lunging a 2 year old - would you?

digitalangel

digitalangel

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just wondering

would you lunge a 2 year old? in side reins and full tack?

i always thought stuff like that would start at 3 - but hey, could be wrong!

so whats normal?
 
No
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actually another question

would you lunge a mare 6 weeks after giving birth with foal running alongside? even if only for 10 mins?

its not something i would do, but i know nothing about breeding or youngsters, but it seems a little strange all the same!
 
We have lunged - No side reins and lightly back our 2.5 year old, but he is very well developed and pushing 17hh and was becoming unruly so needed to do something light and early on before he grew even more....I swear he is sneaking into a grow bag each night little naughty!!!
 
Friend was advised by vet to lunge two year old NF due to her locking stifles. She needed to be exercised to try and build muscle; it was that or an operation. Ended up continuing the gentle backing process and putting a very light jockey on purely to get her moving. All done under the vet's supervision. Girly is now three and going very well and her stifles are much improved.
 
I would lunge a younger horse. There are suggestions now that rather than being horrendously bad for their musculoskeletal system, starting racehorses in work at 12 - 18 months to race them at two may actually produce an animal that is better able to cope with the stresses of life after racing (eg retraining to event). Wollfs law in biology says 'structures develop according to their use' - in horses that have done no formal work at all until they are three or four, this means that their musculoskeletal system has done most of it's growth under conditions of 'just play'. Once they are grown, we then start adding extra stresses by working them. It would seem more sensible to me to start adding in those stresses (obviously at a low level) much earlier on in their training so that their systems develop to cope with these as well as 'play' conditions. I'm not advocating the racing system but the totally rigid traditional system of doing nothing until at least three would seem to need a rethink. Working them at younger ages is also very good for discipline.
 
However many racehorses break down at an early age.

As do many warmbloods started just as you suggest soloequestrian. And those that do not physically breakdown often do so mentally.

not worth the risk imo
 
I wouldn't work a youngster til it is at least four, personally, although I think three is an acceptable age to do light work.
I would never work a 2yr old.
This is because, in my experience, horses cope better with physical work when trained when their skeletal frame is closer to maturity - and are less prone to injury.
I have a couple of youngsters and had to ignore advice from all and sundry to start them at three years old. I would possibly have been more impressed had my would-be advisors not all taken their own advice and worked three year olds, only to have them become unsound through work (18 months of intensive therapy in one case).
That said, there is nothing to stop you doing mental work with them - handling, discipline, wearing rugs, saddles, boots, rollers, bitting them (if not teething), going in hand short walkies, learning about schools, poles etc.
I just wouldn't do anything too physical - as I think the tortoise often catches the hare.
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Like the horse MrsM knows I was told by my vet to lunge and/or long rein my 2yold warmblood as she had a locking stifle issue. I needed to build up her muscles to stop it happening. However we only lunged on a good surface, with big circles and for 5 mins max on each rein. Sometimes she wears a roller, for the experience, but I'd never use side reins.
 
If that was directed at me, rubyredshoes, then I have to add that obviously I don't have any problem with vet-directed work to cure locking patellas etc, as the benefits outweight the costs.
I wonder if I suggested that sending children down coal mines strengthened them up beautifully for a career in mining - whether that would be acceptable?
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I just like my horses to be horses - I like them to have a long time with their dams before weaning, live in herds outside, etc. And I have ridden enough work-sour horses not to want to do the same to mine.
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Oops - not directed at you at all Shilasdair - sorry if it came across like that. Ruby is the first youngster I've ever started 'working' at 2. Normally they play at being horses until nearly 4. To me it seems wrong but the vet advised this course of action. There is no way I'd be doing it otherwise and I still wouldn't have done it if the vet hadn't assured me that mentally and physically she can cope.

Having said that, Ruby is also the first youngster I've started that actually wickers and calls to me and gets excited when she sees the lunge line - hopefully her work ethic will continue like this - I certainly don't want to ruin her enthusiasm for work!
 
I'll just reiterate a bit of my previous post 'I'm not advocating the racing system'. Many horse break down for many different reasons at many different points in their lives. I'm saying it's not necessarily wrong to work youngsters, and could actually be beneficial, and so it seems a bit mean to condem the unknown person who is the subject of the question.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I wouldn't work a youngster til it is at least four, personally, although I think three is an acceptable age to do light work.

I would never work a 2yr old.

[/ QUOTE ]

I completely agree, but coming from USA myself originally and my step-mother breeding and training horses there all her life, she says it's widely accepted there to be backing and workng a 2 year old.

We've argued for 30+ years over it!
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