From: M. Ragan
Hi Jessica! My husband and I own a 7 month old 1/2 quarter, 1/2 paint colt. His history is long, unfortunately, but to make it short, we purchased him and brought him home and he wasn't in top physical shape. We tried to fatten him up, then we gelded him about a month later. (He was 5 months old). He started bleeding internally and we took him to a University for a week of 24-hour care. He is fine now, back home, and we are feeding him Alfalfa hay and Strategy. We worm him once a month (All this per Vet's instructions). My question is this: He seems to be quite healthy now and putting on weight. When do you start "working" a young horse? When do you start using the round pen for excercise? We want him to be strong and healthy, but still want him to have his "baby" time. He has about an acre of ground he can run in, and is let out occassionally on 5 acres. He will be used for a pleasure horse only. Thanks for any advice you can give...
Hi -- seven months is still very young. Unless you are planning to show him in Futurities, why not just let him grow up? If I were you, I would keep him in that five-acre field, with some company. If you have another baby or two for him to play with, or an active young horse, or even an active OLDER horse, that would be ideal. This is the way to make him strong and healthy -- free-choice outdoor exercise, and the option of walking and grazing and walking some more, for 24 hours out of 24.
Round pen work is terribly hard on young joints, and can cause permanent damage. And many round pens are far too small. Even if your round pen is large -- 60' or 70' across -- I'd give this baby another year, if not two, before you ask him to work on circles. If you can, wait until he is at least two, perhaps even a long two-year-old, and then start very gently and slowly. You'll be tempted, I'm sure, because well-fed babies LOOK big and tall and strong when they aren't really grown-up at all. If you ask him for too much too soon, he will probably do whatever you want, but he won't last. Most of the two-year-old horses you see performing under saddle in the show ring -- like most two-year-old racehorses -- will be retired unsound before they are five. The ones that last forever are the ones that are allowed to grow up and develop naturally before they begin work. YOU want a pleasure horse -- something to enjoy and ride on trails, something to be your friend, and something to last a long, long time. Be patient now -- it'll pay off in the long term. Would you rather ride your horse at two and retire him at five, or ride him at four and retire him at twenty-four?
This doesn't mean that you should just feed and trim and de-worm your foal, though -- over the next year and a half, you can teach him all sorts of things. You can teach him to lead, tie, pick up his feet, and walk and trot and turn and stop and back in hand. You can teach him to stand for clipping, and tolerate baths, and behave well for the vet. You can teach him to get into and out of trailers, and to ride in them. You can take him for walks, on the farm and along the side of the road, and get him used to all sorts of scary things like cows and trees and farm machinery, school buses and big trucks and motorcycles, dogs and cats and children on bicycles and in-line skates.
Next year, you can teach him to wear bits and pieces of horse gear, including a surcingle and a headstall with a bit attached, so that all of this will be "same old, same old" to him when he is ready to begin serious work. By the time he's ready to be worked in the round pen and worked under saddle, he'll know you very well and trust you absolutely, and that will make the rest of his education a pleasure for both of you.
Jessica
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