Best time to back.

[Silver]

your opinions on the best time to back my warmblood cross.
She is 2 at the mo ( have only had her two weeks) I am planning on leading in hand, longlining, spook busting, loading, and getting her accustomed to tack this year. But the big question is when to back as I know there is much debat about this. 3 or 4 or later! I know Warmbloods can be slow to develop, I do want the best for her as she will be my forever horse.

give me your opinions. Thanks

 

[Happy Hunter]

I dont know when - I have just broken my Cleveland Bay from Boodmare at 8 yrs old. She seems ok

I just wanted to say, if its going to be your forever horse, whenever you do break, dont rush it, it doesnt matter if you dont canter for a couple of months of even 6 months, doesnt matter if jumping doesnt come for ages,, - Take as much time as she needs

 

[Persephone]

Just whenever she feels ready. I'm sure a lot of WB get backed at 3 because then they do 4 y/o classes.

 

[alesea]

I think that's probably something you'll need to assess as you go along. Our boy is 3 (he's 15/16 TB), and at the start of Spring we decided that we'd probably have to wait 'til Winter to back him, because he was very bum high and looked very weak- still like a 2yo. Essentially he didn't look like a 'grown up' horse, and would have looked tremendously stupid with a saddle on!

However with the grass coming through he's put on a huge growth spurt and is looking a lot stronger, so we've started lunging him and bitting him in preparation. We're still not sure when precisely we'll back him, it depends if he goes bum high again over summer. In our case it's very much a case of when he looks 'right' we'll get on and back him. Until then we'll get the basics in place so we're ready to go when the time is right.