What are you doing with your rising 3 year olds?

[Ali27]

I bought my first baby pony in July, she will be 3 on May 22nd. She was basically unhandled and had been living in a herd with lots of friends. Did have a slight scare when we thought she might be in foal but luckily not! She now leads beautifully, has feet trimmed by farrier, ties up, goes happily in trailer. Will bit her in April when dentist has seen her, start long reining her, do some ride and lead but I don’t think I will sit on her until Autumn. Then start her properly in Spring 2024 when she is 4! Does this sound like a good plan? She is ID x Welsh. Should make 15.2/3!

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Sounds like a plan but given her bloodlines I would maybe gently break her at the end of her 4yo year going on 5yo. ID and Welsh both mature very slowly.

My 2 turning 3yo is a shetland Colt so beyond minding his manners and going to a small, select handful of shows he will be doing beggar all else.

 

[Ali27]

Sounds like a plan but given her bloodlines I would maybe gently break her at the end of her 4yo year going on 5yo. ID and Welsh both mature very slowly.

My 2 turning 3yo is a shetland Colt so beyond minding his manners and going to a small, select handful of shows he will be doing beggar all else.

I’m in absolutely no rush with her! She is my next forever! My 20 year old Irish cob x Connie is still going strong! I’m just so excited to get cracking with groundwork with baby pony next Spring. Already booked onto a youngster groundwork clinic in March. I just love her! She is so sweet and friendly and I want to do everything slowly and properly ?

 

[Horseysheepy]

I bought my first baby pony in July, she will be 3 on May 22nd. She was basically unhandled and had been living in a herd with lots of friends. Did have a slight scare when we thought she might be in foal but luckily not! She now leads beautifully, has feet trimmed by farrier, ties up, goes happily in trailer. Will bit her in April when dentist has seen her, start long reining her, do some ride and lead but I don’t think I will sit on her until Autumn. Then start her properly in Spring 2024 when she is 4! Does this sound like a good plan? She is ID x Welsh. Should make 15.2/3!

Sounds a perfect plan, enjoy her!

 

[BBP]

Mine is also 3 in May. At this point I’m not planning to sit on him til after his 4th birthday and not much else til he turns 5 (I did BBP at rising 4 and in retrospect wish I had waited, this one is only just getting to grips with counting to 4 in walk so in that regard is further behind, but his trot and canter are lovely), but hoping to spend his third year walking out in hand getting used to the world. At the moment all I’m asking is that he leads, ties up, stands nicely and picks feet up etc. plus getting him ok with having ropes thrown round him, that sort of stuff.

 

[Ali27]

Mine is also 3 in May. At this point I’m not planning to sit on him til after his 4th birthday and not much else til he turns 5 (I did BBP at rising 4 and in retrospect wish I had waited, this one is only just getting to grips with counting to 4 in walk so in that regard is further behind, but his trot and canter are lovely), but hoping to spend his third year walking out in hand getting used to the world. At the moment all I’m asking is that he leads, ties up, stands nicely and picks feet up etc. plus getting him ok with having ropes thrown round him, that sort of stuff.

That sounds like a good plan! Think I will wait until she is 4 before sitting on her! So much that I can do with her in terms of ground work? She is just a lovely temperament but a bit of a scaredy cat so think I need to do lots of desensitising on the ground? Reassuring that others are wanting to do theirs slowly too?

 

[BBP]

That sounds like a good plan! Think I will wait until she is 4 before sitting on her! So much that I can do with her in terms of ground work? She is just a lovely temperament but a bit of a scaredy cat so think I need to do lots of desensitising on the ground? Reassuring that others are wanting to do theirs slowly too?

I’m definitely in no rush. I figure there is so much they can learn before being sat on that should make them better riding horses. So I plan to spend the next 2 years (and onwards) learning as much as I can to make him the best prepared he can be to enjoy life as a riding horse.

 

[Patterdale]

Mine is also 3 in May. I have been randomly leaping onto his back or hoisting children on in the field for a while now. He ties up and he leads after a fashion. He’s going for 3 weeks long reining end of next summer, then I’ll start him properly spring 2024. I’ll probably hack him out in walk for 20 mins or so every now and then over winter. He’s a Connemara.

 

[Sleipnir]

When my Captain was 3, I still did only basic groundwork with him and ponied him from my older gelding on walking/trotting hacks over various terrain. He also got used to being saddled with a light treeless saddle/pad.

At 3.5 - late 3 I lightly backed him, mostly just climbing on and off, and being lead a lap around the school at a walk.

When he turned full 4, I started putting some light walking rides on him in a big school - straight lines, big turns, that kind of thing. He is now close to being 5 and has had a few walking hacks and a couple of walk-trot rides put on him, and we also keep doing groundwork - like working on suppleness, bend and balance, over poles and ground driving.

For now, the weather is miserable and he is growing like a weed, so we will be likely sticking to groundwork and light hacking, weather permitted, until spring. He will become 5 in June, which is when he will probably be started being schooled and hacked properly.

 

[Hackback]

Mine is 3 in March. He can be a stroppy little monkey and has so far kicked me 3 times and flattened me once. We practise leading, stopping on command and we just got trot before ice stopped play. I need to work on standing square now as I hope to take him to a couple of local shows next year just for the exposure. He also yields quarters and shoulders and has a bit in. He was wearing a little bridle but got a scrape near his ear playing in the field and was funny about being touched so I went back to clipping the bit to his headcollar for now. Oh, and we incorporate the mounting block into our leading practise (thanks previous teacher) so he stands still and gets petted all over. He's still a devil for having his feet picked up so that's a work in progress, but my trimmer is excellent and does a lovely job with a lot of patience.

I haven't thought as far ahead even as long reining, because my issue is that he gets very excited at the slightest new thing, so next stage is just to get him to the end of the drive and open the gate for him to see 'outside' hopefully without me getting killed. Lead and ride isn't an option as older horse is a bit rubbish with large traffic. The baby is going to ne backed and ridden away eventually by a professional (also a friend) who is really good at getting them confident in traffic. I think he'll be a really fun horse to ride, although I'm hoping not too much fun!

 

[Anna Clara]

Your plan is exactly the same as I'm what I'm doing with mine who is a year older. We've been doing groundwork sessions a couple of times a week up until now and done some inhand trips in the trailer, including an obstacle clinic. We do loads of walks inhand and I've done a lot of softening up his movement on the ground, teaching him lots of different way to gently move his body where I say so. He's long reining bitless in walk now and we'll start the trotting once the steering is a little better. I've sat on him a few times and practiced walk on and whoah transitions. I'm planning to hack him out gently over the spring and summer once he turns 4 and slowly build up from there.

 

[tda]

The first pony I had as an adult was rising 3 when I bought her, we treat her like a big dog and we walked miles with her, it was a great education, she was bombproof and unflappable til the end.
I'm not as mobile anymore so the youngsters will be ponyied from another well behaved pony to learn their traffic skills and spook busting

 

[Caol Ila]

LOL. My rising 3 year old, now four and a half, was being a mom.

Just backing her now.

 

[BBP]

LOL. My rising 3 year old, now four and a half, was being a mom.

Just backing her now.

The advantages of a gelding! Although he did come with bonus worms and lice!

 

[Ali27]

Thank you everyone for your replies ? I think I need to enjoy doing all the groundwork with her next Spring/ Summer and then start her under saddle as a 4 year old. It will be my first time starting a youngster so I have lots of learning to do too! So excited about my baby ginger’s future?