Dry Rot
Well-Known Member
Why is a specific age so often stated as the correct time to start training a horse when they start to learn almost as soon as they are born?
When to start training?
- Thread starter Dry Rot
- Start date
cellie
Well-Known Member
Bit like having a child that is learning constantly ,once they learn to walk they quickly learn to run but you wouldn't enter them in race . You would damage developing joints and bone structure .
dianchi
Well-Known Member
I would say that I have "trained" my 2yo from day dot, acceptance of being touched and scratched, moved on to leading and being handled etc etc
As for starting them for ridden work, that should be based on growth and maturity of the horse.
As for starting them for ridden work, that should be based on growth and maturity of the horse.
TarrSteps
Well-Known Member
Some of it is obviously habit and convention. Not every culture and discipline starts horses at the same age and expects them to progress at the same rate.
Physical development obviously applies, as well. We have quite a lot of information on how horses grow now but it's a trade between how much you let them mature before starting and other factor, such as applying developmental stress, taking advantage of youthful attributes, personal desire, commercial interests, time constraints etc.
I think it's also important remember that not all physical and mental development has to do with people. We often deny our horses access to rough terrain and friends their own age because it is not convenient for us to offer it or the trade off is that vs easy access to the horse for "training".
I think it is useful for foals to be handled and taught appropriate behaviours early on, when they are small and pliable. But I have to say, I have not seen advantages to heavily handled young stock vs horses given the basics and otherwise allowed to be horses in the long run, physically or mentally. I know this is an unpopular view now when people often buy young horses and expect to be able to "do things with them" before they are riding age. If you want to, super. It certainly does help to get 2 and 3 years olds out to see a bit of the world if possible, but I'm not convinced it's the benefit proponents say it is.
The most intresting thing to be is the idea that x is right and y is wrong. The more schools of thought and practice you see, the more you realise that these things are almost always contextual and quite often arbitrary. If there was a ways of making horses that worked optimally every time, for every horse and every owner, people would have figured that by now!
Physical development obviously applies, as well. We have quite a lot of information on how horses grow now but it's a trade between how much you let them mature before starting and other factor, such as applying developmental stress, taking advantage of youthful attributes, personal desire, commercial interests, time constraints etc.
I think it's also important remember that not all physical and mental development has to do with people. We often deny our horses access to rough terrain and friends their own age because it is not convenient for us to offer it or the trade off is that vs easy access to the horse for "training".
I think it is useful for foals to be handled and taught appropriate behaviours early on, when they are small and pliable. But I have to say, I have not seen advantages to heavily handled young stock vs horses given the basics and otherwise allowed to be horses in the long run, physically or mentally. I know this is an unpopular view now when people often buy young horses and expect to be able to "do things with them" before they are riding age. If you want to, super. It certainly does help to get 2 and 3 years olds out to see a bit of the world if possible, but I'm not convinced it's the benefit proponents say it is.
The most intresting thing to be is the idea that x is right and y is wrong. The more schools of thought and practice you see, the more you realise that these things are almost always contextual and quite often arbitrary. If there was a ways of making horses that worked optimally every time, for every horse and every owner, people would have figured that by now!
TarrSteps
Well-Known Member
Sorry, DR, I seem to have killed your thread!
Dry Rot
Well-Known Member
I've written two long replies to your post, which was excellent by the way, and both have disappeared into the ether!
So I think I'll leave it 'til later.