At my boarding facility now, there is a "probably 11 - 12 year old" (vet's guess) gelding, which was left there by his owners when they moved (in the middle of the night....). ?Unbroke - our best guess was that he had been badly started, then given up on: he was scared to death of a saddle. ?Two ladies at the ranch agreed to try and break him: ?one was very reluctant -- "he's too old, too many bad experiences...etc.", but she agreed to try. ?That was 3 months ago. ?He had a couple of setbacks, and it took about 2 months for him to get over his fear of the saddle, but he is now under saddle, and coming along nicely. ?MUCH quieter and more relaxed. ?Looks like he is going to turn out to be really nice. ?The ranch owners next problem is going to be finding a good home for him: ?no papers (maybe arab, maybe a cross), very small (about 13.2 or so).
So far, though, everyone is really impressed with how well he is doing, given how old he was, and the baggage he came with.
"So far this experiment with starting a 7 year old says it's a good thing.
Angie"
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I have started four horses after the age of seven and have found no problems.? A few years back, I bought some unbroke broodmares that were nine years old and had them broke to ride.? All of them came around nicely, made very good trail horses, and one turned out to be a great 100 mile endurance horse.? In fact, my experience with these mares convinced me that starting horses under saddle a little bit older is actually a good practice, especially with endurance horses. It changed my entire point of view of what "old" is in terms of performance expectations.?
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I know from an equine "industry" point of view that this attitude is really not feasible.???Luckily, I?really don't have to follow industry standards.? But, until?my experience with these 9 year old mares, I didn't realize how much this industry standard influenced my thinking when looking at endurance prospects.? I look back now and wonder how many good horses I passed on because I thought they were too old to start and because of their age would not be worth putting time into because they would be "too old" by the time they were conditioned up.
