From: Willie
We have a 1.5 year-old quarter horse that seems to have a slow/laxy personality. She is a sweet horse that is learning lots of things and mostly behaves quite well. She was introduced to walking on the road just recently and has grown comfortable. We are able to sit on her and she is getting used to that also. But she just seems slow and lazy. She walks slowly, does not want to trot, and generally has no energy. She seems to be in good health, no feet problems, and eats well (not overweight though). How can we get her to enjoy walking, trotting, running, or sometimes simply to move? I am quite surprised that a 1 year old is this slow. My 25-year-old runs circles around the young one. What's the problem?
Please use the name "Willie" if this is on the website.
Thanks!
The biggest problem your filly has is not laziness - it's youth. She is a very young baby, and needs her energy to grow. This is not the time to be asking her to carry a rider, walk on the road, longe, or do anything else like that. Those activities are NOT suitable for yearlings - they would be much more suitbale for a strong, well-grown three- or four-year-old horse.
Growing takes a great deal of energy. Why not let your filly do what she needs to do right now, and wait until she's older before you try to work her on the ground - and wait until she is MUCH older before you ride her? Right now, it can only damage her. Much of her bone structure is still developing, and if you want it to develop normally, you'll have to help out by providing her with an environment and activities that will allow that normal growth. Since you have a twenry-five-year-old horse, you obviously must have some experience looking after older horses; looking after a very young filly is somewhat different. She would probably have plenty of energy to do normal baby things - eat, sleep, and run around with other youngsters in a large field.
Your filly's skeleton is only partly bone right now - a lot of it is cartilage. Her skeleton won't be fully developed - the cartilage won't all have changed to bone - for a very long time. She won't be physically mature until she's six or older - you have plenty of time. Starting a horse too young and asking too much is a quick way to ruin a horse. Let your filly grow up, give her a chance to develop normally and get the coordination and balance and the strong bones that she'll need as a riding horse.
As for her energy problem - if she doesn't enjoy walking, trotting, and running ON HER OWN or with her friends, there could be a real problem somewhere, and that's why you need to have a consultation with your vet. But if she just doesn't seem to enjoy doing work under saddle, that's totally normal - she shouldn't be doing ANY work under saddle at her age. Her being reluctant to carry a person and trot down the road is the equivalent of a four-year-old child being reluctant to run track while carrying a backpack full of rocks. You'd never ask such a young child to do anything like that, because it just wouldn't make sense - well, asking such a young horse to carry a rider doesn't make any sense either, for all the same reasons.
Too much, too early, is a formula for breaking down horses before they're even old enough to be physically mature. Don't be in a hurry - you thought this filly was special enough to buy, so you must like her. Give her a chance to grow up and become the horse you'd like her to be. She won't be able to do it if she's under saddle as a yearling. But if you'll work with your vet to create a good horse-management program for your filly, with regular de-worming and hoof-trimming, as much turnout as possible (24/7 turnout, for the next few years would be very helpful to her), preferably in a large field with other mares for company, and a sensible, slow program of gradual groundwork when she's two or three, and THEN think about saddles and riders when she's a long three-year-old or older, you may be able to keep this one going strong into her twenties, too.
It's easy to get fooled into thinking that a young horse "ought to" be able to work, since it's big and shiny and pretty. It's also really easy to get impatient when you're looking at a youngster that needs several years of regular vet and farrier attention, ground-work, and manners training - since very young horses are so sweet and cooperative, it's easy to think "Oh, why not?" and start treating them as if they were adult horses. It's easy to get annoyed at the expense of horsekeeping, and to imagine that the horse "owes you" some work. But all of those ideas are wrong, and all of them will lead in the wrong direction, and the end result will be a horse that is chronically lame at a tragically young age. Don't fall into that trap - or, rather, since you've already fallen into it, get out of it as quickly as you can. Horses are very resilient, and it's possible that your filly hasn't yet sustained any permanent damage. A year or two in a field will often work wonders - "Dr. Green" is still one of the best vets around. ;-)
Jessica
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