Breaking two year olds to ride

["Michelle Rowe" <michrowe@frontier.net>]

If you want a great description of the growth process in horses, go to this
link:

http://www.equinestudies.org/conformation.htm

Here's Dr. Deb's take on growth and when to start (cut and pasted straight
from the page):

(2) Now, let's turn to the second discussion, which is what I mean by
"starting" and the whole history of that. Many people today - at least in
our privileged country -- do not realize how hard you can actually work a
horse - which is very, very hard. But before you can do that without
significantly damaging the animal, you have to wait for him to mature, which
means - waiting until he is four to six years old before asking him to carry
you on his back. What bad will happen if you put him to work as a riding
horse before that? Two important things - and probably not what you're
thinking of. What is very UNlikely to happen is that you'll damage the
growth plates in his legs. At the worst, there may be some crushing of the
cartilages, but the number of cases of deformed limbs due to early use is
tiny. The cutting-horse futurity people, who are big into riding horses as
young as a year and a half, will tell you this and they are quite correct.
Want to damage legs? There's a much better way - just overfeed your
youngstock (see Forum postings on this. You ought to be able to see the
animal's ribs - not skeletal, but see 'em - until he's two).

More likely is that you'll cause structural damage to his back. There are
some bloodlines (in Standardbreds, Arabians, and American Saddlebreds) known
to inherit weak deep intervertebral ligament sheathing; these animals are
especially prone to the early, sudden onset of "saddle back". However,
individuals belonging to these bloodlines are by no means the only ones who
may have their back "slip" and that's because, as mentioned above, the
stress of weightbearing on the back passes parallel to the growth plates as
well as the intervertebral joints. However, I want to add that the frequency
of slipped backs in horses under 6 years old is also very low.

So, what's to worry about? Well...did you ever wish your horse would "round
up" a little better? Collect a little better? Respond to your leg by raising
his back, coiling his loins, and getting his hindquarter up underneath him a
little better? The young horse knows, by feel and by "instinct", that having
a weight on his back puts him in physical jeopardy. I'm sure that all of you
start your youngstock in the most humane and considerate way that you know
how, and just because of that, I assure you that after a little while, your
horse knows exactly what that saddle is and what that situation where you go
to mount him means. And he loves you, and he is wiser than you are, so he
allows this. But he does not allow it foolishly, against his deepest nature,
which amounts to a command from the Creator that he must survive; so when
your foot goes in that stirrup, he takes measures to protect himself.

The measures he takes are the same ones YOU would take in anticipation of a
load coming onto your back: he stiffens or braces the muscles of his
topline, and to help himself do that he may also brace his legs and hold his
breath ("brace" his diaphragm). The earlier you choose to ride your horse,
the more the animal will do this, and the more often you ride him young, the
more you reinforce in his mind the necessity of responding to you in this
way. So please - don't come crying to me when your 6 year old (that was
started under saddle as a two year old) proves difficult to round up! (Not
that I'm not gonna help you but GEEZ).
If he does not know how to move with his back muscles in release, he CANNOT
round up!!

So - bottom line - if you are one of those who equates "starting" with
"riding," then I guess you better not start your horse until he's four. That
would be the old, traditional, worldwide view: introduce the horse to
equipment (all kinds of equipment and situations) when he's two, crawl on
and off of him at three, saddle him to begin riding him and teaching him to
guide at four, start teaching him maneuvers or the basics of whatever job
he's going to do - cavalletti or stops or something beyond trailing cattle -
at five, and he's on the payroll at 6. The old Spanish way of bitting
reflected this also, because the horse's teeth aren't mature (i.e., the
tushes haven't come in and all the permanent teeth) until he's six either.

This is what I'd do if it were my own horse. Now I'm at liberty to do that
because I'm not on anybody else's schedule except my horse's own schedule.
I'm not a participant in futurities or planning to be. Are you? If you are,
well, that's your business. But most horse owners aren't. Please ask
yourself: is there any reason that you have to be riding that particular
horse before he's four?




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