do you turn your youngsters away after breaking??

[china]

fingers crossed i am soon to be the owner of a lovely little 4 yr old irish creature (if all goes to plan!!) over the last two and a half months he has been being broken in and is going very well but hasnt done much road work. He is as quite as a lamb but could do with growing up abit. He was untouched when he first came back in june so can be a little timid.
would you do abit of hacking to look at the sights and sounds and then turn away over the winter or keeping going?? and how long would you turn away for?

 

[teamsarazara]

We back them, then maybe once a month bring them in from being turned away and sit on them etc and then the next time every 3 weeks then every 2 weeks till we are down to a week and by this time we have them doing basic work in the school and hacking out i definately recommend hacking to start with, knee boots can be a good investment though as often babies are still finding their feet and weve had a few knee accidents!

 

[china]

ooh thanks for the tip! i have some knee boots buried somewhere!!

 

[Spring Feather]

No I don't turn youngsters away after they have been backed and riding out. To be honest I've never seen the point of that. If the horse is not mature enough to be backed without being turned away afterwards then to me it is not mature enough to be backed ... period. I'd rather wait 6 months or a year until the horse is ready. Gentle hacking is my preferred way to keep the horse ticking over during the winter months.

 

[shadowboy]

Yes. Always- ever since I was a kid and my g'parents used to work on their driving horses. My grandad used to say - even children need a holiday from school.

I find it allows them to recover mentally and physically. Growth plates dont 'fuse' until approx 5/6 years old so why work a youngster solidly from 3.5 onwards. I dont buy the they will get bigger/stronger and therefore play up more. Yes they will get bigger and stronger- surely that proves the point!