Youngsters: 'over handling' v. poor handling

My rising 4 year old has the same potential for future problems as your MissMistletoe. I try to make sure that he NEVER dictates the pace. If he start to go too fast then I halt him then ask for a few paces of walk. If he is inattentive then we walk-halt-walk -halt sometimes with one or two steps of 'back' until he is listening carefully. If he stops without being asked and for no apparent reason then he MUST walk on smartly. We are not perfect and I make mistakes but he is polite, attentive, not nappy (today we walked past his field twice without batting an eye) and incredibly nosy. He does seem to love getting out and about and I'm hoping he will be a great hacking horse in time. He is my first youngster but already much steadier than my elderly Welsh D!
 
Celtic Fringe said:
My rising 4 year old has the same potential for future problems as your MissMistletoe. I try to make sure that he NEVER dictates the pace. If he start to go too fast then I halt him then ask for a few paces of walk. If he is inattentive then we walk-halt-walk -halt sometimes with one or two steps of 'back' until he is listening carefully. If he stops without being asked and for no apparent reason then he MUST walk on smartly. We are not perfect and I make mistakes but he is polite, attentive, not nappy (today we walked past his field twice without batting an eye) and incredibly nosy. He does seem to love getting out and about and I'm hoping he will be a great hacking horse in time. He is my first youngster but already much steadier than my elderly Welsh D!
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Thanks for posting! Sometimes I think it's easier to be on top than beside them, but I know that their ridden work is a reflection of the ground work, so I'm keen to nip this in the bud!.

Your suggestion sounds good, I will give that a go.

My late horsey Aunt used to say, "give them a pathway, let them go forward" which I do, but I'd rather dictate the pace!
Good luck with your youngster CF :)
 
Thanks to everyone who has contributed! I actually wavered for a couple of weeks before posting this thread - I thought I would just get the usual 'if you have to ask that, you shouldn't have a youngster' but actually the discussion has given me a lot more confidence in what I'm doing, which is bringing up my first youngster with shed loads of general horse experience but relatively little of youngstock. Perhaps those of us in the same boat should start a support group!
 
My 4yo was perfect to handle until I sold him as a 3yo (had him since a yearling). I handled him minimally and just to the extent that he knew the basics (how to lead, tie up, stand for farrier, pick feet up and accept the hose and grooming). His only daily handling would be a few steps to the field and then back in at night. I sold him as a 3yo and bought him back 8 months later due to their family collapse - he was bargy, nippy, pawed the ground - essentially my worst nightmare and completely over/poorly handled. It's taken months to correct - I've gone back to minimal handling - he is thrown out and brought back in and that's it. He's now being broken in and luckily his manners have come back to him. My other horse is an ex show-creature - he would have been completely overhandled as a baby and as a result has always been a total drama queen (albeit very personable) but it's something I try to avoid at all costs!
 
I do part time work on a livery yard and one of the newer horses there is an over/mis-handled homebred now 5yo cob (owner's child substitute/'wouldn't it be nice to have a little fluffy foal' scenario). It is a rude bargy sod of a horse who didn't have manners/respect taught when young and has been allowed to realise its own strength, and knows that the owner is actually a bit scared of it. It's on part livery and is ok (now) for the day-to-day stuff of turning out/bringing in, etc, but can be rather tricky for anything out of the ordinary. For example, we do regular TPR checks so we know what's normal for each horse. This one is a nightmare for taking the temperature because it is a kicker. (Owner used to 'play' with it as a foal and then never established that kicking at humans is actually unacceptable behaviour. Hence kicking is now horse's default reaction for anything it doesn't like.) Owner won't hear a word said against her 'baby' but fortunately YM is very diplomatic as well as having great horse sense and is quietly working on both horse and owner to turn things around.
 
Best thing for a weanling / youngster is a brilliant matriach to teach it respect, boundaries and manners. We have always done minimal approach, but they come in at night over winter because of the ground so were lead a short distance daily, but weren't fussed over. One of the broodmares was a wonderful matriach, sadly we lost her to a tumour last year. Result is all our homebreds have lovely manners, indeed one of them (bwb x ish) it was her manners that sold her. None of them bite, kick or barge, all have been straightforward to back with no issues.

I bought my now 18 year old as an unbacked, virtually untouched (could get headcollar on and lead her, that was it) 4 yr old as I could not afford a 'ready made' of her quality. Paid a pro to back her in 2 weeks, remit was I had to be able to sit on her safely, rest I did. She was left untouched in a field for 4 years as a youngster, she is by far the hardest, most neurotic to handle. This I put down to lack of a strong matriach (I know her breeder). Her daughter, now 7, who benefited from our good matriach, totally different animal.
 
A saying I like: "If you present us with your rude, wilful, unmannerly 3 year old to back and break, then we will have to install 3 years' worth of missed manners in about 6 weeks. This is not fun for us or the horse."
 
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