Is your horse ready to start work under saddle?
If you are the owner of a young horse, you are surely impatiently awaiting the moment when you will be able to start work with it under saddle. This is not only a very exciting moment, but also a great responsibility. The beginnings of work under saddle have an enormous influence on how our horse will develop in the future and what our relationship with it will be. The training itself that we subject our horse to is very important, but no less important is choosing the right moment to start it. In this article we will help you determine whether your horse is already ready to start work under saddle and what you should check before you decide on this step.
Why is the choice of moment so important?
Work under saddle involves considerable strain for the horse, which is why you should be sure that your horse is ready for it both physically and mentally. We should therefore take into account two things:
- The physical maturity of our horse, and mainly its musculoskeletal system.
- The mental maturity of our horse, how it accepts new elements (bridle, saddle), whether it is able to focus on work with a human and how it reacts to external stimuli.
It is now standardly considered that most properly developing warmblood horses are ready to start work under saddle at about 3.5 – 4 years of age.
It must, however, be remembered that this is an individual matter and for each horse it may look a little different.
Starting work under saddle with a horse that is not physically prepared for it can cause irreversible changes in its skeletal system and make it much more prone to overload and injuries. On the other hand, requiring the acceptance of a rider by a horse that still has problems during groundwork will probably intensify its nervousness or resistance even more. So if we care about our horse being healthy for many years, and being trusting and willingly working with a human, sometimes it is worth waiting to start work until the moment when we are sure that we will not harm our future mount by this.
A horse’s physical maturity and work under saddle.
The skeletal system.
How quickly a horse becomes mature, and in particular its musculoskeletal system, depends on many factors, of which the most important are the breed and the conditions of rearing (feeding, movement, supplementation of deficiencies, etc.) and to a lesser extent sex. Bone growth takes place within the growth plates, also called growth cartilages. It is precisely their closure (i.e. mineralisation and the transformation of cartilage into bone) that indicates the end of the growth of a given bone. The process of ossification does not last the same for every bone, e.g. the pastern bone reaches the maximum of its length already around the 6th-7th month of the horse’s life, the pelvic bones “close” between the 3rd and 4th year of life, and the vertebrae (being the latest-ossifying part of the horse’s skeletal system) need as much as 6 years for this.
Excessive strain on a horse whose bones are still far from the end of growth can cause a disturbance (stopping) of growth, rickets or proneness to fractures. Although many people worry mainly about the limb bones, too much strain is even more dangerous for our horse’s back. It will then probably start to tense and stiffen the back muscles, making it impossible to work in relaxation or in self-carriage.
Although it is true that ponies and small horses and some breeds (in particular Thoroughbreds or those with a large infusion of it) ossify earlier, we must, however, remember that we will never be able to determine “by eye” the degree of ossification in our horse and that a tall height is not at all an indicator of it.
Despite the fact that there are certain hints that can suggest to us that our horse is still growing intensively (for example, so-called being croup-high, that is a situation where the hindquarters are visibly higher than the withers), only an X-ray examination carried out by a vet can give us a clear answer in this matter.
In addition to the degree of ossification, this type of examination will help us detect any problems (e.g. chips, cysts, weak navicular bones, etc.) and react in advance, and will give us certain hints about what to pay particular attention to during training.
The muscular system and condition.
Another important thing is our horse’s muscular system and its general condition. Even if the beginnings of work under saddle are short sessions, for a young horse’s body this is a considerable energy expenditure. If our horse is too thin, has weak muscles or is generally out of condition, we should first appropriately prepare it for increased physical effort. Many people believe that the best moment to start work with a horse is autumn, at the end of the pasture season (if our young horse has the possibility of staying in the pasture for most of the day). A horse that has “run itself out” will be calmer and more willing to cooperate, and its muscles better developed and stronger. However, even if our horse is in very good condition, it is worth preceding work under a rider with a few months or at least weeks of groundwork. This can be work on the lunge, the horse walker or walks in hand. All these things will help our horse strengthen the muscles and develop the appropriate balance, necessary for work under saddle.
The horse’s mental maturity.
A horse’s mental readiness for work under saddle is just as important as its physical development, although it may be even harder to assess objectively. First of all, you must remember that even horses of the same age can be at a completely different level of mental development. This depends on their upbringing and earlier experiences with humans, character and temperament. That is why patient and consistent groundwork, preceding work under saddle, is so important here. Only at the moment when the horse accepts the bit without a problem (here you will learn how to choose the right bit for a young horse), the saddle, the pressure of the girth and our presence and touch, can we think about starting work under saddle in a way that will be safe both for us and for our horse. It is certainly easier to work with a horse that has been accustomed from a foal to human presence, grooming procedures or various external stimuli (cars or agricultural machinery, other animals, noise). If, however, we come across a horse that has been acquainted with such things, we will have to devote more time to building an appropriate relationship before we start increasing our demands on it. If you are not sure whether your horse is already ready, try to answer a few questions for yourself:
- Is it calm during bridling, saddling and leading in hand?
- What are its reactions to new stimuli? Curiosity or rather flight?
- Are the reactions adequate to the type of stimulus or event (the horse may spook or jump away in reaction to a new thing or an unknown sound, but should not panic)?
- Does it quickly return to a normal state after a reaction/spook and allow itself to be calmed?
Who should work with a young horse?
Starting work with your young horse is something you are surely waiting for, especially if you have had it from a foal. Do not, however, let emotions take over rational thinking. Working with a young horse is a great responsibility and an occupation that requires a rider with appropriate skills and approach to horses. It is also essential to provide the right conditions so that the process itself is safe and as little stressful as possible for the horse. Sometimes it is better to entrust the backing of a young horse to a professional with appropriate experience than to do it yourself. This may involve an additional expense, but it is certainly something we should not save on and which will pay off in the future. We can send our horse to a training centre or find a person who will help us on site, which will allow us to get involved in the process and take an active part in it. So before you make a decision about who should work with your horse, consider whether:
- You have the appropriate skills to work with a young horse. Maybe you have once worked with a young horse under the eye of a trainer or took part in preparing a young horse for work under saddle. Can you cope with horses that buck, rear, spook, etc.?
- Do you have the appropriate conditions? At the beginning a lunge ring or round pen is very useful, or at least an arena where you will be able to work calmly with your horse.
- Do you have enough time? Working with a young horse requires regularity and a large investment of time. At the beginning these should be at least 3-4 well-planned sessions a week, which will help it settle into a routine.
- Do you have a helper with appropriate skills? Even very experienced riders do not usually start the backing of young horses alone. You will need a person to help (holding the horse, lungeing with you in the saddle, etc.) at least during the first few rides.
