What age?

When should I start riding my young horse?


Starting a horse is a controversial subject. The simple question of when to start a young horse is enough to cause havoc to break loose in a room full of horse people. Both trainers and non-trainers have their opinions.

When I was a kid, things moved along pretty quickly. We started all our horses when they were two years-old. Late in the summer of their second year, we’d begin by teaching them to lunge at a walk and a trot, then finally a lope. Although we had a roundpen, not much time was spent in there. No more than five or six days passed before we were out on the trail with them teaching them how to step over logs and to maneuver up and down the hills of Monterey, California. By the time the horse was three or four, we’d be popping them over small fences on a cross country course and showing them regionally the next year.

As I began training professionally, I realized that two years-old was just too young to ask so much from a horse. Their knees weren’t closed (the growth plates fuse the epiphysis, or end of the bone to the diaphysis or bone shaft) and I knew from past experience that there would be problems down the road if these babies were pushed too fast and too hard. Back then, I thought it was only the knee that had a growth plate that I needed to worry about. In truth, since growth plates are on every single bone behind the skull, I should have worried about those plates just as much. But I didn’t know that.

My vet at the time assured me that two was a fine age to begin riding a horse as long as the knee was closed. But even with the knees closed, I found myself delaying those youngsters longer and longer. I advised clients to have the knees X-rayed to verify the maturity of the knee. If the knee was still ‘open’, I advised delaying training. In my career, many owners have refused to wait, and I refused to take the horse. Likely, I didn’t help any horse, but at least I knew I didn’t hurt any either.

It wasn’t until some 25 years later that Dr. Deb Bennett, PhD published her findings that my own intuition was proven. In her article, titled, “Ranger”, what I’d always suspected was proven.

We were starting horses too young and pushing them too hard. Especially race horses who were expected to run and win as two-year-olds, and show horses of all discipline who were being shown in competition. These animals are over-faced, over-worked and over-used, yet the practice continues.

According to Dr Deb Bennett, No horse, no matter what breed, matures before the age of six years. There are no fast maturing breeds and there are no slow maturing breeds. There is a general fusion schedule that all horses follow. They are genetically hard-wired to do so and no amount of strict breeding practices by us will change that.

In general, horse’s bones will fuse (convert growth plates to bone) from the bottom, up. This means that bones lower down will be ‘done’ before bones higher up will be. The coffin bone will not get any taller than it is at time of birth, it will only get larger in diameter. The knee fuses between 18 mos and 24 mos, while the scapula (the weight bearing portion) won’t fuse until age three to three and a half years. The last to develop is, you guessed it, the vertebral column. These 32 bones do not close until 5 ½ years of age, and this is where we set the saddle and then ourselves.

So, should you start a horse at age two? For me, the answer is no. I start mine as long three-year olds; meaning in the late summer or fall of their third year, and I start them under saddle very lightly. I don’t lunge them more than a few minutes two times a week. I don’t ride them more than a few minutes each day at a walk and I spend a lot that first month or two on the ground, teaching them to turn, stop, back, sidepass and turn on their haunches while I’m beside them, not on them. By the time I’m in the saddle, the power-steering and power-brakes are in place and the horse truly understands his new job and likes it.

Even by starting at this age, I know I’m taking a chance. I’m not waiting as long as I should perhaps, but since I go at such a slow pace and demand so little of the horse physically; my youngsters grow up to be strong, healthy, sound adults that are fully usable for many years.

Many fine horses are being started under saddle at one year of age—Thoroughbreds getting ready for their racing career, AQHA Futurity hopefuls, Tennessee Walkers, Mustangs; each horse that can be sold at a younger age knowing more is worth more financially to the seller. Many of these horses are getting joint injections by the age of three and showing signs of navicular or coffin bone changes and other anomalies that, in my opinion, could be avoided if the owner/trainer would have waited just a little while to let the horse mature.

Each owner and their trainer should discuss this basic philosophy of when to start the young horse and in what manner so to avoid any misunderstandings and to prevent unwanted soundness issues.

The Deb Bennett article referred to is:
http://www.equinestudies.org/ranger_200 ... 8_pdf1.pdf

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