can’t then learn to ground drive (if you know how). It’s invaluable for ridden work.

But if you send her away, you need to be able to know very clearly exactly what they do with a 2yo. I wouldn’t put her in 5 days a week of 30 minutes a day, as not only is it not necessary, it can cause her to resent work since she currently has none, and that’s a lot all at once. If that 30 minutes means getting her, grooming, doing 10-15 minutes of training, and then putting away, that’s different. And even that doesn’t need to be 5 days a week, unless she really just needs the extra days to be brought in, put in a stall for a bit with food and company, and then go back out. Even learning to be in a stall overnight for 30 days is not the worst thing for a 2yo, it’s probably a good thing

[Bonnie2]

At least bring her in most days and feed her a little something yummy and groom her when you have time. Young horses can get very herd bound (not all, but some) if they never spend time separate. Agree with JB, you can teach her to lead from both sides, jog, stand, move over. Important to introduce the idea of communication. Not important to do “formal” ground work. Spend time interacting with her however works for your facility and schedule. I always started with the basics the day they were born!

[Montanas_Girl]

My 2022 filly spent the month of August at “sleep away camp” to learn about life away from mom (both human and equine/herd). She’d already had plenty of foundation type handling - clipping, bathing, farrier, wearing tack, etc. - but had never lived in a stall or really been handled by someone other than me. She learned about life in a busy boarding barn, with all that that includes. I also had the barn owner do a little - and I do mean little, it ended up being six sessions total over the course of the month - ground training with her to refine some of her “move your feet there, not here” skills, practice trailer loading, and help me back her. I sat on her three times, including a few minutes of walking off lead on the last day, and then she came home. I think the grand total of her formal training minutes over that month added up to barely over an hour, but it was very good for her. Now she’s back home, hanging out and absorbing those lessons until she goes off for more serious training next fall.

[anonevent]

I don’t know if this is helpful. I’ve recently spoken to many farms that run “formal” young horse programs. They vary a bit, but the general timeline seems to be something along these lines:

UNDER 1 YEAR: Out in mixed sex herds. Brought in daily for feeding and inspection. Handling lessons twice a week.

1 YEAR OLDS: Separated by sex. Inspected and interacted with daily. Brought to walker or round pen or arena or…whatever 2 - 3 times a week to get used to a routine and exposure to those environments. Run through a jump shoot once.

2 YEAR OLDS: Grouped by level of maturity. Stalled for 4 - 6 hours during the day while their herd is getting groundwork training. When that group is ready, they’ll have 30 - 60 days undersaddle. Start off-property experience in the Spring at small shows. Run through a jump shoot at the beginning and end of the year.

[Demerara_Stables]

In an ideal world, she continues to live out 24/7 and is handled daily or every other day (even if that just means grooming her at liberty in the field), with “formal” training sessions 2-3 days a week. Training sessions vary from longeing to long lining to learning to tie, have a bath, trailer load, get body work, wear tack, etc. Training sessions can be 5 minutes or 30 minutes but usually not more than that. It’s about having a (very flexible, because babies) goal, accomplishing the goal, and ending on a good note before they’re burnt out.

Going into training should never involve taking a young horse (anything younger than 6, IMO) and drastically changing its turnout and/or work routine all at once. That sets you up for behavioral issues that can totally be avoided. Learning how to be in a stall for a few (2-3 hours) a day with the occasional overnight is very good for them, but putting them in a stall all day when they’re used to being out with buddies and then expecting them to focus during multiple long training sessions a week sets them up for failure.

As an example, here’s my 3yo’s routine:

Out 24/7 in a 5 horse herd with access to stalls for shade and to sleep at night
Separated for feeding grain and getting her lunch hay, either in a stall or paddock. Sometimes she gets left in the paddock for 30 minutes, sometimes over an hour. I don’t leave her in the stall alone in case the herd wanders off. She can see the herd from the paddock.
Daily very light handling. She lives at my house, so this might just be bringing her in for lunch, fly spray and fly mask, holding for bodywork/chiro/farrier (learning how to stand and be patient), cross tie lessons, grooming, trailer loading, etc.
1-2 days a week she gets longed or long lined for no more than 30 minutes, 50% walk, 40% trot, 10% canter.
Last weekend she went to her first show to hang out. She stayed in the stall unless her buddy was showing (1-2 hours each day), and then she went to the ring, stood at the rail, and saw the sights and sounds. She learned to cross tie in the grooming stall and single tie in the aisle, went for a very short longe on one day, and did a bunch of hand walks with the group. She also did a 4 hour trailer ride there and back.

FWIW my show horses in full work are also out 24/7 unless there is inclement weather. The most I’ve done is in all day or night, but even that is not ideal. If I were you, I’d ask around until you can find a trainer that will travel to where she is now or a different training facility that will let her stay out and work with her more regularly (I promise they exist!).

[skydy]

I would definitely start handling her more now, especially since you say she is fairly large and reactive.

I’d be wary of sending her away during winter though. I’m not sure what climate you are dealing with but if you have cold winters she will be fresh, more so than she is in the summer. If the trainer you intend to use is experienced with large young Warmbloods, I’d wait until spring to send her. If not, I’d rethink the trainer.

I think @GraceLikeRain and @JB gave you good advice. She needs handling now. I’d get groundwork (as well as being acclimated to the stall) done at home. If you’re short on time I’d hire a competent person to help you there.

[clanter]

our young stock’s training began as weanlings, they were in a kindergarten/preschool program nearly daily being exposed to normally expected trail obstacles and what to expect when being presented in a line up. These classes were not intense but were easy steps to expose them to what they were to become

Our last weanling at five months old went from being on the ranch in North Dakota to a national show. He was not intimidated as he had seen everything before so it wasn’t a big deal for him

[exvet]

I just purchased a 2.5 year old. He’s been well handled and knows most things you would expect for a horse of his age - lunging (in moderation), grooming/picking up feet and having them trimmed, ground work of moving off, backing, giving the poll, loading and hauling, etc. I plan to continue his ground work to include ground driving, wearing tack, sight seeing the neighborhood, exposure and tackling obstacles, etc. I don’t plan to sit on him until the end of next summer and then will turn him away until late fall and start trail riding him then. By the spring of his 4 year old year I will see if his physical and mental maturity can handle more under saddle training in terms of an appropriate amount of arena work for his age. This is how I trained my now 10 year old and recently sold a 7 year old who I backed and started similarly (many before that too). It’s the basic ‘recipe’ that has worked for me.

[4_white_socks]

That seems totally reasonable and the schedule that I had in mind, at least when it comes to ridden work. What is his turnout situation like?

[exvet]

I have more than one equestrian property. My main base requires that I bring all the horses into their stalls at night but they are on group turnout all day, several acres. My guys that are here are 2.5, 10 and 13, all geldings. At my ‘winter’ place which I’m only at for occasional long weekends I keep the same 3 turned out 24/7 except for when they’re fed their ‘grain/ration balancer’ because they each get something different so they come into eat and then are turned back out. Every once in a while my 22 year old comes back home (he’s been on lone to a friend as a companion) and is turned out with the threesome which I don’t have to worry because though he’s only 13 hands tall he is the king and the others know to leave him alone LOL.

Not the best picture but from left to right is the 2.5 year old, the 10 year old and the 13 year old eating peacefully. Because of the season/weather we currently have no viable pasture so hay bags it is.

[Bogey2]

I find the more they are handled correctly on a daily basis the easier that are too back. My latest I bought from a person who imports Lusitano’s. They thought he was 2 and I did not want a 2 yr old. He when they realized he was almost 3 I bought him. He was only in country for a month and I had no idea what was done with him 2-3 so I started all the ground work saddling bridling etc. at 3. Backed him at 3.5 and ride him lightly. His birthdate is the end of the week so I won’t put him away for the winter. I will continue working with him 3-4 times a week through the winter. I just won’t body clip him LOL, that could be dangerous.

[Arlomine]

If I understand your post correctly, I would shoot for something that’s a little more of a happy medium period at least before she is sent away for 430 days in a training barn period even just working with her 15 minutes, a day three times a week taking her away from her crew, Doing some basic ground work with her, and if there’s a stall available, putting her in the stall for a few minutes with her favourite food, just general stuff like that. I would do that before taking the big leap into away camp.

You need to 100% know what they’re going to do with her. If they are thinking of bitting her up, and putting her in a round pen and put side reins on her et cetera, that’s inappropriate for her age.

I have a four-year-old who was backed this winter. Due to my health issues, he was hardly touched for almost 2 years prior. he did have a run in stall where he could come in and watch the goings on in the training Barn, but he was primarily turned out. He adopted just fine, learned everything, he was very interested in being part of the Action.

So, for her age, IMO you could bring her into a training barn for a bit. I would just personally not want any force that age to be started under Saddle for sure period and not even hanging a bit in their mouth because there’s so much going on in the mouth in terms of teething. Why complicate their first bitting experience. Waiting doesn’t make it harder. It makes it easier… they have better brains in a year.

If you bring her into a training Barn, and she has a really bad time adapting, consider turning her back out for a few months and trying again. And it even might be better to do a couple shorter stints like two weeks at a time, over several months. There is a sweet spot for learning.

During the last half of his his third year, I finally was feeling better, and I started to bring. My guy am for a little sessions period the sessions were short maybe 10-15 minutes, just learning about tying, standing untied in cross tie area, going for walks away from the other horses, wearing a saddle, stuff like that. Then I got him ready for riding and added walk and trot longing. No bit. No side reins. No problem.
He’s been ridden one to three times per week with long breaks. So very little under saddle time, and still being ridden in two reins, one on caveson one on bit.

Because he was a little older, his focus was much better, which made everything easier.

[Blueeyedroan]

The moment those front hooves hit the ground IMO.

By the time a horse is ready to head down the road to the colt starter and get broke, that youngster should absolutely know how to give to pressure (all pressure , anywhere), have stuff drug underneath and behind it, stand like a saint for the farrier, have fingers in its mouth, stand tied without throwing a tantrum, be able to walk off property without freaking out, been hauled out to local schooling shows and participate in in-hand trail classes and basically be handled every which way from Sunday.

It makes a GOOD horse, makes the breaking process so easy and a lot safer. It just plain makes a better horse.

[GraceLikeRain]

@Blueeyedroan

By the time a horse is ready to head down the road to the colt starter and get broke, that youngster should absolutely know how to give to pressure (all pressure , anywhere), have stuff drug underneath and behind it, stand like a saint for the farrier, have fingers in its mouth, stand tied without throwing a tantrum, be able to walk off property without freaking out, been hauled out to local schooling shows and participate in in-hand trail classes and basically be handled every which way from Sunday.

So true. I’m in possession of a horse who was essentially untouched and then started with a lot of holes in the foundation. It made for a rocky road. Even a decade later there are some fundamental holes where she gets through due to good nature rather than being set up for success through incremental exposure during her early years. It’s not fun needing to do something and realizing that the horse has truly no basis for the ask and then needing to go back and fill in the gaps.

You may never clip a horse for aesthetics but they need to have the skill if they need an injury cleaned up. You may never want to show but want a horse that self loads when it’s a 2 am emergency or evacuation. You may never care about doing….etc. I don’t think there’s too much quality exposure you can do at this age. Keep things short and sweet to build confidence and their toolkit to navigate the world.

[Montanas_Girl]

@Arlomine

Waiting doesn’t make it harder. It makes it easier… they have better brains in a year.

I strongly disagree. Their attention spans are shorter, but I’ve found that the real youngsters - weanlings, yearlings, and two year olds - are little sponges and LOVE learning and having “adventures” with me, in age appropriate doses. Kind of like human children. They never view training as “work” and maintain this enthusiasm if their training is started at day one.

The ones that sit in the field barely touched until 3+ are a lot tougher. Even the good-minded ones.

[Arelle]

100% this has been my experience as well.

I highly and loudly advocate “kindergarten” programs for young horses. OP - I would absolutely sign up for this (the 30 day program available to you).

[4_white_socks]

I love this. We have a lot of work to do

[Arlomine]

I don’t think you understood what I was saying . I didn’t say kick Horses out and don’t do anything with them. However, I do feel that people get themselves into trouble when they over, face the young horses, and expect them to pay attention for too long. then Horse acts up because they are over faced, and the lesson continues on even longer. short sessions are best.