When is a young horse ready to go showjumping?

When I have a youngster I will hire a venue with a set of jumps for its first outing and probably drag along AN Other. That way youngster can get used to being in an indoor for the first time and you can repeat a line of fences as many times as you like in order to build confidence. Also, it means you don't have the issue of a collecting ring heaving with people hell bent on cutting you up to contend with! I prefer to keep those issues to deal with on another day!
 
six just seems very late to start jumping. You'd want a horse to have learned technique and balance over small grids etc before then. I can't imagine going to buy a six year old for eventing and being told its never jumped before??!
 
paddi22 said:
six just seems very late to start jumping. You'd want a horse to have learned technique and balance over small grids etc before then. I can't imagine going to buy a six year old for eventing and being told its never jumped before??!
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This!!
Our just turned 5yo is off to jump his first proper course this weekend. He's a bit backward so won't be pushed, but is happily jumping round a short course of 80-90 on a lesson. He's off to a RC team training clinic (with instructions to the trainer that we are NOT to be put on a team) as it's an opportunity for him to be in a show type situation without any pressure. He's off to an arena eventing clinic the following week and then after that we'll be looking at him going to go out and jump at around 70-80cm to start with about once a month max to get him out and about and I would expect him to progress over the year.
To me they need to have an established canter rhythm, and to be able to jump out of that before going to jump a course, but I would still expect them (when a baby) to drop back to trot occasionally if having a look at at fence/surroundings but keep going forward and jumping.
I had one years ago that as a 5yo trotted round all her BN double clears, her canter was great but in the ring she lacked some confidence. If I'd never taken her to a show that wouldn't have improved, but over the 4 weekends it took to do her DCs she grew massively in confidence and once she'd worked out what was going on and expected she progressed beautifully.
 
Yes I agree, I'm afraid, if you want a body that can stand up to sport, you need to condition it over many years.

If you want a horse to jump successfully at 7/8 and continue into it's teens then you need to start introducing jumps at a moderate level by the age of 6 or 7. If not, you are actually MORE prone to injury.
 
Been following this thread with interest, and the usual paranoia about am I doing too much/little with my horse! No-one here is advocating over jumping a horse, and everyone wants a long term sound horse (one would hope!), but there is a difference of opinion about what constitutes over jumping a younger horse.

I think I'm taking mine fairly slowly, although a lot of that is because I'm an amateur so it's all going far slower than with a better rider. He's 5, rising 6 this year (June). Last year I didn't jump him when I first got him, then later in the year I did a few lessons and 2 clinics. This year I'm planning a clinic this weekend and our first clear round at the end of the month. I'm then hoping to get out and do more low level clinics/shows for training and experience but I'm not planning on taking him out more than twice a month on average (for a range of activites not only jumping). That seems easily something he can handle.
 
Well... the first thing to do in order to decide what is and what is not OVERWORKING.... get yourself acquainted very intimately with the skeleton, the tendon & ligament structure and what they do and then spend a bit of time on muscle and metabolism study. Then, take your horse barefoot and enjoy the journey.

It will take you years! All I can say is, it will surprise you and delight you.
 
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