Thoughts on what you should be doing with 2yo cob?

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I don't really know much about babies so thought I'd ask you guys!

My friend has recently bought her first pony. She is a novice but rides well and been around horses all her life. Anyway, said pony is a little coloured gypsy cob, 2yo will probs make about 14 hands.

She seems to be getting lots of mixed advice from anyone and everyone willing to stick their ore in! She met my mum ex best friend in the super market the other day who had a massive go at her, saying she was doing too much with him.. so what do you think?

She been having some lessons with a natural horsemanship type person (I'm hoping she's a good one because she's charging £40 an hour!) so has been doing lots of ground work. This lady has also had her sat on him bareback for very short periods (5 mins or so) not sure what doing but doesn't sound very energic (friend about 8 stone), she's also been taking him for little walks (in hand) out on the lanes/trials to get used to stuff.

She did loose jumping with him a few times but I think she's done with that now she know's he can jump.

Doesn't sound too excessive to me? She was really upset by the nasty super market woman and she's only trying to do the right thing, but must be hard when everyone is telling you different things!

I find it annoying because no one comes to me telling me I should/shouldn't be doing this that and the other with my horses so I don't know why people feel the need to pick on novices!
 
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All I have to say is racehorses are trained at like 2 to be ridden and from what my mate said who used to train them at a professional racing yard was that it was not light work either. I don't want to comment further as I will get people giving me grief. Personaly if he is mature in his mind and muscle mass,bone ect, light work will not kill him. A lot of horses enjoy it . But I do not agree with any hard work that will damage growth to be done before 4. P.s I'm a equine vet nurse so I know what I am talking about . Anyone else who gives me or anyone else grief for comments are just people who wrap there horses in cotton wool. Not trying to offend anyone but think some people are on a different planet . Hope this helps
 
When you say lots of groundwork how much are we talking ? Just so I can get a better idea , just walks or other ?
 
I think it's just "keep out of my space" type stuff, I don't really understand all that kind of thing but nothing out of a walk and she's not lunged him or anything. Just playing really. She's wanting him to be a little all round family pony.
 
Lol ! I take my yearlings out on walks and get them used to all sorts between now and two years old all I do is bombproof them , take them on the roads in hand, general handling, the odd trotting in hand to teach for next years show season. I am sure if she is only doing that there is not a issue. If she was doing a lot of lunge work then I would be concerned, I start to lunge mine at around two and a half but only in walk and trot for 10-15min two times a week mainly to get them to listen to voice commands rather then working, I would tell her not to worry just keep everything slow and not to rush into anything that will put pressure on joints . :-)
 
From experience cobs take a very long time to mature, I wouldnt be thinking of getting on him and riding until hes at least three. And personally wouldnt be jumping him either except from maybe the lowest cross pole in hand in "fun".

Find it "interesting" that the natural horsemantship person is promoting sitting on him at 2yo.

I wouldnt be doing any tight circles either as they are not the most coordinated animals.
If he was mine I would be teaching him stand means stand, showing him some traffic and the big wide world in hand. Perhaps bit him and show him a saddle and other pieces of tack. Teach him the fun things like bathing, water, plastic bags, loading etc.

Tell her to go and buy from Birth to Backing by Richard Maxwell. That will show her the important groundwork and what to do at what age to make a good riding horse.
 
Toffee44 said:
From experience cobs take a very long time to mature, I wouldnt be thinking of getting on him and riding until hes at least three. And personally wouldnt be jumping him either except from maybe the lowest cross pole in hand in "fun".

Find it "interesting" that the natural horsemantship person is promoting sitting on him at 2yo.

I wouldnt be doing any tight circles either as they are not the most coordinated animals.
If he was mine I would be teaching him stand means stand, showing him some traffic and the big wide world in hand. Perhaps bit him and show him a saddle and other pieces of tack. Teach him the fun things like bathing, water, plastic bags etc.

Tell her to go and buy from Birth to Backing by Richard Maxwell. That will show her the important groundwork and what to do at what age to make a good riding horse.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree, there is not a horse in the world that is skeletally mature at 2 (unless someone wants to point me in the direction of any studies which refute this). Very light work is unlikely to do much harm, but I think general 'experiencing' stuff does more good :)

Short sessions of groundwork, and bags of turnout (preferably with other youngstock to play with) are my preferred way of working with 2 year olds. They've hopefully got 20+ years of 'work' ahead of them so I like them to be able to chill out as youngsters :)
 
Totally agree with these two posts .^^^. This is what I was trying to say didn't quite come out right !
 
Toffee44 said:
From experience cobs take a very long time to mature, I wouldnt be thinking of getting on him and riding until hes at least three. And personally wouldnt be jumping him either except from maybe the lowest cross pole in hand in "fun".

Find it "interesting" that the natural horsemantship person is promoting sitting on him at 2yo.

I wouldnt be doing any tight circles either as they are not the most coordinated animals.
If he was mine I would be teaching him stand means stand, showing him some traffic and the big wide world in hand. Perhaps bit him and show him a saddle and other pieces of tack. Teach him the fun things like bathing, water, plastic bags, loading etc.

Tell her to go and buy from Birth to Backing by Richard Maxwell. That will show her the important groundwork and what to do at what age to make a good riding horse.
Click to expand...

Yeah the natural horsemanship woman has said definitely no lunging until next year. The jumping I think she's realised was a bit much perhaps (plus he's started jumping out of his field and even jumped out of his stable!!!) I wasn't sure about the sitting on thing, when she first got him she sent me some pics with her 7 yo son (who has never ridden!) sat on him!!! I was like OMG!!!!! But he doesn't really care from the sounds of it. I just think, is a tiny person sat on him for a few minutes going to hurt him? Probably not.
 
Actually a bit of loose jumping in my opinion isn't the end of the world at all and can be informative / useful (I had my 2 year old following my older horses down a lane at the weekend as it happens) within reason. I would be more hesitant with the actual sitting on him, I really wouldn't care to burden mine with that sort of extra weight even just standing around. I certainly wouldn't be doing any lunging type work either.

Standard groundwork, like backing up, side stepping, walking in hand, desensitising etc is all good though. New experiences - rugs, clippers, bitting, etc - and walking out in hand is fine too.
 
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