young horse breaks - frequent short ones vs fewer longer ones?

[flippa_t]

Hi
I've just bought a rising 4 year old warmblood, he will be 4 in June. He was backed last autumn and had a month's holiday over Christmas. He was brought back into work in mid Jan and I bought him at the end of Feb and have continued with his routine so far of groundwork sessions (TRT), hacking and a day or 2 of light schooling with at least 2 consecutive days off a week. I'm hoping to produce him for dressage, but he's a long term prospect and so there is no desire to rush him or aim for any YH classes this year.

He is tall and so I don't need convincing that he will need more time off, but am unsure of the best approach to this and there seems to be different opinions over which is now best.

I'm leaning towards frequent breaks of c.2 weeks throughout the year after he's learnt something new or done a bit to let his body (and brain) adjust and grow. That way we can also benefit from the better weather and longer days for learning too.
What experiences do people have of managing young horses like this vs giving them several months off in one go?
And for those that advocate a longer break, when would you recommend aiming to do that? And for how long?

Thank you

 

[TheMule]

I think frequent short breaks is probably best- that way you don’t lose all the muscle you're working hard to build. Having said that, my rising 5 yr olds have both had long winter breaks at 3 and 4 because that’s what suited me, and then have come back much better for it (24/7 turnout on a hill)

 

[ihatework]

Getting the bigger, weaker horses fit and strong is generally a case of slow and steady - they also seem to loose the strength quicker out of work.

So in your case I’d do as you suggest, 4-5 days a week with frequent but short breaks.

I wouldn’t do it that way with every young horse but you need to adapt to what you have

 

[daffy44]

I've always prefered frequent short breaks with young horses, I find it works well mentally and physically, they dont get a chance to lose muscle and they always seem to mentally assimilate what they have learned, and come back more established after a short break. Of course if they have gone horribly croup high then I'd give them a bit longer off to let their bodies catch up.

I also tend to back them a little later, so turning them away for a long time doesnt work as well for me, but there are pros and cons to both ways, I just find personally the frequent short breaks work best.

 

[LEC]

Depends what is happening physically. One of mine would have weeks off at a time at 4 and 5 as kept going bum high and I won’t work them if that changes as I think it wrecks their body. I think at 4 doing minimal work won’t set you back and will only pay dividends if big. The 17.2hh I have has kept missing vast chunks of work every year for various reasons and I actually think it’s been good for them as can’t be pushed and allowed their body to fully mature. Even now at 9 she looks a lot better than she did last year at 8.

 

[flippa_t]

Thank you for your replies - all really helpful and reassuring that I'm not completely barking up the wrong tree! You see so many young horses that go on to have soundness issues etc. later in life that I want to do everything I can to give him the best start as well as maintain his soundness for the long term.

 

[onemoretime]

I always give my horses a break in the winter of about 6 or 7 weeks. My mare had a break at the beginning of December last year as she had been competing all summer. We picked her up at the end of January and I do a lot of walking on the road and gradually introduce trotting up the hill. She has been in work about 6 weeks now and she is 11 this year and has come back stronger than ever. I do think that a break helps them especially if they compete and travel a lot. The young ones always have time off in the winter to mature.