Ginn
Well-Known Member
IMO a horses education should start as early as possible, gradually building from standing quietly to be brushed as a foal or yearling through to ridden work when both horse and rider are ready! I also feel that more damage is potentially done if a horse is backed and broken in the standard 6 - 8 weeks then if gentally started at the age of 2 1/2 and by this I don't mean ridden work but very gental lunging on big (30m) circles and longreining. Getting him or her used to as many different situations as a youngster can be invaluable and by 3 I see no reason why physically a horse cannot be introduced to gental hacking - the damage is done with endless lunging, schooling, jumping early on, and hard ridden work like a day out hacking including fast work. However, if the horse is mentally ready to start gental light exercise at 2 1/2 to 3 then it can actually be benificial to its physical and mental development.
Interestingly I have just finnished discussing this with my father who has a detailed understanding of both anatomy and physical growth and his response was pretty much the following: gental loading is infact benificial as the bones still have the potential to be "deformed" at this point since they are still developing and thus gental loading and exercise will aid improved bone density. His analogy was along the lines that children who grow up playing sports and having an active life tend to mature physically stronger and more able then those who spend their childhood in front of the tv. However, if you start training a 3 yr old in gymnastics to a high level from the age of three then of course they are far more likely to have joint problems later on in early adulthood. Does that make sense?
I would also be interested to see where the writer of the article has gathered his/her scientific data from to reach these conclusions, if it does infact exist, as although convinceingly wriiten using "scientific" terminology there are no references as to where the initial information or research came from.
Personally, I feel common sense has a large amount to play in when to start you horse. If they are mentally ready (my girl thrives on having something new to think about and if left for too long in her field she has a tendancy to let me know she is bored!) then taking another step forward in their education is going to do little harm and a slow steady progressive eduication is going to make life easier for everyone. Secondly, slowly increasing physical work load is going to help the horse's muscles develop gradually to adapy to the weight of the rider and the added physical demands of ridden work. Surely throwing a rider up on a horses back at the age of 4 or 5 after just a few weeks of lunging is going to potentially contribute to musclature damage and incorrect development then slowly building on it of say 6 months?? Also, bare in mind that horses are flight animals and that they are designed from the moment they learn to stand to be able to run from danger, thus their skeltons are better developed then we may assume them to be - again common sense says that this deosnt mean they should be ridden as soon as they are big enough but they are much stronger then we give them credit for.
Ok, will stop rambling on now as I culd go on for quite some time...
Interestingly I have just finnished discussing this with my father who has a detailed understanding of both anatomy and physical growth and his response was pretty much the following: gental loading is infact benificial as the bones still have the potential to be "deformed" at this point since they are still developing and thus gental loading and exercise will aid improved bone density. His analogy was along the lines that children who grow up playing sports and having an active life tend to mature physically stronger and more able then those who spend their childhood in front of the tv. However, if you start training a 3 yr old in gymnastics to a high level from the age of three then of course they are far more likely to have joint problems later on in early adulthood. Does that make sense?
I would also be interested to see where the writer of the article has gathered his/her scientific data from to reach these conclusions, if it does infact exist, as although convinceingly wriiten using "scientific" terminology there are no references as to where the initial information or research came from.
Personally, I feel common sense has a large amount to play in when to start you horse. If they are mentally ready (my girl thrives on having something new to think about and if left for too long in her field she has a tendancy to let me know she is bored!) then taking another step forward in their education is going to do little harm and a slow steady progressive eduication is going to make life easier for everyone. Secondly, slowly increasing physical work load is going to help the horse's muscles develop gradually to adapy to the weight of the rider and the added physical demands of ridden work. Surely throwing a rider up on a horses back at the age of 4 or 5 after just a few weeks of lunging is going to potentially contribute to musclature damage and incorrect development then slowly building on it of say 6 months?? Also, bare in mind that horses are flight animals and that they are designed from the moment they learn to stand to be able to run from danger, thus their skeltons are better developed then we may assume them to be - again common sense says that this deosnt mean they should be ridden as soon as they are big enough but they are much stronger then we give them credit for.
Ok, will stop rambling on now as I culd go on for quite some time...
