Would you take a 5 year old out just for the experience

K

kizmund

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 July 2012
Messages
258
Visit site
I am riding my friends green 5 year old Irish cob. We are mainly just hacking and he has a great attitude and is really well mannered, despite not having great balance and sometimes feeling a bit wobbly on boggy ground. His owner is quite keen for me to get out and about on him doing local dressage.

So question is: would you take him out knowing that he's not going to do very well?? Or would you do some schooling with the aim to dressage in summer?

Not sure what to do, he'll be well behaved so have no worry of that but may be lookly and a bit wobbly as he is a big built horse and 16.2 and hasn't got the hang of where all four legs are yet!
 
Yup get him out. Though if you can I would take him to a show and just the warm arena and then go home on the first trip. It's all new and strange and the more exposure he gets the better. Good luck and enjoy.
 
If he's reasonably ridable, okay with other horses and has handled a trip or two to another venue then there is no reason not to go if it's what you want to do.

The only thing I would caution (' cause I'm me ;)) is to ve careful you don't ask too much of him or put him into a situation where he has a bad experience just because you're competing/out in public. Yes, you want to give your young horse mileage but equally, you don't want him to go away thinking horse shows are places where people get tense and unreasonable. By the same token, know when to quit. If he gets very tired or, conversely, it's not going well then don't be afraid to pull out of a class and either go home or spend the time just letting him school or hang out.

Very few young horses are going to be super competitive the first few times out so no need to stress about that. Just use the outings to teach him good horse show etiquette and give him a relaxed introduction.
 
Tarrsteps he's super chilled out, we've even passed a hunt out hacking and he just strutted passed. We've also found somewhere super local so we can hack there so don't have that added stress of boxing there.

Would def pull out and wander round if I feel on the day that he wouldn't have an enjoyable experience in the ring. A low score or no score and a good experience is better than a high score but a negative over pressured experience :)
 
That sounds about ideal then! It's great if you can get a bit of work into a young horse before the show, too, so they arrive with the edge already off and in a relaxed frame of mind. The hack over should work in your favour that way. You can save boxing him somewhere until you're sure he's okay about the competing aspects, or do that on a separate day out schooling.

He sounds like the type that might surprise you, results wise! A good mind is more than half the battle at this stage.

Have fun. :)
 
This is great advice" I took my 4yo out show jumping last week & while there was tons of positives she thought she was a steeplechaser" ..... hense why we are going to rent the venue she will do her first dressage test in, every week for the next mth..

TarrSteps said:
If he's reasonably ridable, okay with other horses and has handled a trip or two to another venue then there is no reason not to go if it's what you want to do.

The only thing I would caution (' cause I'm me ;)) is to ve careful you don't ask too much of him or put him into a situation where he has a bad experience just because you're competing/out in public. Yes, you want to give your young horse mileage but equally, you don't want him to go away thinking horse shows are places where people get tense and unreasonable. By the same token, know when to quit. If he gets very tired or, conversely, it's not going well then don't be afraid to pull out of a class and either go home or spend the time just letting him school or hang out.

Very few young horses are going to be super competitive the first few times out so no need to stress about that. Just use the outings to teach him good horse show etiquette and give him a relaxed introduction.
Click to expand...
 
For me it's all about having set them up to succeed, not to fail. So my 5yo (who only started work last Nov so although backed as a rising 4yo did nothing but eat in a field for most of her 4yo year) has been doing the following in prep for her first test:

She schools at home nicely and is soft when I ask. Stop, go and turn are all installed, with stop (or slow so I can balance her!) being pretty critical to me as then I know I can manage a situation if 'turn' doesn't happen when I want! She's been to 4 or 5 different venues away from home for lessons, starting v low key and getting gradually spookier with yesterday's being an indoor school with mirrors and white boards stacked on the sides. The lessons have all been group ones, but she's been asked to work both with the other horses close by and to leave them and do her own thing. Now she's relaxed going to new places and working in them, with and without other horses, I'll be looking to take her to a nice low key show to do a test. I don't expect her to place, but at least I know she's prepared for going to a new place, working with other horses, leaving them, seeing scary stuff etc. I hope this should make her first outing pretty positive.
 
One of my side lines is sitting on hunters when they first come over from Ireland. They get off the lorry, normally have 2 low key days and then get taken to a evening unaff venue. They have all been fine and cope surprisingly well for such young, green horses but it usually plays in my favour as tired after 20 mins. A lot of time is spent on a loose rein just relaxing and taking it all in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top