Question:

Hi,
I just watched the zoom link session on your colt starting in Maine.[EBH Virtual Clinic October 2022] I always enjoy the zooms sessions I have enrolled in, so thank you. I hope I didn’t miss this fact in the video, but I was wondering what the ages were of the colts/fillies that attended this session. I feel there are so many different opinions on what age a horse should be ridden, based on their skeletal development. I was just wondering what age you recommend starting to ride a young horse for both mental and physical maturity.
Thank you,
Carol via email

Answer from Martin:

Thank you for your question, Carol. To your first question, the horses we started in Maine were 2s and 3s I believe. There could have been some 4 year olds in the bunch but some had been saddled or even rode a minimal amount previously and just got a restart.

As to your other question,
What age I recommend starting young horses?
There are many different opinions as you stated because there are many different reasons.
Let me list some reason to start them early.
1. Their smaller size makes them easier to manhandle.
2. Their attention span is shorter which makes them become exhausted sooner.
3. You can find out what you have before putting as much investment into feeding and care.

Reasons to start later,
1. Their growth plates aren’t closed until they are six years old. Most of the more important ones are closed at four. This means less stress to joints.
2. They are more developed and can do more without stressing them mentally and physically.

And my opinion it’s not how old they are when you start riding them, it’s how much you ride them and what the weight ratio is. For example, we have 200+ pound men riding 800 pound two year olds 1 hour loping circles and working cattle six days a week all year long.
Then we have 100 pound exercise riders riding 1200 pound two year old in straight lines at speed.
In my grandfathers day he didn’t start anything until they were six years old and they didn’t have to worry about overworking them.

Personally, longevity is a big part of my program. I truly believe the older they are when we start working them, the older they  are when they quit working for us, and they can stay sound longer.
When I was a child we had a horse that worked as hard as any younger horses and stayed sound into his late 20s. He ran out on the range and wasn’t started until he was nine years old. And yet in the performance horse world today the majority of two-year-olds aren’t sound and by five they are out of commission.

I have put my 70 and 90 pound grandkids on my yearlings for maybe 15 minutes for some walk-trot and simple turns.
Typically I start mine at two with 15 to 45 minute rides, for 3 to 10 rides. Then turn them out for 6 to 12 months and do the same thing until they are four years old.

For me it’s more about the quality than the quantity of riding. I have seen plenty of horses under this type of program and by the time they were five years old would only have 30 to 60 rides on them and could do anything that horses in training with 30 months would be doing.
More rides may only mean more rides, not necessarily more knowledge.

Martin Black