How long is a horse green for?

[DottlebangBandersnatch]

At what point does a horse stop being green? After they've been broke and introduced to all the jobs they will need in life? At a certain age? Or is it just when they're confident enough to do what is asked of them most of the time?

My cob was broken as a 4/5 year old and is only now at the age of 9 being properly used. She hacked mainly for most of the summer but we don't have an arena or set of jumps or anything so she is very green schooling. She does everything (well most things) asked of her hacking and if she's seen it before it won't be an issue again.

Interested to hear your thoughts as I'm just wondering if there's an industry standard or is it not clearly defined.

 

[Cortez]

Until it is sufficiently trained and experienced to be reliable for it's job. Some horses will be "green" until the day they day, unfortunately.

 

[DottlebangBandersnatch]

Until it is sufficiently trained and experienced to be reliable for it's job. Some horses will be "green" until the day they day, unfortunately.

So it's just until they're safe and easy going? Would you consider a recently broken a horse to not be green if it was just super safe and knew it's job?

 

[Tarragon]

I think the the phrase "reliable for it's job" is the key to me. If it is just needed to be a happy hacker, and it is good as a happy hacker, the fact that it cannot do an ODE doesn't make it green. If it is supposed to be a ODE horse and it cannot yet do an ODE, then it would still be "green".
That is how I see it.

 

[sport horse]

Green is a young inexperienced horse - perhaps for up to 12 months after breaking. After that they are just poorly schooled! Now I await howls of criticism!

 

[daffy44]

It depends, with the horse the OP mentioned, it can be confident and experienced as a hacking horse, but green in regards to its schooling. Its quite common for a competition horse to be green when it moves up to a new level, its just means its inexperienced at that level, not in general, so it varies.

 

[scruffyponies]

So it's just until they're safe and easy going? Would you consider a recently broken a horse to not be green if it was just super safe and knew it's job?

They might behave like they are made, but are very vulnerable to being 'messed up', however sensible they seem.

 

[shamrock2021]

It’s depends my horse is green in general and she is 11 years old her previous owners didn’t do anything with her when she was a young horse. I bought her at 9 and she didn’t even now how to jump or do basic Flatwork and she didn’t now what forward cue was. I think it’s really depends on the horse and what they have been exposed to.

 

[sportsmansB]

A horse can be green in some departments and competent in others. A happy hacker may well be green in the school but a great, confident hack. A dressage horse from the continent where they rarely leave the arena could be the opposite. Both would remain so until someone takes the time to make them confident and competent at the new skill set. Could take years, could take a month, might never happen.

 

[oldie48]

Rose is going out to do a medium test on Sunday but she's green at that level ie still learning/not established. Although she's a mature horse, she's done very little jumping but she will pop a fence but she's green. That's how I use it.Not about age, more about how established they are in doing something.

 

[welshpony216]

my mare is 16, and she is greener than my 5 year old gelding. Its not always young horses.

 

[Not_so_brave_anymore]

In my mind, "green" mainly implies inexperience. So a horse can be green, but still safe: they might not understand what you're asking of them, but they won't necessarily do anything silly about it.

If a horse has been in a situation many times but is still unpredictable, then I'd be more likely to describe it as spooky or hot or just downright daft (or "forward going" if it was an advert ?)

 

[paddi22]

I think people use the term 'green' as an excuse too much.

there is a very clear window where a horse is being introduced to something new where there is naturally a period when it is green. Like I would class a horse as green at ditches if it had just started doing them and hadn't been schooled over them correctly till it was confident and established in understanding what was being asked of it. . but I think there's a stage where a horse goes out of the excuse of being green and is just naturally not good at an area. you see people saying their horses are green in water, when they've been having refusals at cross country courses for years, at that stage it's not green, it's just either not suited for the job or taught badly.

 

[ihatework]

Green just means inexperienced at the job they are being asked to do. A young horse will always be green even if it’s very safe and compliant. Really established competition horses can still be green too, when stepping up a level, or in other disciplines.

 

[Trinket12]

My mare is 17, safe as houses but still green in some areas because she has some gaps in her training.

 

[welshpony216]

@paddi22 and @ihatework I agree, calling a horse green, or putting a green ribbon in their tails, just means they are inexperienced at what they are doing. To many times, especially in the show hunter world, people tend to over use the term green. I was watching reruns of the USEF 2017 Pony Finals, and the "green" sections, those ponies are not green looking to me. Not a hint of spookiness or insecurity at all! My pony spooks at everything, even in the arena at home! If I took her to a show like that... Well, I cant, because I am not 12 any more!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Green means no experience of training some horses have zero training until they are much older, but I suppose it depends on what you want a horse for, mine are schooled you could do decent prelim or novice test and a decent level showing class, but they have not really jumped or gone eventing or hunted so in those circumstances they would be classes as green.

 

[Annagain]

A horse can be green in some ways but not in others. Charlie is 6 but 100% reliable to hack. He's great in traffic, polite and sensible and gives older horses leads past scary things. His flat work however, is like a 4yr old's and we've had to work really hard on the canter. We're getting there but I would still describe him as green in that sense. We can just about manage a 20m circle in canter and trying to trot a serpentine the other day made me realise just how far we've got to go! It's a huge learning curve for me too - I'm so used to just riding a serpentine on the two oldies that it didn't occur to me I'd have to do anything other than, you know, just ride a serpentine. With Charlie I was really having to think for both of us, and micro-manage every stride for balance, bend, straightness, change of direction all while maintaining a nice rhythm and speed, i'm so used to the boys doing most of that automatically! For jumping, although he has jumped quite big fences in the past (hunting in Ireland) and the jump and willingness is definitely there, he can't adjust his canter yet so that affects his ability to get round courses and deal with distances so I'd call him green with that too.

 

[saddlesore]

Agree with previous comments. I mainly hack so my horse would be considered green in many areas, however he’s a forward going, enthusiastic safe hack who would go anywhere.