My filly is 15 months old, She was totally unhandled when I bought her but within the first day of bringing her home she let me bath her and rug her. She is a naturally quiet natured girl but I think that might be the problem.. Because she is so quiet and bold she is not scared of anything. I have herd alot of people say you should leave a young horse in the paddock and let then grow until they are old enough to break to prevent attitude problems, Well i wanted to handle her somewhat because she had no human contact. But now i'm worried she is starting to grow an attitude because she is at the age where she is pushing my old pony around and has started trying it with me, only slightly but has tried it. Trust me I didn't approve of it and put her back in her place immediatly. But my question is: Now that she is use to people and what I would call well handled, should i just leave her to grow or should i keep doing things with her? Keeping in mind that I have trained her at liberty so as soon as i ask whether it be in her paddock or not she will go forwards, backwards and go where ever I go without any contact. So should I just leave it at that or keep doing what i'm already doing?
I think the biggest key is don't over due it. Keep your sessions short and fun!! Don't stress out if you don't work with her for a few days. Posted via Mobile Device
Keep working with her and ditto ^^^^^. Set some reasonable goals to work toward, so that by the time she's ready for saddle breaking, you've pretty much done everything but sit on her. That will make the actual backing a non-event and make her under saddle training a lot easier.
You also need to realize that a horse can do 180 in the years between 3 and 5 too. A docile, easy to work with horse can become a demon, and a demon can turn in to best horse ever.
When they grow up? You may not have the same horse you started with.
I am not a fan of messing with young horses excessively. I think you are better off to handle lightly, and leave them alone for the most part.
Keep sessions light, and let her grow. Do not put up with any attitude at all.
Dont stop working with her! I bought my horse as a two year old and trained him completely by myself and he had attitude problems when he got tired of listening. If you want to have a horse that can do anything and would follow you through anything make sure that they respect you and that you are completely dominant. I dont mean that you should beat her by any means, but when she starts getting an attitude when you ask her to do something make her think long and hard. My favorite thing to do when horses get pushy or big headed is to make them work. Move their feet, make them pivot, back up, make them do something that will make them realise that it would be easier just to do what you ask.
Teaching showmanship is a fantastic way to develop stellar ground manners, and it is never too early to start. Make them aware that when you move, they move, and when you stop they better darn well plant it.
Hope that helps!
Definitely agree with everything that's already been said. Work with her, but lightly. Your training "sessions" don't need to be any longer than 5-10 minutes at a time, because that's likely all her attention span will handle. As someone else said, you don't need to work them everyday. When they do what you want, leave them alone. That's their reward.
As a side note, we overheard some people at a Friesian horse inspection commenting on how their arms "felt 8 feet long" after preparing their horses. Apparently they waited until their horses were 3-years-old to handle them at all, and only started haltering, leading, and lunging a few months before the inspection. Stupidest thing ever, if you ask me! Much easier to control a younger, smaller horse than something that weighs 1100 lbs!
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