Owning a yearling

[kc100]

So as you may have seen from my previous post I'm looking at yearlings & young horses with the view to actually biting the bullet and buying one, after too many horses that have been spoiled by previous owners I want my own that I can be sure has the best start in life. I'm happy to have a field ornament for a few years and have plenty of time to put into the baby so no problems there Got another horse I ride for a friend to keep me going in the mean time as well, should keep me riding fit for when baby horse comes of age and decides to give me a few challenges!

I've never had a yearling (or foal) before so I have a couple of questions:
- How often are they wormed, and generally what does this cost?
- How often do you have the dentist out to a yearling/youngster?
- What vaccinations will he need? Will a lot have been done as a foal or are there still plenty more to come in the next couple of years?

I'm aware their feet grow pretty fast so regular trims every 4 weeks are a must, also he will be out 24/7 as I'm not a fan of keeping young horses indoors.

I'm just trying to budget for how much it will cost me roughly per month, obviously that could be a 'how long is a piece of string' question as some foals are accident prone and will cost the earth in vets bills! But aside from the usual livery fees (grass livery will be nice and cheap though!), vets, dentists, wormers, vaccs, farrier... is there anything else I've missed?

Wouldnt want him on hard feed unless there was a real need during winter, grass is pretty good where he'd live so they tend to all be fatties at this yard!

 

[Suechoccy]

Worming: same routine as for any horse with worm counts to ensure you are worming appropriately
Dentist: I do once a year when my other horse is done, but keep an eye out for probs in-between as the milk teeth are going to gradually drop out and be replaced by adult teeth
Vaccinations: same as for adult horse.
Feet trims: although my farrier checks his feet every 6 weeks when the farrier does my older shod horse, we find that the yearling's feet only needed a light trim every 12 weeks. it was more about going through the motions - "Every 6 weeks you will be tied up here and this nice farrier will lift each of your legs one at a time and rasp them (or pretend to rasp them if they didn't need rasping) and place your foot on a tripod-stand."
In or out: out with company is ideal
Food: grass and balancer (sure grow?) summer, grass/hay and balancer winter. Balancer in a bowl is good excuse to check them over, have a little groom or tickle, and say hello to them.

Enjoy!

 

[be positive]

Worming the same as any horse just a slightly smaller dose depending on it's weight.
I would maybe get a dentist to look at the mouth when at the yard but not really expect anything to need doing until it is 3, it is worth getting a youngster vetted before purchase to rule out and potential problems with the conformation of the mouth and way the teeth are growing or ask someone very experienced to have a look.
It will hopefully have its vaccinations up to date when you buy, so will just require annual flu and tet, if not you will need to start, it is extremely important that the tetanus is kept up to date.

You are looking at buying a big youngster and while it will benefit from being out 24/7 grass alone may not be enough to keep weight on over winter while it is growing especially if sharing with mature fatties, budget for plenty of hay and possibly stabling if it cannot get enough while out, it costs more to get weight on if they drop off too much than to maintain them reasonably well over the worst of the winter.

 

[DiNozzo]

Please make sure the yearling has herd turnout with some older relatively dominant mares. Also, company his own age is useful so they can play.
of course, this is really only what happens in an ideal situation.

 

[JanetGeorge]

The most important question, IMHO, is how you are going to keep him! Will he be with a group of older horses - or are there a youngster or two available that he can run with. Yearlings tend to be PITAs (believe me, I've got 14 of the little poppets!) Older horses can find them VERY irritating and many will kick them, chase them and otherwise damage them.

Yearlings that have 'normal' mouths rarely need any attention. At 2 it's an idea to check for problems (retained caps, under/over shot jaw.)

 

[Coblover63]

Baby horses are very rewarding and a BIG learning curve! Ditto all the advice above and I'd like to add into the pot that they constantly test their boundaries - like toddlers. Set your rules and stick to them.... if you give an inch, they will take a yard!!

 

[Echo24]

I got my rising three year old as a yearling.

Jabs is the same as a normal horse.

I had the dentist out to look at him every 6 months so he's used to being handled and used to the gag. My dentist said he won't need any real work until he's at least 3 years old.

I was lucky when I got my yearling as it was the summer so he was out 24/7 in a gelding only herd with a 3 year old, 8 year old and 18 year old! He played with the youngster but was kept in check by the older pony. I opted to have him stabled over the winter to get him used to being in a stable but he would have happily lived out.

He will be back out 24/7 in the summer but in terms of health costs I've not found him accident prone bar the odd cut or scrape from the older pony.

Have fun with your little one!