When do youngsters stop being 'babies'!??

Fools Motto

Fools Motto

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I have a 3 yr New Forest filly. Although she is very good to catch, lead, tie up, groom, take for walks, ride down the lane, walk through the river, lunge and longline on the odd occasions I have time to 'keep her busy', I do find she is always 'wanting to play'. If I leave a bucket (any sort of bucket - but not feed as she doesn't need feeding yet) in her vicinity, she is into and onto it like lightening, emptying the contents, (spilling the water, or throwing the grooming brushes around, and if I let her, get hold of the lunge line or a bridle and walk off with it, - I use a bucket to carry things).
Earlier I got them in to the little yard while I moved some cattle through their paddock, and in, what some 40 mins, despite 2 haynets, she had tipped the water over, scuffed the pile of old straw ALL over the place, chewed the wooden saw horse, knocked the stack of SJ poles over AND chewed the insulating foam off the pipe to the tap!!! Little Monkey!! (Last time she chewed the edge of the trampoline, which is in the corner of the yard!). I can't stable her at the moment as it isn't safe, (and she still tries to jump out) so she has to be loose in the enclosed yard.

So, being as she will be 4 on 1st April, Will she stop wanting 'toys' to play with soon? Or will she always be a nosey so and so!!!!
 
SatansLittleHelper said:
Sounds exactly like my youngster!!!! He is 3.5 years old and almost 16.2hh :rolleyes3:
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Well, at 13hh, she is a fraction of yours!! Still, they leave damage in their wake, and I'm sure they must laugh at us, 'you busy? guess you'll have to clear this mess up now, you are now!!' sort of way!!
 
When I lost my 32 year old this year, he still hadn't grown up! He was really starting to struggle health wise, but still chucking things out of the golf buggy and chewing them to the last. My current youngster was four this year and still very much has her baby head on, she is growing up but oh so slowly! Except height-wise. She's 17hh and still going...
 
My two 4 year olds still play and rough-house with each other like loons...my 9 yo merely looks at them in disdain then tells them off when he finally gets irritated by them...so he definitely looks like the 'grown up' in our herd! I didn't have him as a youngster tho but by 6 or 7 he was very stately. However he wasn't gelded til then either so that could also have been a factor I suppose.
 
My new 4 year old is very grown up and sensible. I put it down to her being half Connemara and because she was born and grew up in a pro eventing yard, so professional handling all the way. No nibbling or chewing allowed!
 
well kitty is 9 ans she still...
sleeps flat out a (a lot) when in or out
follows birds/rabbits/cats/dog around the field
and she just adores a snowball fight ;)

Lucy is 22...try convincing her that she is not a yearling
 
The old happy lived until she was 35. She never stopped playing which included picking me up by my hair if I turned my back on her for too long!
 
My 6 year old is still a baby! He likes to chuck his feed bowl across the yard when he's finished, licks and chews everything and tips over the wheelbarrow while I'm poo picking. I find it funny. It's part of his character :)
 
My 3 yr old is the most sensible of my four, 10 yr old has a warped sense of humour and an escape artist to boot, the 18+ yr old throws rbuckets around, pulls rugs off fences, pulls on lead ropes so hard, that I can't get them off the gate, the 20 yr old ex brood mare has a wardrobe full of t shirts, yet thinks a hen in her stable is going to eat her
 
When they want to...ours is 10 and fiddles with things all the time, most recently he untied his lead rope (which was knotted) when in the pound at the pub on Monday just so he could put his head down and eat the acorns. I have suspected him of unhooking an electric fence (when on!) gate before now.
 
Mines just turned 5, and utterly gob smacked today when I put his rug on the door of his stable and he left alone for 2hrs! Forgot to take it off when I when to sort out the fencing. So think he may well be starting to grow up. Its not the rug but other small things, the rug just made me notice
 
My 2 year old is actively discouraged from any chewing or playing when I am handling her so no lead rope sucking or rein chewing but when left to her own devices obviously I have no way of stopping her playing with things although luckily she doesn't.

However, I've had 15 year old horses who cannot be left with anything in their stable or within reach or they will destroy it so I think it is a bit dependent on the horse itself really.

I would try and put your foot down when you are handling her, don't allow her to chew or suck tack and ropes because that can become a very costly habit later on in life and really when you are with her she should be concentrating on you and not on playing. Work is work time and play is play time.
 
My appaloosa was like this when I first had him aged 4. He was 7 before he grew out of it and finally acted like the repectable gent he's now become! Made much worse by the fact he was a little riggy. We had to pretty much nail everything down unless we wanted to spend money on a new one, and woe betide the idiot that didn't treat him as the ultimate priority (usually me). You might find she's teething which wont help, or has some kind of oral issue that makes her want to chew. If that's not the case maybe find her other interesting things to do in the stable - string a few parsnips up, get her a treat ball etc?
 
Broke_But_Happy said:
There is a 5 year old NF on my yard who can't have anything left in his reach!
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I have a 4 year old NFx. Can't leave anything in her reach. She will reach out of the stable and pull rugs off the rug rail, chew brushes, frequently puts her foot in the water bucket and pulls it over, has destroyed 4 plastic feed buckets, so she now has a rubber one which she throws round. She is a whirlwind of destruction!
 
Depends on the horse. My current 2 yo is very playful at the moment and although he knows not to chew or nip, he'll still untie himself when you're not looking and get anything in his mouth he can. And is a pain in the neck when turned out - luckily I have a good mare who doesn't put up with his antics. However he will also stand solidly while she's having a panic attack at a grit pile or whatever. He's 16.2 at 2 by the way, so needs to know he can't go too far with the baby nonsense!

I had one 2 yo who acted like she had seen it all from day one, I don't think she put a foot wrong in the 20 years I had her.
 
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