merelygifted:

madrivervalleyicelandics:

blitzkriegloveshock:

madrivervalleyicelandics:

Saw this awesome graphic floating around Facebook. This is a major reason and motivation for the very slow, careful approach we now take to training young horses. It is not because we somehow aren’t good enough to finish the horses more quickly. Back in Iceland, I was very much training on a faster track, working in a program where we started the horses at 3, having the more talented ones ready for breeding shows by 4 and ready for sport competition by 5. The horses can absolutely be ready mentally, but physically it is IMPOSSIBLE, even just on a skeletal level. They simply aren’t developed no matter how hard they will try for you, and having this knowledge, I do feel it is wrong to ignore it and push them through to take more than their bodies are ready to give. The longer I train, the slower I want to take things. When I was younger I felt so much pressure to move quickly, and that is something that has really changed for me in the past 5 years especially.

My 4-year-old, Bogi, began his training after his 4th birthday in June, was backed for the first time in October, and now is ridden for 10-15 minutes a couple of times per week, primarily at a walk, if we are working in the arena, or ridden strictly at a walk for perhaps half an hour if we are going out for a hack on some hills. He’s worked with an open poll and an unrestricted head and neck. There will be so much time for more later on when he is more developed.

This past spring and summer, I had the pleasure of starting a 12 year old pony under saddle for the first time in his life. Although he had never been backed and was fully untrained, his body was of course fully developed. We started him in I think April, backed him a month later and by July he attended a dressage clinic working walk trot canter and competed in an 8 mile hunter pace including small jumps, and competed in (and won) two intro level dressage tests by September. When they’re fully grown, its possible to train very quickly, especially using clicker training the way we do. But for the babies, we have to slow ourselves down and take the time to allow them to grow and develop.

T H I S ! ! !

I‘m also a big advocate of giving the horse the time he needs.

The horse still can‘t canter? Who cares? The only one putting pressure on this are we humans.

Maybe he‘s simply lacking the strength and balance. Give him time and everything will turn out fine.

With Milan training is very slow. He turns seven in May and we have just started to add short periods in trott under saddle. Before, he just wasn‘t ready. But it pays off well, a lot of times i can sit his trott.

Now, Milan is a very difficult horse. As a harness racer he is neither built nor was trained for dressage and riding. Adding to that he‘s gaited, very tall and has some health issues. 🙈

Yep yep yep and the bigger horses with longer necks take even longer to finish developing. So it’s very frustrating when people equate size with maturity and those big, long-necked warmbloods that are so popular currently are some of the most at-risk for permanent injury and bone remodeling under popular competition and training trends… it’s really upsetting if you spend too much time thinking about it.

My Bogi is tall and has a long and hypermobile neck so we will be taking our sweet time building stability and strength to support all that flexibility!

Excellent post. Makes the backing and training of yearling racehorses, and the racing of 3 and 4-year-olds look exactly as evil as it is.