I’m curious about everyone’s thoughts about what we are asking these baby horses to do.
I’ve seen UL riders sharing their journeys about seriously restarting/starting horses as young as 3.
It’s wild that 4 y/os are jumping novice/training and 5y/os training/prelim.
What is the long term outcome for these guys? I never see this brought to attention on social media.
( btw I think this goes across the board for all disciplines)
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Obviously not all of the YEH horses go on to run around 5 stars, but I do like that USEA does a little preview highlighting program grads before big events. I haven’t been able to find official data on where all of the participants have gone off to after the program.
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I am a fairly low level rider, and I’ve walked the championship courses and they are nowhere near doing a true training or preliminary. They’re not particularly big or technical or anything that I would expect to be difficult for even a reasonably athletic horse. But I do think you need a certain type of horse mentally and it’s not necessarily always the horse that will go on to do a 5* because sometimes those are feral for a very long time. It really takes a horse that is brave but also very trainable to be ready for it. Same for things like RRP and the Mustang TIP program-- they are not physically difficult but horses can be overfaced mentally too. I would much rather see them do the YEH then Prelim as 5 year olds and Intermediate as 6 year olds.
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Agreed
But what happens after these events ? I think they “keep going” and aiming towards prelim by 6
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I’ve asked this question before and was summarily shut down that these asks really aren’t that big.
Maybe they aren’t, I don’t know. I do know I go way slower than this with my own horses, and wouldn’t permit a horse I owned to be at this height at this age.
That just my opinion!
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I don’t like five year olds doing prelim, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic at six for an athletic horse brought along by an experienced rider. I don’t even think the prelim of olden times was out of line for a five year old of twenty years ago, but it’s definitely harder these days.
I do think this is where the good minded reasonably athletic horse’s trajectory separates from the freakishly athletic potential 5* horse though.
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My complaint about the young horses going big is that there is a lot of prep going into getting them schooled enough to actually show at that level. The more experienced the rider, the less prep is needed, but especially cross country, you don’t want something jumping out of its skin, so it needs to at least have seen and jumped all of that stuff more than a handful of times. At least in the jumpers, if you are good enough to stay on, you don’t have a huge risk when they jump out of their skin. I would never want to take some of these 4-year-olds I see jumping around the young jumper classes out on cross country. 
My verdict is you never hurt a horse by jumping less and going slower (provided you’re keeping them fit enough to do their job).
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It’s aligning with the European young horse program. There their 6 year olds are doing 2* and 7 year olds doing 3*.
Asking an athletic horse to jump a prelim sized fence at 5 years old is by no means a big ask. These are not technical courses, they want to see the horses learning and seeking out the job.
The qualifying events in the beginning of the year are starter/bn height for 4 year olds and bn/n height for 5 year olds. Later in the year it’s more n/t and t/p and the championships are allowed to be at training height for 4 year olds and prelim height for 5 year olds but they are not close to the level of technicality. I think the hardest thing I’ve seen is having 5 year olds do a bank into water.
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You can check out results from Le Lion Young Horse Championships and see where the horses who competed are now. Many still eventing well into their high teens.
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So much depends on the human side of the partnership. Some horses are ready for YEH shows other need to wait and it is the responsibility of the rider to recognise the right development path for each particular horse.
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Having put a young horse in the 4 and 5 YO YEH championships, I agree that your horse needs a good mentality and athleticism, as well as a rider that can properly prepare the horse for the technical elements and know how to show the horse well for the judges. The program is meant to be a talent search (Just like all the other young horse programs), so the finals are more challenging and with big atmosphere- so having your horse well exposed and well ridden is important. Trainers that will put on good basics as well as know when to challenge the horse and also to back it down are really the ones you want to work with in general.
The qualifiers can be nice because the days are often quieter than a normal HT, and they are a shortened format for both SJ and XC so in that respect they are nice for youngsters.
Certainly there are horses on the fast track, and that trajectory depends on the owner/ rider etc.
My horse is still hanging out at training (she is 6), but there are others that she competed against that are running Modified or higher.
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It looks like the horse that won the 5 year old class is a full TB, which is nice to see.
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The YEH program is very well done, and is meant to give young horses exposure and get them situated into the UL pipeline if they show talent for it. It is not the same as a true Training/Preliminary course.
With a decently athletic horse there is really little difference between a Training level and Preliminary level fence height in terms of physical ask. It’s the questions, like terrain or technicality, that require exposure and training. A horse can jump a Training level fence from the get go, especially one bred for it.
I do not have a problem with the YEH program whatsoever, but with everything it depends on the management and the team behind the horse. Some professionals are very conscientious with their prep, others are not - that’s a reflection on their program, not the YEH as a whole.
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I just finished the 4yo championships with my homebred. The YEH program is not for every horse, but a number of them with the right talent, brain, and thoughtful training program can be successful. YEH is not intended to be a weed-them-out, war of attrition competition. The goal is to give young horses a positive experience; horses are allowed and encouraged to walk through the water or show them scary jumps immediately before the round. At championships, we had 3 minutes before the bell rang and the judges wanted us to use it to help our horses. There was a sizeable log on a mound, so I walked on, off, and around the log. I was patient letting my horse see the water, think about it, and choose to step in. He ended up doing quite well, finishing with more confidence than when we started. The course was not overly big or technical, definitely easier than a recognized novice horse trial. There was an option to jump the last show jump at 0.90or 1m, and the final xc fence was a training trakehner.
As far as prep goes, my horse was not overly schooled and lightly competed. He qualified back in January, which was very early (not even 4 yet) but it was mostly starter and BN size, and the judge was sensible about what to expect from a January 4yo. With qualifying out of the way, I spent the rest of the year training my horse to his own benefit; time off when needed, xc schooling, and progressive unrecognized CTs and events. I think he did 5 total shows in 10 months. I wanted a little more dressage experience, but I wasn’t able to make it work.
He jumped once a week, xc schooled about once a month, and did plenty of hacking, even ponying my sales yearlings on occasion. I tried to balance getting him prepared but not over prepped, because you want the horse to be bold, careful, and scopey, not bored and robotic.
One thing you can’t really prep for is the atmosphere at Fair Hill. It’s a big deal, lots to see, and a bunch of “buzz.” My horse was tense and a unusually reactive in dressage due to the activity (& windy cold day) but much more focused for the jumping. The judges are understanding of baby mistakes, but of course the perfect horses will score better.
While everyone is there to be competitive, overall there is a lot of horsemanship across the board and we understand it’s a small step in a future upper level career. It’s not worth scaring or injuring a young horse just for the sake of a baby horse show.
My horse finished 11th out of 30, and 3rd in the US Event Horse Futurity. Very happy with his performance, he grew up a lot and I hope to be back next year at 5.
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Congratulations!
I did the YEH 5 a while back. My horse is also a freak of nature so it was easy for her and she did quite well. It was a cool experience. I saw some excellent riding and also scary riding where these youngsters just weren’t ready.
I think a lot riders watch professionals bringing their horses up the levels quickly at a young age and think they need to be doing it too…
I also have a home read who will be 4 next year. He’s a late bloomer and I doubt he will be mature enough next year. I also am more aware than I was before about the stages of their development
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My 4 year old did the Championships last year. She is not an UL horse, and scored well down in the standings, which I completely agreed with. But, she jumped her very best , and it was easy for her . She did one BN and 2 qualifiers before the championships, so she wasn’t rushed or over jumped. The course was fair, and every horse gained confidence as they went along. It is a big venue, with a lot going on, but the fences are fair and inviting.
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