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Starting a large young horse

From: Carola

Dear Jessica, I have a very nice filly that turned two years old on the 3rd of June this year. She is half Hannoverian and half Thoroughbred. I have one other foal (will be 4 on July 16) out of the same Thoroughbred mare, but the mare now has some problems and my vet thinks that this may be the last foal from her. So I want to be very careful to do everything right with this filly. My mare's first foal (did I mention he is a gelding, 15.1) turned four in April and I have already backed him with no fuss or playing about. He is a stocky, cobby sort of horse, very strong and my vet says he should be a wonderful weight carrier. I want to train him to be a "husband horse". My husband Jonty has been riding for only one year but he helps me look after the horses and is very fond of this gelding, so I am planning to train and ride him for a few years and then turn him over to Jonty, who by that time should be an experienced rider.

Sorry for all the back story, but I think it will help you evaluate my situation with this filly. The filly is beautiful (not that I am at all prejudiced, ha ha) and is already as tall as her mother (16.0). My vet thinks that she may make 17.0 hands by the time she is fully grown. I don't really enjoy riding very tall horses and this thought is making me very nervous. A friend of mine who starts all of her horses at two with no ill effects that I can see, has been making quite a good argument for starting this filly just after her second birthday (so you see I should be riding her already according to my friend!). I have always believed that the larger the horse, the longer one should wait before backing it, but I realize that a horse this large could be out of my control by the time she is four, which is when I would normally plan to start a horse under saddle (like my gelding). My friend says that it is a mistake to wait when a horse is really large and tall, because I will never be able to convince it that I am the stronger and more powerful "alpha" horse. She says I should begin riding my filly as soon as possible, so that she will be young enough to still be under my authority, because geldings are naturally subservient but a filly that tall will not accept my authority later and will be convinced that she is in charge of me instead of the opposite. My friend has owned many horses and I have only had four, an old gelding that is now retired, my mare, and her two foals, so I can't claim to have her level of experience. My mare was already fourteen and well trained when I purchased her, so this is my first experience with a young female horse.

My gut feeling is that I would like to wait. My gelding is so sweet and made no fuss about being backed and ridden, although he was four. Of course he is a different physical type and has his own personality, but I still feel that it would not be a good idea to back my filly at 2, even though she is already taller than her brother! Please advise me.

Carola


Hi Carola! The short version of my answer is: You are right, and your friend is wrong. Your friend may have owned many horses, and she may have started all of them under saddle at two years old or younger, but that doesn't mean that her methods should be emulated.

Now, for the longer version. A two-year-old horse of any breed is a baby - young, immature, with a skeleton that is not fully developed. A tall, growthy, two-year-old Warmblood is even more of a baby, and even less developed, than a smaller, shorter, more compact youngster would be at the same age.

Your filly will have no trouble accepting your authority later - why should she? If you've brought her up and trained her well, by the time she's ready to be backed, the presence of a rider will not be shocking or upsetting or painful, and she'll have no reason to question your authority, since she'll be in the habit of accepting it. If you've been the leader all along, that's not going to change just because you're on her back (provided, of course, that you are a good rider and know how to start young horses under saddle).

Some geldings are not particularly subservient by nature; some mares are. You know your young horses well, and in this case you also know their dam very well, so you are in a wonderful position to evaluate them without needing to refer to anyone else's "formula" about horses. It's not as though you were being asked to evaluate these two youngsters fifteen minutes after meeting them for the first time! You bred them, you raised them, and you've been handling them since birth - you should have a very good sense of their individual personalities. Your four-year-old should have had a couple of years of ground work by now, so you should know him VERY well indeed - and it sounds as if you do. Your filly, given her probable eventual size, should be brought along more slowly - with a horse of that physical type, it's often best to begin longeing at four rather than at three, and then back the horse at five. This is especially true if you want to keep this horse for yourself and "do everything right", as you've said you intend to do. There are so many things you can do with a young horse before it's backed - you can, and should, spend the next two years giving your filly a solid educational foundation. By the time she is ready to be backed, she'll be strong, balanced, have a much better idea of where her feet are at all times (a major consideration with a large, growthy youngster!), and you will have NO difficult asserting your authority, should you need to do so.

Don't let anyone hurry you - the last filly from your beloved mare is a real treasure. It sounds to me as though you are doing everything exactly right. I'm sure that your friend means well, and probably believes that what she's telling you is true, and she may well give you good suggestions in other areas... but in this case, just as you surmised, you'll be better off ignoring her advice.

Jessica

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