4 mos old filly..how hard could it be?

[patandchickens]

Brahampooter, a witchy mare in heat is not necessarily something geldings can (or will) ignore the way they can ignore an obnoxious goatie, so I would not place too much reliance on their behavior with the goat.

Quote:
Uh, sorry, but if fewer novices "took a chance" on buying weanlings without good experienced support and help available, this "would be a world" with a LOT fewer horses screwed up for life and never gonna find a happy home

When living creatures are involved, there is more to the equation than just "I want".

what is the worst thing that can happen?? you have a horse that is not "properly" trained.. to whose standards?? Sure maybe it won't be the best cutting horse in the world, but do you really need that??

NO NO NO -- this is NOT by any means whatsoever the worst that can happen :0

The worst that can -- and not infrequently does -- happen is that a) the person gets injured, possibly severely, and/or so badly scared that she has trouble dealing with horses for the rest of her life; and more importantly b) the horse gets so messed up in the head, and sometimes injured as well, that its only possible hope for a relatively cheerful life in a good home is for it to luck across one of the relatively smallish number of very experienced horse folk who make a hobby of fixing up ruined nutcases. The vast majority of horses ruined by well-intentioned very-loving novices DO NOT get that lucky, and are branded rogues or go thru home after home in a downward spiral that almost invariably involves neglect and abuse. Since slaughterhouses have closed in recent years I don't really know where such horses end up nowadays but I doubt it is any more pleasant than it used to be

This is a serious thing.

Anyhow... Brahampooter, I think your decision sounds wise... see if you can take lessons at a larger barn where they have a lot of different horses you could get some experience with (and tell them you *want* a diversity of lesson mounts, so you can learn more about horses in general rather than one or two horses in particular).

Hopefully that way you will come across people who can help you when you eventually get a youngster. You need someone you feel fully comfortable with, and get along with well personality-wise, and who has started a buncha youngsters where you can see some of them to see how they turn out. It doesn't sound like you have this available at the moment, and until you make those connections, the potential for a young horse getting outta control and messed up is LARGE.

Then if you do someday go shopping, you might consider a gelding (just because the s-e-x and heat cycle things don't complicate your life) (unless of course just the right filly happens to come along

), and try real hard to choose based on personality and tractability rather than cute eyes or a flashy paint job or whatever else

Get your experienced friend/trainer to come along and give an opinion, and ideally get it vetted (at least lungs, heart and eyes), and THEN maybe you'll be set to play with babies

Good luck,

Pat​

 

[BeardedChick]

20 is awfull old for riding, I sure wouldn't advise much for such an oldster.

Where do you get that information from???

There are lots of 20+ year old horses that are great trail horses still healthy and still doing 25-50 mile per day rides. I see it all the time in CTR and endurance.​

 

[patandchickens]

I don't think age has a whole lot to do with rideability.

I have a 20 yr old who's been retired for some years now (not everyone would have retired him so soon, but he was uncomfortable to the point of having no fun at all); OTOH I knew a 40 yr old horse who was still used for light lesson duty and competed in a pre-entry level horse trials (the one day version of three-day eventing, although in this the jumps were super low) at age 39.

Totally depends on the horse.


Pat

 

[BeardedChick]

Just for fun, my friend's 20 year old endurance gelding. Not sure if this was a 35 or 50 mile ride in Oct. This guy can fly.

 

[justduckie]

Quote:
Where do you get that information from???

There are lots of 20+ year old horses that are great trail horses still healthy and still doing 25-50 mile per day rides. I see it all the time in CTR and endurance.

I was thinking the same thing. My DIL rode my old 23+ year old gelding all summer in endurance rides (25 milers - Limited Distance) and he never placed lower than 8th......some of those had 30-40 horses entered! There is a 29 year old gelding I just read about that is still winning endurance AND CTR races.

My mare will be 10 this year and she is considered on the young side for endurance racing. Especially since you can't even DO a 50 mile until they are 5 years old. We have a young gelding that is 3, won't be 4 until August, that won't even have a saddle put on him for at least another 6 months, then ridden lightly for a year before we start training him for endurance........

Saying all that, backt to the original question.......10 years ago I was at an auction. I saw the most beautiful paint stud colt and I HAD to have him. Won the auction for $250. Brought him and his mother home - he was too young to bring by himself so we bought the mare, too. I knew very little about horses. We had horses but I really didn't do much with them. My husband always wanted horses so when we bought some land, we bought some horses.

Fast forward to now. He is the best riding horse! We sent him off to a trainer when he was 5. He came back and my son rode him in 4-H for a few years. Now I'm teaching him how to barrel race.

But we didn't do it all by ourselves. We made sure we had people to ask questions and get help if we needed it. He was broke by a professional trainer. My 3 year old will be broke by a pro, not us. My endurance mare was broke by the same trainer that will be training my baby. She's wonderful, I trust her and I always get honest, good advice from her after she is done with the initial training. Before we take a horse to her, we make sure the ground manners are well taught. That takes time and patience. And you get stepped on and pushed around and yes, sometimes you get knocked down. So you get back up and you keep working with them.

I'm 48 years old. I've learned so much about horses ove the past 10 years, but the main thing I've learned is they are not people and they are not machines. They have personalities and they have bad dasy, just like us. But with patience and love and a lot of caution, you CAN raise a baby to be a good horse.

That's just my two cents worth........

 

[PortageGirl]

I got my information from experience and growing up with horses. I’m 52 years old, I've owned more than a few, worked for several trainers when I was young, all of them Class A competition quality shows, jumpers, Morgans, Arabians and a short time with a Standard bred trainer (but that was difficult on many levels for me, race tracks are not terribly good environments), I’ve worked in small stables too in order to pay for my own first horses keep till I had a place at home for him, and have given and received many a lesson and worked horses a lot… so yes, I've had a bit of experience.

I agree that yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but most 20 year old horses if not kept VERY fit (and I’m guessing Brahampooter’s haven’t been) all their lives need a fairly easy life and light riders. And you surely know that there is more meaning to the word 'light' when talking about horses than how many pounds they weigh. I’m not trying to offend here, but I’m trying to tailor what I say to Brahampooter’s circumstances.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Quote:
It's kind of a long story, but when I bought these 2 "beginner safe, kids horses" I was afraid of horses. As a child my fathers horse would roll over everytime he put me on it. (My boney butt I presume). But I got it in my head that horses hate me. My youngest daughter had an interest in horses and started riding lessons during high school. I started with her. I stopped soon after an incident that had the entire barn in panic and my daughter on the ground. She was fine...but then these tiny children in these lessons with me were jumping over things and smiling! I was really uncomfortable. So my daughter would be attending morrisville College and studying equine science and mgmt. Surely this is my backup support. Right? She switched majors her first month, perhaps knowing that there aren't many equine jobs in NY and she'd have to move.

Anyway...
I found these 2 horses that were supposedly begginner/kid safe. We saw the little girls ride them (inside) and pick their feet. I bought them with all their tack and the trailer.

They came home and we soon realized that one of them had western tack?? We took english lessons and had no clue how to tie those funky knots. The seller came to help us and we rode briefly around the paddock. The older horse was fine. The 11 yr old would bolt towards the barn.

The younger one was sold to me as an 11 yr old and the other was "16". The vets have aged him between 20 and 30ish. The old one is a perfect horse.

I worked on getting more comfortable on the ground with the younger horse. He ended up kicking me and running back to the barn.

The older one has health issues and may not be ridden again.

I am totally comfortable with them now and not afraid at all. I have a new riding area where they can't bolt to the barn and am looking forward to riding the 12 yr old in the spring. But not without the horse farmer friend here to ride him first. I know I'll have to do prep work with him first since he hasn't had a saddle in a year. But he's so good and I'm so glad I didn;t sell him a yr ago when everyone said I should.

Anyway, sorry this is long. Thanks for your input.
Cindy

 

[patandchickens]

On average, show horses -- especially A circuit type show horses, and this includes your "Arabs, Morgans" if they were show critters rather than, like, backyard or endurance or etc type horses -- burn out faster, soundnesswise and in some other respects. Partly because of the amount of work, partly because of the nature of the work, and partly because they tend to be mostly kept in stalls. (Longtime racehorses ditto only moreso.)

So I can see where if the bulk of your horse experiences is in serious show barns, you may think most horses become unrideable (for normal purposes) by 20.

That is not, however, the way horses are in *general*.

*In general* I'd say that a sensibly cared for horse, with no major conformation flaws or career-ending injuries, you are quite likely to get good serious work out of til 20 or so (typically - obviously there's a lot of variation), and quite often some reasonable amount of riding til 25 or the late 20s but you can't count on it, and if you have a horse still doing any sort of work whatsoever (and in fact still *alive*) after 30 it's a gift and he don't owe you nuthin' anymore

Interestingly, relatively short horses, like 15 hh and under, tend to stay sound for longer, stay in serious work for longer, and live longer than relatively tall horses (like 16.2 and up)


Pat

 

[PortageGirl]

I have had my share of good basic back yard horses thank you. My days of working with the show horses were long ago and far away, I'm not trying to justify myself to you, just please don't dismiss things people say. not going to spat any more with this though.

As I said, cases vary, and I was trying to pay attention to what Brahampooter wrote.

 

[Cara]

Our ranch horses have a somewhat limited working life due to the potential for injuries, but it's not unheard of to have a 20+ yr old ranch horse. With a more pampered life (but not too pampered), they can easily be rideable into their 20s. The large ranch horses are usually on a downhill slope by 12-15 though.