Andiamo
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking about getting a warmblood yearling....with a view for his future to be in dressage.
The trouble is, buying the good quality ones as 3-4 year olds is prohibitively expensive, and you don't know their background, they could have been raised in an industrial-scale breeding operation in Europe, with no handling at all, and are scatty wild feral things at 3 when they arrive in the UK to be sold....or they could have been treated badly, or had bad experiences, or been backed and overworked at too young an age, so damage has already been done by 3 years old....
The benefits of getting a yearling, is I can get an excellent quality, well bred youngster with very few experiences, and even if they have had experiences, they'll grow out of any negative impact and can go on to be well balanced nice horses. We can also bond, and grow together, do in hand showing, go for country walks together - so that by 3-4 years old, I'll know the horse's reactions to everything, and we'll know each other really well.
The downside, is that you don't know how the horse will be to ride....you could get to 4 years old, and find out that while the horse is sweet on the ground, that he's a nutter under saddle...the other downside is that it's a looooong wait to be able to crack on with things , or there's also the risk of injury / accident before they reach an age to be ridden.
So, who has done it? Have you bought a foal or yearling and brought it up, backed it, and you're now a happy partnership? I'm interested to hear everyone's stories, good and bad
Thanks
The trouble is, buying the good quality ones as 3-4 year olds is prohibitively expensive, and you don't know their background, they could have been raised in an industrial-scale breeding operation in Europe, with no handling at all, and are scatty wild feral things at 3 when they arrive in the UK to be sold....or they could have been treated badly, or had bad experiences, or been backed and overworked at too young an age, so damage has already been done by 3 years old....
The benefits of getting a yearling, is I can get an excellent quality, well bred youngster with very few experiences, and even if they have had experiences, they'll grow out of any negative impact and can go on to be well balanced nice horses. We can also bond, and grow together, do in hand showing, go for country walks together - so that by 3-4 years old, I'll know the horse's reactions to everything, and we'll know each other really well.
The downside, is that you don't know how the horse will be to ride....you could get to 4 years old, and find out that while the horse is sweet on the ground, that he's a nutter under saddle...the other downside is that it's a looooong wait to be able to crack on with things , or there's also the risk of injury / accident before they reach an age to be ridden.
So, who has done it? Have you bought a foal or yearling and brought it up, backed it, and you're now a happy partnership? I'm interested to hear everyone's stories, good and bad
Thanks