Backing 3/4yr olds

So I guess some of us need to graduate to the 5/6yro thread, as of today.
I realised out hacking today that my guys are officially 5yros now, how did that happen?!

I'll link that thread here and perhaps see some of you over there. I really like using these threads as a bit of a diary on how we're getting on so will try to continue 🙂
GinaGeo

Pictures Thread 'Producing 5/6yr olds'

For the former 3/4yr olds that have graduated from that thread! And any new ones ?

I’ve been enjoying contributing and reading about everyone else’s young horses and I know there’s been some calls for a new thread to follow them on.

Pod is five now and has just levelled off again after a big growth spurt over winter.

He had his first jump lesson back last week. He’s come back so much stronger and is really taking me forward now - I’m getting glimpses of the horse he could be, and that’s plenty of horse for me and a lot of fun.

We’ve got a Dressage Comp at the weekend, his second. We...
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Asha said:
I bet he will be fine. Can you go and see him regularly . Hopefully that will put your mind at rest

Signing Amara off from this thread now . She’s done pretty much everything we wanted and is enjoying her holiday. The areas where the sarcoids have been lasered are healing really well . All scabbed over with lots of nice pink skin around them . She should be ready to crack on end of Jan all being well .

Good luck to everyone with their youngsters , it’s been fab to get updates
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Im sure he will be fine once he settles, and hoping to go and see him weekly as its not far.

But its such a big thing trusting your horse to someone else...
 
Mine 3 year old, officially 4. Properly backed her on Christmas Eve, though have some photos from the summer when I just jumped on. We had been doing some leading off another horse. We have upped the long reining. I have been doing short lead rein 'hacks' when I have someone to lead, when I haven't I have just wandered around the yards. Everywhere is hilly (Lake District) so riding her up and down the hill coming in and out of the yard is interesting. I would say she is 17hh of legs, and she has no idea where they are, and you feel like you are riding a drunken reindeer when going downhill.PHOTO-2026-01-01-20-50-03 4.jpgImage-1.jpg

Took her in the school today, her lunging is really good now. I did get won her but struggling to get her to go forward a bit. We get confused ears a lot! Would be easier/ quicker if I had someone on the ground to help. Anyone who pops in gets put on leads rein duty :D once we have had a few trots under saddle I think we will be away. Image-1 2.jpg
 
Small update on the baby reindeer.

Getting the idea that bus = treat and now starts asking for food when they appear rather than showing a desire to leg it.

We have been to the pub and been disgusted that this involves standing still whilst the humans have a drink that he’s not allowed to steal.

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We’ve also been over the motorway bridge & under a tunnel neither of which he found to be that interesting.

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Two rising 3 years olds - one as bombproof as a sleeping tortoise and one still learning to cope with life.
- The steady one will be too small (she is 12.2hh now or thereabouts and she hasn’t grown at all really in this last year), so will move on soon to find a home with smaller children. Busy doing prep for that - lots of picking up feet, walking over scary things, getting the kids to jump around her and be silly, learning about rugs and basically preparing her for a life with little people (not that she has reacted to anything they’ve done but better to be safe than sorry and all that!).
- The other needs to learn to chill. He is friends with my son but has always gravitated towards me like a magnet. Problem is he’s so excited when I do anything with him, all ‘Mummy’s playing with me! Mummy loves me! Squeee!’ So working on getting him to relax, enjoy cuddles, be less worked up about everything. He looks nothing like a 3yo yet - all tall legs and short back and proper 2yo shape. Which is good because I would like at least another two inches in height before he stops!

Rising 4yo is happy, chilled, still very enthusiastic about work and enjoys coming out a couple of times a week for a hack. She’ll go in an arena next summer and will hopefully be broken to drive next year. That’s the plan anyway!
 
Homebred connie x WB can now officially join the thread! She's been out to shows and loads and travels well. Very fluffy at the moment. She's currently just over 14.2. Hoping for 15 hh. She'll go to more inhand shows in the spring then lightly backed in late summer. My chief concern is her weight. My other two need more food than her and I don't want her in a separate field so it's tricky. My grass is too rich for her. Plan is to sell her at some point. This spring, after backing in the summer or next spring. Not sure which yet.
 

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Ru is on week 4 of his time off, took him in the school yesterday for some mounting block practice and I have been dying to sit on him again, so i did :D
We had a little mooch around and a trot bareback. He is such a chilled baby, dragged him in from the field and just had a play, it made my week 😊
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He is definitely growing too

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Kick up the bum the last couple of days. Took her for a hack (being led of another horse) and she was very lazy. I then got on her in the yard, decided to stop being sheepish and told her to get on with it. She did forward off my leg and actually had a little trot. Today arena was frozen so couldn’t be bothered to lunge do just jumped on straight away and went for a little hack, just up the lane. Foot perfect apart from struggling with the downhill part!

I think if I had someone helping, even just riding another horse we would get there a bit quicker…
 
rhino said:
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I have a little dun creature who can join in, he’s rising 3 and a super wee chap. Has done a couple of in hand shows and a fair bit of Trec, going champion in the open in hand section of our winter league last winter. Handling all established but in no rush to get him under saddle this year.View attachment 171185
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Ooh a lovely proper dun! He's gorgeous
 
My baby thoroughbred is also bowing out of this thread now that he is officially 5! He finished off his 4 year old year with his first working hunter show at the end of November, followed by winning his 80cm Northern Ireland festival working hunter qualifier the following week (videos below).



He had a little break over Christmas and rounded out the year with a little indoor jump schooling session. Lots of exciting plans for this year hopefully!


Good luck to all the new 3/4 year olds, and I might see some of you in the 5 year old thread 😊
 
Excited to be joining this thread with Rabbit my lovely full Appaloosa youngster. He's currently 2 years and 8 months old, so not quite 3 by his birthday, but I believe he will technically be classed as 3 as of 1st of January? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong aha!

Really excited for this next step of our journey together, I've had him since he was an 8 month old colt and done all the work to date by myself, so it's mega exciting (and daunting!) to be getting closer to the first sit stage.....

I've not got any massive plans for him as he's still having a few growth spurts - I mainly want him to accept me sitting on his back, walk and trot in an arena and possibly a few small, short hacks out with a friend before letting him mature more physically and mentally for 2027.

We're 75% there I would say - I just need to hanker down on teaching him to long line and then I can work towards doing the leaning over etc part. He's such a Mummy's boy that the second I disappear from his side, he's turning around looking for me - which makes groundwork pretty awesome as he's mega responsive, but when I'm trying to avoid us both getting tangled in a pair of long lines, it's not the most helpful thing 😅

I've attached some photos from various stages since I had Rabbit (hope they work!) x
 

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Awesome updates everyone! All your youngsters are gorgeous 😍

When do one tend to graduate to the 5/6 yo thread? When the horse turns 5 or rising 5?
Apache won't be 5 until September so I think we will stick around here a bit longer.

On Sunday we went out with a couple of friends for our second trail ride away from home. I was still a bit nervous as Apache can be spooky, although better in company. We somehow managed to get a little lost so the ride ended up longer than planned and had to trudge through some quite overgrown tracks. Despite this he did so so well!

I uploaded some gopro footage for anyone interested here
 
My colts are turning three in 6th April, 30th April and somewhere (22?) May. The eldest, the pinto, has had a rider on twice now, loose in the paddock with no equipment or other human around. Before that, I spent quite some time hanging on him, jumping up and down, hanging and waving on the other side, laying on top of him etc. So he seemed relieved I was finally just getting up normally.

Might sell him in the summer. I simply have too many horses, he's a bit outside in the herd and will be the easiest to sell. We also won't fit together long term, he's too mild and easygoing for me. Though I want to sell him ridden in all speeds, walk, trot/tölt and canter. We don't have a school so everything will be done outside. He's very calm and easy so I'm not worried. Actually considering hacking him out the first time in the snow, it's starting to get up to half a metre so at least if he does something and I fall off, it'll be quite soft to land.
 
Spicy rising 3yo was so funny yesterday. Working on his back feet because he’s more reactive with them than I’d like - will pick up for me, with a tap from a crop, but won’t tolerate them being held. Panics and leaps about. So rope…right? But how to get it round that leg? He is so very very clever. Every trick I had to get it round he countered after one success.

Finally I wore him down and he just gave up, letting me teach him that it was actually fine and he got treats for not reacting to the pressure. Then I asked him to pick up the hoof rather than just not panic at feeling trapped and he went…, ‘Nah. I’m done. You said I should stand still so I am.’ 🤣 Fair enough lad. I unbalanced him so he had to pick it up then we stopped there.

He learns so very fast but can be so explosive and his trust is so hard won. Very one person chestnut pony. Still has the 2yo body shape though so no rush, just going to spend this year doing handling and walks before he gets any bigger and stronger and letting him grow up.

Other one is bitted and going for walks now, wearing a rug etc. I want to give her every chance to find a really good family home - desensitising to everything before we even advertise.
 
Rocky is 3 this year . He’s a good lad , does what I need him too . But being a fair chunk now I think it’s best to leave him until next year . Might take him to a show over the summer if I get the time . For now he’s just stuffing his face IMG_0683.jpeg
 
Buzzing after my session with Rabbit at the weekend - we introduced the saddle and did some in hand work with it!

Left Rabbit loose in the stable as I tack up loose (I like for my horses to be able to tell me/show me if they are in pain or sore anywhere/ not in the mood for riding that day) ,and he was happy enough munching on his haynet, so I brought the tack in, placed it on the wall, went over and said hi to him. Ran my hands all over his body, checked I could get him to yield in both directions and back up nicely, before giving another round of scratches and ear rubs. Went and grabbed the saddle pad, let him sniff it, threw it around/over his head/clumsily on the ground etc and repeated on both sides before placing it on his back. Repeated the exact same steps with the half pad and then moved onto the girth and saddle. I did forget myself for a moment and casually put the girth on top of his arse whilst letting him sniff the saddle, and only realised this when I went to attach the girth to the saddle - of course Rabbit was stood there, munching hay, resting a back leg without a care in the world 🤣 He's such a zen rising 3 year old that I forget sometimes about taking things back a few steps......ended the session with the saddle firmly (but securely) attached to him, girth was on 3rd or 4th hole on each side, brought the stirrups down, walked him around in hand before asking him to trot in hand -stirrups were flapping all over the place/ banging against the saddle making a noise - and Rabbit being the absolute legend that he is did not give one crap 🤩

Was absolutely over the moon with him, so decided against walking him out in hand as he'd already been so good (and didn't want to overface him, nor push my luck!), gave him lots of praise/scratches and cuddles, took the saddle off him, gave him a polo mint and called it a day with the session x
 
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