Because I am bored - 'show and tell' on your 4 year olds!

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ecrozier

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As our boy will be 4 this year, I would be really interested to see/hear all your horses as they were when they were 4! At any stage during that year or even better both at the start and end of the year and any pics inbetween!
What did you do with them, how much did you ride then and for how long (hacking/scooling), how regularly did you give them any time off if at all?

I'm pretty happy with my plans for ours (bring him back into quiet work when weather eventually improves, keep doing one session a week in the school and trying to hack twice (up to about 45 mins a time) including taking him out to new places on the lorry. Going to pick up lessons on him in mid-late March time probably and maybe venture to our RC walk trot dressage test in late April - entirely for the experience obviously! Then start looking at some poles and tiny jumps over the summer, and maybe have a mini xc play in the sutumn. If we can finish the year by following a more experienced horse round the 2' - 2'3 XC at the local venue I'd be thrilled. And would like to be doing a passable prelim test by the end of 2010. I know some people do less and some much more but I'm going to aim for a happy medium. Very much doubt he will ever be ridden more than 3 or 4 days a week and short sessions each time and so far he has been very chilled about the whole thing. If he vere shows signs of not enjoying his work I'll give him some time off again but tbh at the moment he's proved more mischevious when not in work!

This is him now (sorry all unrugged photos are months old!)
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And this was him in the summer at 3 yrs 4 months old! With my OH at his first ever show (horse not OH!)
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Sorry can't resist posting him!
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As a late 3yo (October time), very lightly backed, barely 16hh and resembling a round overgrown pony.

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Very shortly afterwards turned away for the winter.
Emerged 2-3" taller, very weak, gangly and skinny.
No decent photo's as was to gobsmacked to take any.
This was April time (rising 4) from a flattering angle

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Spent 4yo Spring/Summer hacking with short interspersed holidays, spent autumn cubbing/sponsored rides, and early winter schooling. Short break and then work was upped rising 5

February rising 5
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I've had 3.

The 1st one , we bought in april. She did quiet schooling and jumping until about June, when we slowly stepped up the fitness and she went xc schooling for practise for the BE 4yr old champs. She did her 1st event at the beginning of July. She did 3 in total (including the champs).

2nd one was a dressage horse purchased in July. He'd learnt basic walk, trot, canter in an outline. working 20mins at a time. I continued on this way just strengthening him up. He did a little bit of jumping to keep his work varied. He did his 1st competition at the end of October, but just 1 test at a time. He was definitely the most imature of the 3.

3rd one was typical irish and the most grown up of the 3. A mature head on old shoulders and had done a couple of prenovices out in Ireland. When we got him he was dead cool, took the world in his stride and didn't really get tired.

I think so much depends on the attitude and make up of the horse. Some can take a much heavier work load while others you really don't want to be doing much with.

Yours is lovely, very kind face
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Oh yay, I like this post
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My boy is in his 5 year now but isn't 5 until April/May, so does he count?

I bought him in April as a scrawny rising four year old, but I did some research on his history and managed to get hold of this photo of him about four months before I bought him, so as a three year old...
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Then this is when I bought him...
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He was already in work when I bought him. He was backed around October and ridden lightly until I got him. When I got him in April I just spent the spring getting to know him. He was in work about four days a week, some schooling, some pole work and the occasional hack up the road... nothing strenuous. He then had September off and I bought him back into work in October. Since then he's had two weeks schooling livery with my YO and has been doing 'proper' work in the school. I never overdo it with him though, if he cooperates and works well then we might only be in the school as long as ten/fifteen minutes. I think it's important to reward him with when he tries hard for me. He's working really well now and I'm really pleased with his progress.
He's had a few weeks off now due to the snow but he went out to a show last weekend and qualified for CHAPS Winter Champs and Equifest, which I was chuffed with as it was his first proper ridden class. CHAPS is in April, so as soon as the school thaws out he'll be getting fit for that.

So this is him now... 9 months down the line... at his first ridden show last weekend...
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/5189748/an/0/page/1#5189748
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He's actually gone a little bit lanky again lately and his legs seem to have lengthened, lol, so hopefully he'll fill out again soon.
 
Wow he shot up that winter didn't he! Looks lovely now. Really hope Roo hasn't got another 2 - 3 inches in him as he's 16.2hh now!
Did you do a full sponsored ride on him as a 4 year old? I was wondering about those but wondered if they might be a bit long?
Is he rising 6 now then?
 
Goddy at the beginning of his 4yr old year.
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Then I took him with me to a eventing yard whilst I was a WP. He did work quite hard, and came back and did this.
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He was jumping about 90cm, doing Prelim tests with 62%+ and also did his first ODE with a 37dr, 1 down Sjing clear XC.

Lucky was 4 in June, was backed in May, looks like this

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and has done a little ODE, been out to site see a lot, been to a clinic, a handful of lessons, and a couple of Sjing comps. Havent got any other pics on my puter
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She has grown an inch already (i've had her since July) She has done grids with some decent sized fences, and is competing at 85cm.
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She is alot more confident than Goddy with her work, but not hacking etc, he was happy going on on his own very confidently very quickly. She is better balanced than Goddy. I am lucky, as both have had pretty level heads
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Lacey, she will be 5 in March. 16.1 tbX
We bought Lacey off another forum member at the beginning of December. We haven't been able to much with her in this weather, just hacking and schooling but she has been a star!!
We'll do some unaff HT/ODE's in the spring/summer and possible some BE in autumn.
Her first day:
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Enjoying the snow:
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And doing what she does best - being a ploddy pony
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Yup, he's 6 this year and finally looking as though he is strong enough to do some proper work! The sponsored rides he did I chose short ones or ones with short cuts, so he did 6-8 miles. Hunting/cubbing I only stayed out 1-2 hours.

Your boy is looking well, hope to see you out and about this year.
 
my 3 year old hasnt been backed yet. shes 4 in march.

my other horse was backed at 5 as she had a foal. shes now 6 and competing at prelim/novice, schooling some elem level stuff. getting scores over 70% prelim. lots of lessons.plan is for fun rides, starting SJ and continuing dressage.
 
Exceeding expectations - wow, PN at 4! I can't imagine our boy doing that but perhaps he will figure out the order of his legs soon....he has moments of brilliance but is also still quite clumsy at times! But despite being irish x WB he seems to have inherited his mum's irish nature so far, can be VERY stubborn but always pretty chilled and grown up in his outlook.

Littlesoph yours is STUNNING! I do love a proper cob! And well done on qualifying - if you can upload the other pics again I would love to see them as only the last one seems to have worked?
 
Fantastic thanks everyone so interesting! Think ours is fairly well mature relative to some and also looks like we are doing reasonable amount of work with him!


B_&_J you will don't worry! Planning to bring both to MK with OH doing some of the lessons on Roo - doubt he will do more than one lesson each day tho and only baby level stuff, as we are doing the longer format he may take a day off on Saturday and just go for a hack depending how Friday goes. And also thinkng of taking both to Dilys' camp in August and again doing lessons/hacks alternate days.
Thats a good point about the short cuts, I was thinking of SOSR at 12 miles but can cut off even some of that. Cubbing would be very good for him but might see how the brakes develop, he's fine now but am so used to my little turbo charged arab who will stop and turn on a sixpence I'm dreading the day (if it ever comes) that 16.2 lump of horse decides to tank off!
 
oh i like this post to so mine 5yo this june !!

I bred mine he is Irish Sport horse and as someone said above extremely easy

I had him broken in his 3rd year only took 3 weeks then another 2 weeks when he came home and chucked back in teh field !!

He came into work end of november (he was 3 1/2) only ridden 3/4 days a week and schooling/hacking/lunging all combined for about 20 - 30 mins !!

by January he could do counter canter (but he was always very balanced)

I took him out end of Jan and did a 1'6 jumping class - he is so laid back we just trotted round to get him used to what goes on at shows

End of Feb he did a W&T and a Prelim scoring around 60%

He then did dressage for a few months and in May was getting scored in Prelim above 65% and did get a 70% !!

we then started him jumping having only done a few cross poles before and all of a sudden in July he decided he wanted to be a SJ it was like a transformation over night !!

He went to the Addington Young Horse show which was 1m and jumped round everyday for 4 faults even in the main arena which was so scary - we got to ride him in there the morning of the class everyone else was panicking at the flower pots - mine tried to eat them !!!!!!!

he then had a huge holiday sept/oct with lots of hacking

November i did a few Clear Rounds and BN BSJA - then the snow came

Now January 2010 bear in mind we havent schooled him in 6 weeks we went to play at dressage and did our first novice where he came 5th with 65%

Aim this year is to do some more dressage now for a few months then back to the jumping and hopefully some hunting and XC !!!

i have his half sister to break this year but she is an Oldenburg a mare and much sharper !!! but we will see x
 
Digli on his 3rd Birthday -
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as a four year old at his first show -
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and doing a bit of training -
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and as a 5 yo last summer
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(sorry i now he's a little behind the vertical on this pic but I promise he isnt normally - infact I try to get him to spend most of the time long and low:-))
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Staceytanglewood I LOVE your boy, have seen him on previous posts and he is beautiful. Is he irish through and through? I'm sure I have asked before sorry.
Nayletto yours is stunning too - what breed is he? Identical colouring to ours and what a transformation between the first and second pics!
 
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Staceytanglewood I LOVE your boy, have seen him on previous posts and he is beautiful. Is he irish through and through? I'm sure I have asked before sorry.
Nayletto yours is stunning too - what breed is he? Identical colouring to ours and what a transformation between the first and second pics!

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thank you - He is Irish Sport horse

His dad was full RID and a big 17.3hh with a lot of bone he was from the Lennox stud (i have heard this is quite famous) and his dad was Huntingfield Proud Tim who i think is now int he states !!

My mare is Belgium (scatty) Warmblood 16.1hh chestnut with a white face and white legs !!

He luckily took after his dad and is bay with no white (apart from 2 socks of course)

I love him to he is just so easy i am hoping that Phoenix will be as good this year - i guess it will tell me whether its the Irish cross or i guess how i handle them from birth !!!
 
Littlesoph all working now.....wow, what a transformation!!

Stacytanglewood he's the opposit cross from ours then! His mum is ISH but 3/4 RID, she's a CLover Hill mare, now jumping 1.30 classes. His dad is KWPN, bred in Scotland by Anastasia on the forum, by Royal Geneve. Believe his dad is SJ now, last I heard was at Foxhunter level but that was couple of years ago.
Be interesting to see if its nature or nurture then when you start your other one!!
 
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Littlesoph all working now.....wow, what a transformation!!

Stacytanglewood he's the opposit cross from ours then! His mum is ISH but 3/4 RID, she's a CLover Hill mare, now jumping 1.30 classes. His dad is KWPN, bred in Scotland by Anastasia on the forum, by Royal Geneve. Believe his dad is SJ now, last I heard was at Foxhunter level but that was couple of years ago.
Be interesting to see if its nature or nurture then when you start your other one!!

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oh lovely i love that stallion !!!

yes will be very interesting i have treated them exactly the same !! at the moment she is pretty on par with him actually i have laid the pessoa out on her and walked her round (not conected) and she didnt bat an eyelid !!

She is slightly move clever than he is though she got walking on a circle on the lunge immediately he didnt !!

she is by Balou du Rouet so i am so excited but again she will hack and do both dressage and SJ !!
 
We were told B was 5 when we got her but she was closer to 3 1/2 she spent her first year with us just hacking as she'd had a bit of a rough start and we took her to a few inhand shows.
She looked a bit like this when we got her
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at her first show
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We had to pretty much just hack for nearly 2 years as she absolutely hated schooling. She is now 9 and for the past 3 years I have been doing ridden showing with her and 2009 was definitely our best year as she qualified for P(UK), BSPS, Equifest, Royal London, Trailblazers, Amatuer Showing Society and Chiltern and Thames Championships.
She won her Spotted Class at Equifest and also won the Inhand Odd Coloured at C+T champs as well as a second in the Small hunter class and comments from John Conifey that made me grin like this ----->
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At equifest
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and my favourite picture of the year
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She had to have everything taken slowly though and is only in the last 2 years really matured as she had just had her brains blown before we got her and was basically considered a total nutjob
 
Yeah we were so thrilled when we found out his breeding - had no idea when we bough him about his dad's side so finding out royal geneve is grandad was a huge bonus to say the least.
Interesting about the pessoa - what age do you start using it? I have been putting off too much lunging as he is still growing. Oh and it took him a while to get the going round in circles thing too! Only did it for a couple of days tbh before we got on and then had to do again for vet when he got kicked, hadn't lunged for maybe 6 - 8 weeks and vet thought it was hilarious, he said we were lunging in the shape of a (broken) egg!
 
Thank you Emma C - He is mainly Trakenher, he is by a stallion called Wikefield Grane Viking.

Yours is lovely too very pretty genuine head. I think your plan sounds great - I started him with mainly short hacks when he was first broken at 3 and schooled for 20mins a couple of times a week. He then had to have to winter off due to colic surgery :-( so start was slow as a 4 yo, but started a simular way to when he was broken building up the hacking mainly and instead of schooling for longer id just add a session. He did his first comp at the end of the season where he came 3rd.
He was quite weak so he couldn't cope with anymore than 20 -30mins schooling until he was nearly 5. You sound like you definately aren' t going to rush and you might find things start happening faster than you expect.

I have this one to break in the spring he rising 4 KWPn by Negretto.

Pic as just turned 3
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so get to start it all over again...Good Luck with yours.
 
Adonnis when I got him June '08 (almost 3)

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Then in the November, just after his grading

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He was backed at the beginning of 2009 and in June 09, on the anniversary of me getting him he went to his first show

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And this is him back in November when we were competing at Keysoe

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Wow nalyetto the new one is stunning too. My old mare (she's 19 now) is Trakhener - sady never quite went as well as your boy tho! Was on and off lame from the age of 5 to 13 with various problems so at that point I gave up and semi retired her, got a sharer and bought myself another horse - he's now 13 and now we have the youngster too!
 
Fantastic idea for a post.
I loved looking back through all the pics

Dolls was broken as a 3yr old, but hardly more then two laps of trot until she was four.
1st pic is her as a three yr old in the field.

Then she started hacking and doing a little bit of everything over this last yr. Started with letting the OH ride her -that was back in May 09 (2nd pic)
Did a few dressage (WT) tests with her, and she worked her heart out. Then did a bit of jumping and finished with doing an eventers challenge at 2' (3rd pic). She jumped really well on both parts of the course & found her much less complicated than the other monster who gave up on the same course.
She's been out twice with different hunts and catches everyone's eye. 4th pic is of her in Oct with the local bloodhounds.
Our philosophy with her is to do a little bit of everything and keep it very low key as we want her to still be sound and willing in 20yrs time. It doesn't bother me that we've still never jumped more than 2' yet.
Next yr will be more hunting, if the ground improves and aiming for ridden hunter classes. I have to say I cant wait to start XC on her and more SJ too.

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This my girlie at 3yrs when i went to look at her. She is a WB X ID arab///

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And this was her at the Bath & West at 4yrs

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I haven't got any of me on board. I backed her in Feb last year. She has been worked quietly, been to dressage, fair bit of in hand showing.

She is turned away at the moment. I am very excited for this year!!
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Hope the pics work - i have never posted any on here before
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