Pessoas, when to introduce them?

[piaffe]

Was discussing, with a fellow yard pperson, the other day about starting work with Adina again.

She said that I should introduce the pessoa quite early on (cannot remember why she stated it) but I am under the impression that putting a pessoa on an unbacked rising 3 year old is too much? I just feel that it puts too much pressure on a babies limbs and is asking too much, too soon.

Said woman said she has seen them being used on dressage babies before. She said they had them on loose first off but my concern is that there are a lot of ropes "dangling" around if said babies cant cope.

I certainly wont be using one on her to work in and will stick to my way of doing things but was just interested to see if anyone had seen them being used in this manner?

Opinions?

 

[arwenplusone]

I'm not a fan of the pessoa so probably not the best person to answer but I personally would not recommend using one on a horse that does not have the muscle & strength to carry himself independently.

As for using one on an unbacked 3 yr old -

 

[piaffe]

Thats exactly my thoughts

 

[Seahorse]

Ok everyone shoot me, I put a pessoa on Axel when he was 3 and he was fine, still is fine now and always been fine.
I had already backed him tho and used it later on in his 3rd year, so he was more like rising 4 by then.

 

[air78]

I use a pessoa on lots of horses, but ONLY on the long and low setting and only with long lines and only for a couple of curcuits of the pen so the horse can get used to it before using it on straight line exercise.

I've used it on youngsters before after the 'saddling' period before first rider with no problems. If the horse can understand your commands on the longlines, I see no problem with using the pessoa to work them long and low if they need to use their back a bit more. I also only use it with a saddle and stirrups hobbled.

Each to their own though, but IMHO it's more forgiving than side reins- at least it's flexible