A request

DellaMoon

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I am very interested to hear what people are doing with their rising 4 yr olds so I can compare it with what I am doing with mine. I am getting a bit confused though (as I regularly do at this time of year!) because some people class their horses as 4 on the 1st of Jan and others don't. Therefore could I please ask for people to clarify whether their horse is 4 (rising 5) or rising 4.

Thank you very much!!
 
Haven't got a 4 yr old but a horses age is calculated as of 1st january for the purposes of many disciplines such as Riding Clubs, racing, SJ to name a few.Hope this helps
 
my 4 yr old is 5 on 12th feb this year, but my farrier looked at me odd the other day and said no he was 5 on the first of jan! (he is TB so my farrier is stating the obvious!) he works in racing and goes by the old tradition of TB's all getting a year older on the 1st Jan.
When is your horse turning 5?? i class my boy as 5 on 12th feb otherwise you could say he would be rising 6 in jan next year! (ive just confused myself now!lol)
 
my arab x is rising 4, she's been broken in and hacked out lightly, got her balanced in the school, now she'll have a break till mid summer :)
 
My baby was started at almost 4 but only because she was soooo slow to develop. Icey will be 5 on 25 July this year. She still looks a bit like a foal! I consider her rising 5 but I started her a year later than I had hoped.

I started her end June 2010. Lunged for a bit a few times a week, then lunged for 15 mins before me getting on for a few mins each time. 6 months down the line she is working nicely in the school (well, not so nicely this morning) and jumping about 2'3. She is held back by my lack of confidence so could be doing a lot bigger. I am having a real push to get her ready for some local shows this spring. Not hacking her at the moment but we were before it got so cold and wet and windy (and exciting!). Will resolve that issue when the ground is a little more stable.

Taking it slowly as I don't want to mess this up, she is my horse for life and not something I am willing to sell on, to someone else who would be pleased to get her cheap, on the basis they will fix my errors! She is also very sharp so I have had to take it slowly, and I am very old and more nervous than I was at 18!
 
My boy will be 4 mid June.

He is currently on enforced time off because some drunken pilock kicked me and broke my knee, but I had always planned to give him January off anyway, to grow a bit, chil a bit and let everything hes learned sink in. He's so far had all of December off, will have all of January off and deending on whether I need surgery or not and how long my recovery is, will have all of Feb off too.

I'm hoping like mad that March we can start to at least lunge, if nt some gentle sits on! (Pleasepleaseplease!)
 
My cob will be 5 in April. He's currently doing very light work..maybe 4 times a week quick hack or 30 mins schooling. He'll hopefully be doing more come spring with a mind to doing some serious drag hunting next winter. He's really been bought for me to hunt and do fun rides and play around on the beaches, he's too big and hefty to do much jumping. And he's not that interested in it either so I've got Little Cob to do the silly dangerous things on and sensible younger Big Cob for the hard work!!!! I've been asked to show him but won't hog him. :rolleyes:
 
If you are showing then its first of jan. Mine is 6 in July but would be showing in 6 year old classes from now. That's why is a disadvantage to have a late foal if you want to show or to do young event horse etc.
 
For any competitions, horse's age is from the 1st Jan :)

My 4 year old was technically 5 from the 1st jan, but in reality is 5 on the 5th May :)

We are doing low level dressage and some unaff jumping, usually 90cm and the odd 1m but he is a big boy so anything below 90cm dosent get much thought :o
Hoping to event him bit later on in season :)
 
I do get that if you're competing then technically they change age on the 1st Jan. Just that people don't always go with that when just talking about their horses! My rising 4yr old was backed lightly in May/June and been turned away until two weeks ago. I'm now just getting on her without lunging and planning to lightly hack a few times a week until later in the Spring. It's amazing how everyone starts off their horses so differently!
 
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