Would you do hunting/endurance with a 5yo?

[littlen]

Question in title really.

Do you feel that an average 5yo is mature enough to start something like endurance riding or training for pleasure rides at a trot/canter speed?

How much trot and canter do you do on an average ride and how often do you ride for at this age? Is it acceptable to have youngsters cantering or trotting for any distance or do you prefer to wait, and if so until what age?

Do you ride a young horse every day or only a few times a week?

Do you think harder/faster work at this age is more likely to increase the risk of splints or tendon injuries etc than if left until the horse is older?

No real reason for the questions other than interest in what everyone else is doing!

 

[NZJenny]

I have only started my own endurance horses (three), but this is what I did:

Started as three year olds, and turned out for the winter.
As 4 year olds, lots of hacking at walk and trot with some canter. Take them to 10km or 20 km endurance or trail rides - no faster than 10 km per hour. This gets them out and gives them some experience so they are not stressing when we start to add distance.
Turn out for the winter.
As 5 year olds, a season of 40 km rides (10 to 12 km per hour).
As 6 year olds, up the distance to 80 km and progress from there.
DISTANCE BEFORE SPEED. Always.

They would always have 3 months complete rest over the winter.

After their winter rest, I would leg up for 6 weeks.
Week 1: Walk for 30 minutes.
Week 2. Walk for 45 minutes.
Week 3: Walk for 60 minutes
Week 4: Walk for 45 minutes, trot for 15.
Week 4.: Walk for 30 minutes, trot for 30
Week 5: Walk for 15 minutes trot for 45.
Week 6: Trot for an hour.

Then actual training - count backwards from the first ride of the season: 1 Week for every 10 km of distance. So if my first ride was a 80 km ride, then that would need eight weeks of actual training.
I would only ride four days a week.
I would aim to train at the speed I was intending to compete.
After an endurance ride, one of rest for every 10 km of distance.

Re fast work - every horse is different so it really is gently experiment with your own horse. It will also depend on what terrain you have available, I had miles of beach and sand, so my training was quite different to someone who had a lot of hill riding.

I loved the "journey" of training endurance horses and I started at page 1 with all of them as they were all completely different.

And yes, a five year old is mature enough to start the work. Have fun.

 

[Jellymoon]

As with everything, it does depend on the 5 yr old, but yes, I would consider and have done a pleasure ride of about 10 miles mostly in walk but with a bit of trotting and a couple of canters and I would take a 5 yr old out for a mornings hunting but I would take it easy, just pop a few nice jumps if there are any suitable ones, not bang along the road for ages, and go home after a couple of hours.

And yes, I do think hard fast work on a young horse can be damaging, but equallly so could lots of schooling on endless circles and challenging jumping exercises.

Probably long slow hacks mostly in walk are the best for them.

I would be riding them 5 days a week on average, 3/4 Times hacking for about an hour, more or less, in walk, trot and canter, Schooling once or twice a week with Jumping. I would be taking them out to little shows too.

I do tend to give them a long winter holiday for about 2-3 months as I like them to have an opportunity to mentally and physically relax, eat grass with their heads down and not be poked and prodded by humans for a while. I find they are very ready and willing to get going again come spring and I’ve not found any of them to have gone feral in this time. This also gives me a break from them as youngsters can be physically and mentally tiring for me too!

Trot and canter on an average ride - maybe 2 or 3 trots for about 5 mins at a time, depending on the going, and a couple of short canters? No proper fast work yet.

 

[TGM]

Never done endurance, but yes I would take a 5yo out hunting - but would chose the easier meets and be prepared to finish early. In fact we took our youngster out to a couple of puppy hunts with the bloodhounds in his 4yo autumn, although avoided the jumping. Now he is officially five this year, he might go on a sponsored ride during spring or summer, and do some of the more gentle hunts next winter.

 

[ihatework]

Yes I would providing the horse had appropriate fittening work in the run up.
I’d obviously take care of where and how long they were out for

 

[junglefairy]

With longer hacks, endurance rides or hunting it would be a young horse’s ability to carry a rider on their back for that length of time that would concern me the most. I have kept all riding sessions with my 5 year old well under 2 hours (only rarely exceeding 1 hour or so) and I weigh 52kgs.

Maybe I’m overly cautious, but from what I’ve read the vertebrae are one of the last bones to fuse (not until up to 6 years old), so why not err on the side of caution.

I think the most important factor when assessing what level activity a horse of any age can comfortably do is conditioning. Strong muscles and soft tissues achieved through conditioning will protect joints and allow the horse (including 5 year olds) to do more work with less risk of injury.

I understand studies have shown that some level of physical stress on a young horse’s legs (< 3 years old) can have positive benefits for long term strengthening, but I don’t think it’s been determined whether this can be achieved by herd turnout on varied and undulating land, or whether, for example, road work is required.