Young horse - taking things too slowly?

wingedhorse said:
There is some evidence bone development and soundness are helped by some stress and work as growing up, as encourages strength etc. So good for young horses to have some challenge as they grow to adult hood. A totally unchallenged horse wont develop to work as well as one that has realistic challenges as reaches full adult hood.
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Horses that live out or have plenty if turn out get that stress by day to day moving.
My last mare was lightly backed at rising 4, as in ridden for 3 weeks walk trot and canter, hacked alone and in company. She was not fully backed till rising 6.
I also found as she was physically much stronger we were able to progress much quicker than as a 3 yr old.
I would always wait until they are at least 5 now as I feel the time on the ground, in hand work, introducing the world and over coming scary things together creates a much more trusting horse. Also for me getting on a horse that has lived out, is more physically mature, is relatively fit and has been walked out in hand with a saddle a bridle on means I can get on and hack for half hour 40 mins at least 5 times per week rather than a few minutes here and there for fear of creating physical issues, it meant we just got on with it.
 
I dont think you should care about what anyone else is doing with their horses. You just do whatever suits you / the horse and your life / time. I think a lot of people do rush their horses especially to go up the grades SJ etc. The only slight advantage which sometimes works in your favour if you do things while they're still young is they still have a very innocent outlook on life, I think once they develop physically and mentally certain horses can use that as a disadvantage against you during the very early stages of getting on board, but totally depends on the horse. The last horse I backed was my current competition horse who was an 8yo and she was a dream because she has such a good nature. If it were a bolshy type of horse then Id rather get going sooner.
 
MagicMelon said:
The only slight advantage which sometimes works in your favour if you do things while they're still young is they still have a very innocent outlook on life, I think once they develop physically and mentally certain horses can use that as a disadvantage against you during the very early stages of getting on board, but totally depends on the horse. The last horse I backed was my current competition horse who was an 8yo and she was a dream because she has such a good nature. If it were a bolshy type of horse then Id rather get going sooner.
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Just a thought but don't you think horse that lose that innocent Outlook on life and become bolshy have done so due to lack of understanding and/or poor handling/ poor management? For me I would want to deal with the attitude before anything else
Many many years ago when training I was taught if a horse does not want a rider on board you need to stop getting on and putting yourself at risk and deal with the issue form the ground. I have never understood why people releatedly get on horses that want them off.
Sorry to go off thread OP.
 
i find that older horses in general, have a better attitude to working with humans, and have found often that babies with revolting attitudes are best left, not attacked and defeated, maturity, both mental and physical, is an underestimated and undervalued quality in horses.

theres a nine yr old here, that was utterly vile as a youngster and now is the most biddable and affectionate horse who wants to please, would he have turned out like this if he had been challenged as 3 -4 yr old, ? i don`t know, i have been critisized for not doing more with him, but only i know the secret of how elated i feel after riding him, i am on a high all day after schooling, he makes feel how lucky i am and has shown me that sometimes things don`t go textbook and that sometimes it works out in totally unexpected ways.
 
There are some horses though who have very active brains and bodies and unfortunately the devil will make work for idle hooves in that type of horse - I don't mean that they become bolshy, but they can get themselves in scrapes in the field and stable and can generally be a bit scatty to deal with.

And there are things you find out when working them (however gently) that you wouldn't discover otherwise. My big lad did very little really before last year (age 7), but that because I backed him at 4.5 and then spent a year working out what was wrong with him and another 18 months trying to get his management right. So yes, at age 8 he is the same physically and progression wise as your average 5yo who was backed at 4, but if I hadn't backed him and tried to work him when I did I wouldn't be where I am now with him, because I wouldn't have found out that there was something wrong with him. He would never ever have got himself physically right in the field because by and large he didn't move around a great deal in the field.
 
Goldenstar said:
What we have lost with starting horse is a sense of proportion a horse can be in work at three without being overworked four year olds can be in work seeing the world without being hot housed in young horse classes .
And a horse does not need to get to seven without being able to canter a circle to avoid being overworked.
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I think this is absolutely right. I also think the most important thing to bear in mind when working/backing youngsters is that they are mature/learn etc at different rates, there are very few absolutes, what is perfect for one horse is a disaster for another. The best thing to do is really pay attention to what your horse is trying to tell you, its certainly possible to go too slowly, and equally possible to go too fast, but people usually only focus on going to fast as a fault.
 
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