what age do you class as a baby?

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horseluver4eva

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As title really; what age do you class horses as babies/"only young". When im talking about my horse whos recently turned 6 people say oh hes still a baby, but in my opinion i dont think hes a baby anymore. I would class 5 as young then 6 maturing, be interesting to hear what others class as babies too?
 
Mines still a baby at 6, and long may it continue. Hes never been a very babyish baby and can do quite a lot but he still has that sort of innocent willingness, sleeps a lot and needs a little bit of reassurance every so often. These years are such fun!
 
After five it depends on the personality and the physical aspects. They are not done growing until six so under that they are mostly still babies. My six year old is still a baby though and acts like a two year old.
 
Depends on the start age. My little 6 year old took until he was nearly 5 to be sane under saddle even started at 4. My big 6 year old didn't start work until the winter so has a young outlook. They both have an immature outlook so count as babies to me.
 
I think of mine as babies dependant on life experience rather than age my newly ridden away pony is 7 and I would consider her to be a baby my 4 year old that has recently been backed Is a baby but there isnt a lot of difference in life experience so both in my view are babies
 
I think it totally depends on the horse.
Its character and its history.

I bought my tb as a 3 year old stallion that had had minimal handling.

So he took long to mature than say a relaxed cob that was well handled from birth.
 
I personally say up to 5, but we got our 14 year old as a 6 yo and called her a baby as she was very green! But once they're 7 they should be more grown up. My sisters warmblood didn't really 'grow up' til he was about 8 or 9 though.
 
Ziggy stopped being baby-ish at 4. Up until then he was annoying as hell, he bit, he barged and had no respect for anyone! Suddenly he matured. He can still be a bit "in your face" but nothing scary or bad.

However, I've known of horses who are still really immature at 6 or 7!
 
Ours is almost 5 & I always still call her a baby. She's still very green & I think she's still doing a bit of growing too (kwpn x tb/shire). Saying that, when people see her out on the roads or on the ground they think she's about 20 with how sensible she is!! x
 
I used to think 6 was mature until I got my horse. At rising 7 he wasn't bum high but he still hadn't filled out and people often thought he was younger than he was. Mentally he was still testing the boundaries and very inconsistent. A year later he really seemed to start to mature both physically and in his attitude to work.

As we didn't start proper schooling, 4 times a week until he was 7 I do worry that we will 'run out of time' before reaching his full potential - but I suppose there is a small chance it could lengthen his career in the long run as he had time to mature physically first - if so loosing a couple of years early on might have been worth it..without a crystal ball it's hard to know and there are so many other factors involved it would be hard to tell anyway!
 
Our loan pony is 6. He acts a lot older. He hacks out ect.

When he was sent away to be broken In they said he was the easiest pony they ever had to do, as he was already doing most things!
 
I think to a certain extent it depends on the individual horse. I have a just turned 4 year old who's very sensible and mature mentally, and I have an 8 year old who's still a bit of a baby and downright silly at times! They're all different I suppose!
 
Foals/weanlings are babies. And only foals/weanlings. Once they are yearlings I call them youngsters. It actually irks me when I hear people calling 5 and 6 year olds babies. They aren't babies, they are young horses making their way in the world. I have thought about this before and I have watched and listened to many who use the word 'baby' for a grown horse and there seems to be a pattern. I personally don't know any breeders who call anything over 1 year old a 'baby', all the breeders I know call yearlings and above, youngsters like I do.
 
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