what you doing with your four year olds

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thinlizzy

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mines just turned four would like to compete him if i can what work/competing are you doing with your 4 y.o and plans for next twelve months i want to get the balance right if i can and what work weekly do you give your horse ?
OR your past exp. with 4y.os thanks
 
Rosie - 4 this yr, 14.1hh. Worked about 4x a week (although she'd like more lol!), jumps about once, just a few jumps to practice technique, usually betw 2ft6 and 3ft, flatwork and hacking the rest. Focusing on a more collected canter at mo. Goes out competing about once a month or thereabouts, SJ. Lives to jump, bless her! Plans = sell her if I can find the right person (she's too good to stay jumping unaff with me), if not, qualify for all unaff champs that don't require you to win to qualify, go and jump DC for the experience. Should only take one show for each champ as she's v good. Play with her flatwork, maybe do some dressage.

Lilly - rising 5, 14hh. Worked 6x week as on restricted turnout, been backed 4 weeks and is going well. Still mostly walk and trot, varying schooling and hacking depending on how much time I have on the day. Will start competing (D & SJ) in about a month, at Intro level D and 2ft SJ. She has paces to die for and look forward to doing lots of D over the winter lol!
 
my 4yro is hacking 3 or 4 times a week, mostly in walk with a few short trots.

he is 17.2hh though so i am taking it very slowly.
plans for him- to go BE eventing as a 5 or 6yro depending on how he progresses; he won't be rushed.

my 4yros mainly hack for their work with a schooling session every few weeks- start jumping around Sept/Oct normally.
 
my horse is 3 and currently being backed, i will turn him away in july until december/ jan depending on when bad weather stops/ starts.
In his 4th year i will aim to bring him back into work and start doing dressage competitions with him ( he will be a dressage horse) I will plan to do prelim and see how we go and hopefully do a young horse class with him depending on how we go.
If he's going well we may progress to novice over the winter.
 
hey,
My mare was backed at 3 as we decided she was strong enough and has a good head on her shoulders! She started competing as a 4yo once she had established the basics! we toyed with the idea of turning erh away but we didnt and have never gone back on my dession! My theory was get her out and about see as much as possible but dont push her! As a 4yo she was competing about once a month and did a bit of hunting! Just letting her have a go at everything and enjoying herself!
 
Mine has been a bit stop start since being backed at Xmas. He is happily hacking round the block & getting accostomed to the traffic. Needs to be stimulated, there's a fine line with him between keeping within his comfort zone & him getting bored & naughty.
Because he hasn't done lots (due mainly to teeth issues) we still have to get out on longer more adventurous hacks, but he's not fit enough to do much at the moment.
Shall start schooling this week, aiming to do a walk trot test at a local show at the end of June.
I shall start some polework soon as well, but would like a slightly more established canter before we do much jumping. Hoping to do a mini ODE in August.
 
I kept a blog of busters 4yo year (last year) it in my sig! If it's not on there his back ground was he was in training as a 2&3 yo I bought him as a 3 yo gave him from June till about April/may last year and started retraining him!
 
It really depends on the horse?
My mare turned 4 in March and was started in March.
She is so chilled out and unphased by anything that a couple of weeks later we did our first walk trot test. I am keeping it simple working her 4/5times a week, mostly hacking with regular lessons and competing at Novice dressage and 2ft sj - trying to allow her to experience and learn as much as possible without ruining her. She is growing and changing shape so much that keeping her in saddles is a nightmare :eek:
 
I'm somewhere in the middle of this lot! Mine is actually 4 in a couple of weeks but developmentally quite far along - he looks much more 'grown up' than his field mate of the same age and seems to have levelled out at 16.2hh height wise, still filling out though. He was backed last August hacked quietly a couple of times a week, rested oct - feb, then back into work March. We do maybe three times a week, one schooling in arena, one hack and once ridden in field just for change of scene - I would hack twice and only school once or even less, but our hacking is such that I can't always take him out (busy roads). He's fine with traffic so far but want to keep it that way!
He has been to a walk trot test for the experience but tbh his schooling is such that we might as well spend the money on lessons atm (altho he did win his first walk trot test!)
I am in no hurry with him, but equally he seems to enjoy doing stuff, he popooed his first crosspole last week, and he is going on two riding club camps this summer one weekend and one a whole week, however he won't do 2 x lessons a day like my older boy, will be one a day for two days then just a hack or day off! And even that I will adjust according to how he is feeling!
Aim for the year is to do a 2'0 ODE in September and then some local dressage and SJ over the winter, and maybe a BE 80 next year if he is ready!
 
It really depends on the horse. Quite often the bigger ones will take longer to mature. My husband's 17 hunter type found it very difficult to balance at 4yrs, so we gave him another year to hack and do easy schooling while he matured. At the same time I always took him to the BE events that I took my other horse to - so he got used to the atmosphere of a big show - marquees and bunting etc. I always got on him and hacked him around once I'd finished competing. It also got him used to being left in the trailer while the other horse was working. I did take him to some local shows at that age, doing RC horse or ridden hunter - again to get him used to it, but with no pressure.

A smaller horse, or a pony would probably be capable of doing much more. If you look at professional event yards, the all horses are competing at this age, but not all of them will make it, and they would just sell them if it didn't work out- for those of us not out to make money I don't think its necessary to push a youngster quite so much.

When I used to take the 4yr old for SJ lessons with a pro show jumper he advised me to play over little things and keep it easy and fun. At five he made me push him much more....

If you start to get problems, its usually because you're blowing their minds, ie doing too much. Very occasionally its because they're not doing enough and they are taking the mickey, but I think its easy to tell the difference!xx
 
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