How old is too old to still be green?

[ridefast]

As title really, at what age would you be put off a horse for being green, and what would you consider green, too green etc.

 

[Spangie]

Well i've just brought a basically unhandled 5 year old and Nov 2011 picked up an unbroken 9 year old mare (who is now fab and schooling happily at elementary!) so i'm all for older green horses. I think it's more a mileage than age thing really.

Also depends on horses attitude. My mare is very quick to learn and was very balanced right from the start (perhaps due to physical maturity) so even only 18 months after breaking, I wouldn't call her green.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

It entirely depends on what the horse has done. A 17yo brodmare that has just been backed would e equally as green as a freshly backed 4yo.

 

[Prince33Sp4rkle]

personally, for me, and for dressage, 6 (UNLESS its a mare thats only been a broody but then i would have serious reservations as to why she didnt do anything before being put in foal.....so another can of worms...).

i can forgive a 4 or 5yo for being wobbly and un-educated, especially if the jockey has been busy or is very nervy but by 6, if its still green as grass, theres normally a reason and that reason is normally that its sharp, silly, or quirky.

constantly amazed on here at the amount of people that think its normal that a 6/7/8yo cant yet canter in the school or do any lateral work, or work in an outline or even bend the right blinking way!!!!

 

[NZJenny]

What the others have said - greenness is about experience rather than age. And training or lack there of - does anyone else find it becomes a convenient excuse for owners who just don't?

 

[NZJenny]

Sorry OP I have just read your post again. Do you mean how old is too old to still be green? As in would I take on a "green" six year old as opposed to a green ten year old? If so - then for me horses stop being "young" at six, so I expect them to be grown up and no longer green by then. Anything older than that is just hard work.

 

[ridefast]

Sorry OP I have just read your post again. Do you mean how old is too old to still be green? As in would I take on a "green" six year old as opposed to a green ten year old? If so - then for me horses stop being "young" at six, so I expect them to be grown up and no longer green by then. Anything older than that is just hard work.

Yes, as in, would you be happy to take on a green 6 year old with low mileage but not happy to take on a green 11 year old with low mileage. Is low mileage the same as green, does it mean the same thing to people?

 

[Perfect_Pirouette]

personally, for me, and for dressage, 6 (UNLESS its a mare thats only been a broody but then i would have serious reservations as to why she didnt do anything before being put in foal.....so another can of worms...).

i can forgive a 4 or 5yo for being wobbly and un-educated, especially if the jockey has been busy or is very nervy but by 6, if its still green as grass, theres normally a reason and that reason is normally that its sharp, silly, or quirky.

constantly amazed on here at the amount of people that think its normal that a 6/7/8yo cant yet canter in the school or do any lateral work, or work in an outline or even bend the right blinking way!!!!

Yet again, I agree completely with PS!

Always makes me laugh when people say 'Well he/she is STILL very green....but they ARE only 6/7! Errr right so there's a good chance of them being broken etc aged 3/4 so that's two or three years of schooling then and they STILL don't work in an outline or can canter a circle......? But that's okay right because they've only had 3 years of schooling......

 

[FfionWinnie]

Depends why I suppose. If its not done anything it will continue to be green until someone puts the effort in. If its a big thick type that has had loads of work and is still green I wouldn't be keen on that. My five year old has been in consistent work for ten months now and I would say she is well on her way to being established. That's with a numpty rider, no school and a quirky horse!

 

[ridefast]

Depends why I suppose. If its not done anything it will continue to be green until someone puts the effort in. If its a big thick type that has had loads of work and is still green I wouldn't be keen on that. My five year old has been in consistent work for ten months now and I would say she is well on her way to being established. That's with a numpty rider, no school and a quirky horse!

So an older horse that is green from lack of work rather than lack of trying wouldn't put you off?

 

[Baileybones]

My 11yr old mare is completely green - in fact I am often heard cussing that I've ridden better 4yr olds!
In fairness to her though there are several issues at play. One is that she is sharp as sharp and gutless which is an awesome combination. As a direct result of this she has ended up with 6 homes in as many years and last stop was to me.
Last March as a 10yr old she had her first ever hack! I honestly think that had she been exposed to more when she was younger she'd be far better off but she'll still possibly never be brave and will always require riding with my brain fully switched on.
So I suppose it didn't put me off as I still agreed to take her but if I'm honest if she wasn't such a nice person with such potential (incredibly well bred and outside of my price range had she not have had issues and been a freebie) then I may not have bothered.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

My boy is 7 and still rather green. Was broken just before he turned 5 and then the person who bought him only went to see him once as he was too "scary" to handle so he ended up being a field ornament until he went on full livery where he was hunted off and on for a season.

I was looking for something confidence giving and found despite his greeness his personality shone through (he's such a genuine chap who loves his work) that I was willing to overlook his low mileage and am just having extra lessons with him to make sure we stay on the right track.

 

[Jojoeena]

I think it totally depends on the circumstances, yes some people use it as an excuse but if there is a genuine reason why they have low mileage and as a result are still green at 6/7 then it would not put me off. If however they had been in normal (for their age bracket) work since the age of 3 and were still 'green' then that would ring alarm bells for me as to why !
My boy will be 6 by the time that he is in full work, genuine reasons he was not backed till 5, was hacked lightly for 2 months and now on holiday till next year as I am pregnant - he's big and still not mentally mature so no biggy, although works all basic school movements well in longlines so building strength and balance.

 

[mandwhy]

I think 6/7 at a push. I don't see 7 as young really unless the horse is a bit immature/under developed for its age like with some large breeds. My haffy is a babyish 6, I haven't cantered her much but we're almost there... That's fine for me as she's mine but I wouldn't sell her at that age without being able to canter properly!

As long as a horse can hack reasonably and will do some vague circles in a school then the rest can be progressed pretty quickly.

It does irritate me a bit that someone would have a 10yo and not think that backing it somewhere along the way and hacking a few times would have been a good idea, and then have to sell it in that unfortunate position.

 

[sportsmansB]

My horse is 7 (ish) and was apparently broken and ridden away, then just stuck in a field for 4 years.
He rides like a 4yo, but has more physical strength and is completely chilled in his head, so we have been able to move on a bit faster than with a 'baby baby'. I wouldn't rule it out, especially with a gelding, I do know of some mares who were put in foal because they had ridden issues in the hope that it would sort their heads out, and it often doesn't...

 

[Holding]

I'm always talking to other people with 'youngsters' and comparing issues and stuff, only to get to the end of the conversation and find out that theirs is 7 or 8. Unless they had been out of work for a valid reason, I wouldn't be interested in a 7/8 year old that was still described as green.

 

[Abacus]

Depends a lot on type and size for me. I've had my 6 year old for 2 years, he's an ISH with about half ID, and is now about 17.1. His work has been light due to me having a baby, but I would also call him green because his canter was impossible in the school for ages - he is just getting it now. We have had good spells along the way, but then he would grow and change shape, and end up all unbalanced again. I'm sure he could have moved along quicker with a pro, but it doesn't matter to me that he is learning slowly. At the same time however he has learned to be a lovely hack with or without company, crosses the busy road on his own, he will pop a log and isn't phased by any sort of filler or jump (small still because of the canter) and is a charming chap to have around, so in these ways he is not green for 6. The school work can happen slowly - too many people rush nice young horses. Personally I deliberately would NOT buy a 6 year old that had done too much, however appealing the competition record.

 

[Qru]

So an older horse that is green from lack of work rather than lack of trying wouldn't put you off?

Not at all IMO - but that's just me.
I bought my boy at 11 knowing full well he'd only been gelded and backed about 1.5/2 years previously. But as people have previously said it also depends on WHY they haven't done the work - ie. my boy was a rescue - as well as their general temperament and "work ethic."
My boy is very willing to learn and loves to please - show him something once that he doesn't understand and by the third go he's usually cracked it beautifully - which has gone a long way since his ridden work as within those 1.5 years after backing he was up to 90cm courses with some lovely dressage and XC thrown in.
If the horse has the same sort of temperament with no alarm bells ringing as to why the lack of work it wouldn't put me off and always keep in mind the lack of work also means lack of wear and tear on his body/joints/muscles

 

[L&M]

I don't think you can put an age on it and each horse judged as an individual.

My new lad is 6yrs old and very green in his flatwork, but is an experienced hunter having already done 3 seasons. So although his flatwork is more like a 4yr olds, he is better mannered and educated on the hunting field than some horses twice his age.

 

[Fransurrey]

So an older horse that is green from lack of work rather than lack of trying wouldn't put you off?

Obviously I'm not FW, but no. I bought an unbroken 9 yr old as a project and only started doing anything of substance with her last year at the age of 12 - she was purely a companion, before. I've taken things at a snail's pace (because of me, not her) and she's doing just fine. I know that if I worked her every day she'd come on faster, but there's no rush for either of us. I'd certainly buy another unbroken horse of that age at the right price.

 

[mushroom]

My 11 yo schools up to novice and hacks really well although she can be sharp. When it comes to a school full of show jumps however, she's as green as they come basically because I don't jump therefore that part of her education is lacking.

 

[Tayto]

My mare was a broodmare till she was 6 then she was sold and broken to ride. She is now 8 and still green with her schooling due to lack of schooling (used more for hacking) but she is coming along nicely

 

[*Maddy&Occhi*]

I think it depends really, what is people's classing of "green"??. My 5 year old andalusian can leg yeild, walk, trot and canter in an outline, will pop over a small jump/course of jumps with ease ...she has an older head on her shoulders though, and learns so quickly it's actually quite scary lol. I took her to her first clear round a month ago, she didn't bat an eye lid at anything and jumped the course of jumps perfectly, as if she'd been doing it years!

 

[Cortez]

Greeness applies to the level of training, not the age, although obviously a 3 year old is green purely as it is too young to have had time to be trained. I have an 11 year old who was barely backed at 3, left in a paddock 'til he was 9-rising-10 and is now riding very well for a horse with less than two years of training. If I'm asked how old he is I say he's a "riding 5 year old". And he's not too old to be green.

 

[dogatemysalad]

Given that early years training is so important, unless I knew the trainer, I'd probably sway on the side of the green 7-8 year old than choose an intensively brought on 4-5 year old.
A mature horse that is still fresh and healthy is just ready for serious training.

 

[Tobiano]

I have always interpreted 'green' as having the possibility of being a number of things. (eg cant do lateral work, or can but has never seen a tractor). I recently bought an 8 YO from Ireland, and have decided he is 'green' as he is rather spooky and reluctant to hack alone, had never been hot shod, or done any proper schooling by the look of him. However, he has a very sensible attitude about most things, and once he is shown something is not as frightening as he thinks, he will cope with it better on subsequent occasions. He wasnt sold as green, and I probably would not have bought him if I had realised how much he hadnt done! The good thing though is that he is coming on nicely now.

 

[xxcharlottexx]

Who defines what is "normal" for a certain age group to be doing? My horse is 14. I've owned him 7 years (bought from the field where he had been abandoned) and he would still be considered green in his schooling as we don't particularly do it! The yard im at has no facilities (the best is an un level field to ride in). He can leg yield, rein back at gates etc and walk, trot, canter in an outline out on a hack but if you were to put him in a school it would probably all go out the window and he would probably be unbalanced as he isn't used to it. We have done very little jumping except from small logs etc out hacking and the odd homemade jumps in the field. He is perfect for what i want to do with him and we have fun. If the yard had the facilities then I would school more and his way of going would probably improve.
Im sure you will get many horses like mine who are "green" in certain aspects. You can then start a whole debate on whether an owner has a responsibility to give a youngster a certain level of education.

 

[Mad_Cow347]

We have had my boy for 5 & a half years now, he's now 16 and when we got him could barely walk in a straight line let alone do anything else. He has come on a lot since but we don't have the facilities to school so he would still be considered green in that sense but he is perfect for what we want him for, a happy hack. We think he lived near a road before he came to us as he will spook at a rabbit or pigeon but lorries, tractors, fast cars etc have never been an issue.

 

[wyrdsister]

I agree with Cortez. Since it applies to level of training, not age, as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing. I have a 15 year old who was very 'green' in terms of her flatwork when I got her three years ago (not so much now) and is still 'green' in terms of her jumping, because her flatwork was so limited. She'd been well-started, then had a bad time at an equestrian college, got turned away for a bit, came back into work for a few years with some training, then her owner didn't have time for her, so she did nothing but hack a little bit and eat in a field - hence the 'greenness.' Doesn't bother me. She's coming on beautifully now.

 

[Neburu]

I have a green 10 year old that was broken in at 3 and half.
She's just an unlucky horse that a few months after being broken in had colic surgery, then she was in and out of work with lameness issues related to a sarcoid on her leg and now she has bone spavin and has had most of the year off because of that.
She will probably have another 12 months of being green yet!

I wouldn't be put off a green horse thats say over 7 years old as long as I clicked with it.