4 year olds and time off

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I'm contemplating whether I should be giving my 4 year old some time off and I have been given mixed messages so I'd appreciate the experienced thoughts of the competition forum.

My 4 year old was broken in June this year, slowly and carefully, and I have now taken her to group training, working on the flat, over poles and introduced jumping and a little xc taster. She is very bold and willing and has gone to a dressage comp and done two walk and trot tests as well as gone to showjumping comp to pop round the course once. She takes everything her stride and doesn't seem to stress about anything. Hacking is slightly more fun as I have no one to hack out with so it is solo hacking and so far we have kept to a known route to avoid confrontation.

She is a warmblood x and I'm guessing she may still have a little growing to do.

As she now has the basics do I give her some complete time off in the field or would it be better to just keep her ticking over to avoid having issues hacking out again when she returns to work. I do not have any facilities so will have to get back on her on the road and hack straight out if I gave her time off. She is a very bright mare who needs challenges to keep her mind from straying and is regularly up to mischief in the field. My electric fence is currently standing at 5ft, double fenced, with two energizers on it and she will still test it at times!

Her workload at the moment is hacking for about 40 mins twice a week and going to training once a week for a 45 min session. The training is only 15 mins away by horsebox so it is not a long time on the lorry and she travels extremely well. Would reducing her workload a little further to just hacking at weekends and attending fortnightly training be an option do you think?

I'm bound to have to give her time off in Jan or Feb if we get snow or ice as I will not be able to get out of my at that point.

Ideally I'd like to get her out eventing at the beginning of next year. The only thing that we really need work on to achieve that is the canter as I am limited in the work I can do on this as no arena at home so the only time we work on this is at training.
 
It depends on the horse and rider - I personally have given my 4 year old time off to mature as he was still very gangly and unbalanced with and without a rider. I backed him at Easter and rode up until September, pretty much the same as you with hacking, the odd lesson (but no jumping), had just 'got' canter out hacking but wasn't overly keen in the school. He too was a little unhappy about hacking alone but was happy to go in front when hacking with a buddy so thought that was a good place to give him a break.

He is still off now but mainly due to my time constraints, he will start groundwork again at Christmas and hacking out from early Feb onwards to start getting fit.

He was dead easy to back so I'm not envisaging any problems when I get back on but we will start slowly again just to make sure he remembers stuff.

I know already that I made the right decision - he is looking well, has developed more and is much more balanced during his hoolleys around the field, he seems to have found his feet (particularly in canter which was always a mess, I was starting to wonder if he would ever work it out). I can't actually wait to get back on, am totally excited by it :D

In your particular situation I would wait until the new year to see what the weather brings - as you say the decision may be out of your hands if ice & snow arrives. Otherwise you are hardly pushing her, I wouldn't personally reduce the workload you currently do.
 
No horse, of any breed has a mature skeleton before the age of 5 1/2. Bigger horses need even more time to mature.

I lightly backed my grey at 4, then she had a year off. She grew a lot during that time. I'm actually thinking of just leaving my gelding unbacked until he's 5.
 
My 4yo was backed August/Sept time. She is now having time off to fill out into her frame more as shes just had a growth spurt (now measuring 17.2hh 1/2 inch). Shes my first proper baby, but my trainer recommends giving them time out and chill once backed and I trust her judgement. I think realistically she will have until end Feb off because of the weather but at some point I will restart a bit of groundwork with her.
 
If she is happy in her work I would keep going. Sounds like you are doing things to keep her interested and educate her and, as you say, you are bound to have to give her a weather break later on. I wouldn't cut her work so she gets fresh and naughty, you are better to do it positively or not at all.
 
I broke my mare at 3 in the april then she had until the November off I then did a little lunging & hacking with her for 4 weeks then she had 2 months off, she came into work properly in march of this year as a 4 year old she got a 2 week holiday in June & then another in august then another at the beginning of this month

She's done 2 dressage comps & 2 working hunter classes in summer , her schooling is fantastic for a 4 year old & I'm working on gridwork to get her jumping up to scratch

I'm hoping to event her next year as well, she will get another 2 weeks off over Christmas
She's currently worked 5 days a week
 
Depends. I prefer to back them at 4, hack throughout he summer and turn away til the spring. However am also happy to hack through their 4yo winter. I don't think they should be schooling until 5. Aside from the mental aspect of schooling being hard work, lots of circles with a not perfectly balanced human in a small space when you aren't fully grown or balanced I think is silly.

Pony Club always taught us that any horse doing Young Horse classes, jumping big or doing dressage as a 5 year old would be past it by 10. There's a reason horses can't do Olympic dressage until 9 years old - they need time to grow before the heavy training.
 
oldvic said:
If she is happy in her work I would keep going. Sounds like you are doing things to keep her interested and educate her and, as you say, you are bound to have to give her a weather break later on. I wouldn't cut her work so she gets fresh and naughty, you are better to do it positively or not at all.
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I totaly agree ,with the proviso that if you are a bit on the heavy side for a youngster you might need to back off a bit to let them mature and strengthen.But you say he is a dumbblood(sorry warmblood,personaly I favour Irish dafts)so probably a big lad anyway . I would keep him interested and learning ,but with a light workload.
 
No one routinely turns away their broken youngsters but we Brits. Do what works for yourself over the winter, it probably won't make much difference to her.
 
Many thanks for all the responses. Its interesting to hear everyone's thoughts.

I'll keep her ticking over quietly while I can and ensure she gets at least a few weeks off early in the new year when the weather gets bad.
 
I'd do what you've decided OP - just keep her ticking over and give her a month or so off completely during the worst of the winter, then at least she won't have forgotten things. I don't generally turn any youngsters I've had away properly, only a month or two but really depends on the weather! I don't see much point in turning away TBH, yes they're not physically mature of course but they'll still keep growing while riding them (especially if its only gentle riding like you're doing) so I don't see much benefit. I think warmbloods are one of the slower types to mature too, mine didn't finish filling out / growing until he was 8!
 
MagicMelon said:
I'd do what you've decided OP - just keep her ticking over and give her a month or so off completely during the worst of the winter, then at least she won't have forgotten things. I don't generally turn any youngsters I've had away properly, only a month or two but really depends on the weather! I don't see much point in turning away TBH, yes they're not physically mature of course but they'll still keep growing while riding them (especially if its only gentle riding like you're doing) so I don't see much benefit. I think warmbloods are one of the slower types to mature too, mine didn't finish filling out / growing until he was 8!
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I'm hoping she doesn't continue growing til she is 8! I bought her as a 15.2, only really wanted a small horse, she is already getting closer to 16hh. That is more than enough for my short legs! I'll need a step ladder :) I do appreciate she still has some filling out and possibly growing to do though and she has quite big joints so nervous of doing too much with her but at the same time want to keep her ticking over to avoid her making up her own entertainment.
 
I would personally carry on with what your doing my tbX was backed and broken at 3 because he was ready and gently hacked all over the winter, schooling started in the spring when he was 3 1/2 (September foal) he's never had time off because he never needed it, he loved learning and going out hacking. He was showing the following spring and did amazingly. My current mare was 4 in May backed and lightly schooled from June, she is ridden most days and loves it but were having issues schooling so after advise from on here think we're just gonna stick to hacking for the winter and start in the school again next year
 
I back and broke my 4 yr old 17hh RID last winter when he was 2 then turned him away for the summer because we had reached a point schooling where he was just naughty so decided to give him a break, also made it easier to go off and compete my other horse. Brought him back into work mid septemeber and been has been working really well since and currently going through another groth spurt. My older horse I had from3 yrs and hes never been turned away he just wasnt worked hard till he was 5
 
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