Opinions...is being young an excuse for bad behaviour?

KatPT said:
Interesting, my 'young' horse is not perfect. He probably does have gaps in his education as I am not surrounded by knowledgable people with fantastic companion horses. I have had to work out how to bring on a young horse, and have made plenty of mistakes in doing so. He still at 7 has a side to his personality that makes him lose the plot sometimes. I can try to make up plenty of excuses for his behaviour, but in essence half of it is that I am not the perfect owner with perfect situation, and half of it is just that his brain seems to be wired funny. I often wonder if he'd be better if someone else had backed him, but what's done is done and I do think he's just a tiny bit mental. Not sure that's what this post is about, but I've spent all day wondering if I'm ruining him, all because I haven't entirely got rid of his mad moments.
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Ahh but you are striving to do it right and questioning yourself. The original rider just brushed it off as the horse being young.

I wouldn't waste time thinking he might be different with someone else. He might, he might be worse. We can all just do what we can do and I know I have made plenty of mistakes along the way.
 
FfionWinnie said:
You could say the propensity to take advantage is due to the pedigree but I would say the speed she is learning that she cannot beat me, shows it's a gap in her education. I like her, she's fun and she learns fast but if she'd been mine from a foal I wouldn't be needing to do these things now because it would never have developed. With a different natured horse you might not have to do the extra work and still end up with the same thing at the end.
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What things is she doing? Or not doing as the case may be? I thought you'd only had her a couple of days?
 
One of the stallions I rode had Comet as his damsire. I'm not hot at all on Arab pedigrees sorry :o. Padrons psyche (sp) obviously heard of him and a couple of others but that's about it :o
 
One thing I learned when I was breeding horses is like baby's foals arrive with a personality intact .
However what you chose to do with that is up to your skill as a trainer when the time comes.
The bucking youngster could well have been very different with another rider or perhaps he had a physical issue that was contributing to his behaviour .
 
Spring Feather said:
One of the stallions I rode had Comet as his damsire. I'm not hot at all on Arab pedigrees sorry :o. Padrons psyche (sp) obviously heard of him and a couple of others but that's about it :o
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:D

The grey was bred to be a riding/performance horse, where as the boy is more of an in-hand show type. Their heads are very different in shape and she's got the better legs.


I should have said that the hedge trimmer was attached to a tractor - much more impressive than a little electric one. :p
 
Every baby is different, some are naughty, some are nervous, and some are angelic from the word go. I've started a lot of youngsters, and every one has reacted differently to the next, despite being handled the same, ridden the same, and exposed to the same things. One I'll never forget was a little TB, who was as brave as a lion, feisty as hell, and who never gave a single clue as to his mood on a particular day. Some days he would march out all purposefully, work sweetly, and return home with his halo intact. Other days, he would buck his brains out, spin, plunge, and generally piss about. He was started correctly, was capable of working in a very mature way, and would happily lead a string out on a good day. He was physically fit and sound, and had no gaps in his education - he was just a quirky character, who carried on behaving like that til the day he died.
I firmly believe that not all bad behaviour is down to bad riding/training, pain, fear etc. Sometimes, they just like to buck...
 
When training a horse there will always come a time when you need to "try out" your "preparation". We know nothing about this particular horses "preparation", but the riders explained the behaviour by saying the horse was young, and has clearly taken steps to have backup help by having a person present on foot - this sounds to me like the horses behaviour was "work in progress" and entirely reasonable steps were being taken to work with its baby issues. You cannot completely prepare your horse for the big wide world in an arena, you need to put him in situations, assess his response and deal with what happens appropriatley and it sounds to me that this rider was doing that.
 
I think the key thing about young horses is that no matter how much effort you've put into the preparation, there will always be something that startles them.

I backed my youngster about a month ago and we've clocked up around 20 rides now. He's hacking out nicely in company and schooling well on his own. But yesterday I rode him in the rain for the first time and he was bunching up, spooking and jumping about (took about a minute to get him to walk past a petrol stain on the road as he's not seen that before!)

No doubt next time I ride him in the rain, he'll be his usual delightful self as he'll have done it and survived but I'm sure that anyone that saw us yesterday would have been suitably horrified at his behaviour.
 
I start babies for a living. That's not typical youngster behaviour unless you missed steps and can't read a horse properly. As far as youngsters being nervous and "naughty", kind of your job as trainer to sort that out. Again go back to reading a horse properly. As far as being ridden on their own. Well I do expect, along with capable training, horses to be good on their own and in company. It's all progression.

At any rate, what you describe is unacceptable. It's not about how well you sit. It's about how well you've prepped your horse and kind of job you've done starting them. If that were me on that horse I would have rolled up a newspaper and beat myself. Bad trainer. With over 200 youngsters started zero have tried bucking me off or have been frightened or to not know what I've been asking. It's my job to make sure that kind of stuff does not happen. That includes knowing of a horse is in pain and how to progress with each.

Terri
 
I bow to all the exceptional horse people who have never had a horse buck or be frightened. Makes me feel even more c**p now! But then i've already admitted i'm no pro, im just doing my best.
 
I haven't read the entire thread but from what I have read I agree with maresmaid.
Also following on from the prep idea perhaps the other rider had done the prep and thought the horse was ready? I did all the prep work to get my 6 year old, very chilled out ex racer relaxed about hacking on her own, however the first time I tried she went ballistic! Also some youngsters can be stubborn, my 4 year old welsh pony was a cow for deciding she didn't want to do something and then throwing her toys out of the pram, the only thing to do was keep riding her through it until she gave up.
Both horses eventually overcame their issues to become nice mares but if I had met anyone whilst dealing with a tantrum on a hack I would have explained that they were young.
 
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