4yr olds - how often to ride?

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maxapple

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Anyone with a 4 yr old -just wondering how often you ride?

I have a 4yr old (just!) - not done much at all. Wondering whether 3 times a week is enough. Or if 4 would be too much?

My thinking is ....

Hack twice a week ... lots of different places: lanes / woods / golf course etc
School once a week (or twice?) - again just a 20 min session for now doing lots of transitions / trotting poles so he learns where his legs go / learning how to trot circles eventually etc.

Does that sound about right?
 
Irish Draft x.

He's still very babyish physically - baby face and legs he's not always sure what to do with and no muscle yet ... so thought lots of nice walks around the lanes / woods etc would be good for that.

Mentally he's very keen / willing to learn and seems to enjoy doing things. His owner has free schooled him quite a bit over jumps (I'm loaning him) and says he loves it!

If I do any schooling I thought 15 - 20 mins max of trying to learn something new and lots of fun things like walking around obstacles and over poles would be good.
 
Sounds absolutely fine . My madam just turned 4 there last week technically :p .

At the minute I still refer back to long reining every other day . Haven't ridden her for several weeks now, but before she was ridden 3-4 times a week . Sessions last for half an hour with plenty of transitions in between . She has been out to a few small shows also .

Col x
 
i have a 4 and half year old and he gets ridden/lunged 5-6 times a week at the moment. BUT he has done quite a lot for a youngster before i bought him and is only getting a few hours turn out in a school/paddock at the mo (fields too boggy and he's never been turned out before - came off a showjumping yard in the netherlands) so I need to work him to keep him sane. I had always thought 4x a week was fine for a youngster but I guess every one is different and my instructor reckons 6 days a week of work is right for him...
 
Depends on the individual horse. My last horse as a 4 year old had to have some form of ridden/lunging or even groundwork every day purely to occupy his mind otherwise he'd start getting silly. He had been raced as a 2/3yr old and then did polocrosse for a season so he had done alot more than most 4 year olds. Your plan seems great, just see how he copes with what you do and you can always gradually up his work or reduce it if its too much :)
 
Really does depend on the horse. As a rule I don't do more than 3 sessions a week with my four year olds although one of them had so much growing into himself to do that he wasn't backed until late in his 4th year and now as a nearly five year old he has only recently been restarted.

A friend of mine regularly hunts her 3 year olds but my feeling is that if you are planning on having a sound older horse it is best not to overdo it when they are young. Our youngsters all live out though so that they are putting a certain amount of stress onto their bones which is supposed to be better for them.
 
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