I just wanted to see what other people thought. I personally wish we could push the age for Futurities back a year or two but I don%26#039;t think it will ever happen. Do you think one day it might? I don%26#039;t because of tradition and money. It%26#039;s always been this way so they won%26#039;t want to change it, and it would cost everyone too much money to push it back.
So what do y%26#039;all think?Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I think this is a reasonable, and you got some reasonable answers, even the ones that %26quot;don%26#039;t have a clue.%26quot; Like Melony (?) said, I am afraid that they will keep coming up with stuff for younger and younger horses. Lunge Line classes for example.....The advertised philosophy for this class was to give the young ones a break, to give owners and trainers something to do with them as yearlings rather than ride them. Instead, it has owners/trainers putting coming yearlings round and round and round in little circles. When two year old futurities were invented (well in the show pen, I know cutting futurities have been around longer), the claim was that it would give THESE horses a break, since you could two hand them, since they weren%26#039;t expected to be as broke as a regular junior horse. What a laugh, right? That is NOT what has happened.
I knew that cutting/WCH/reining horses had three year old futurities, but I guess I thought that a barrel futurity was a four year old event. Learn something new every day. Good luck.
As to advise??? You could consider shifting your training speciality to maybe youth? There is big money in youth riders, mommy and daddy dearest will pay dearly for their little darling to be happy, with a winning horse. A safe, more slowly started youth horse is worth his weight in gold. You might not want to buy those for resale, unless you bought them older, but it might give you a more stable base.
I%26#039;d argue the point....at least in the show pen world, and H/J...where do you think those big dollar horses (that are not stallions) end up? For example, and this is an extreme example, I admit....a WP mare, Vital Signs Are Good, just sold for a youth exhibitor for somewhere between 800K and 1.2 mil. I have heard both prices from reputable sources. Other than stallions, youth and ammy is where the big money seems to be. In the H/J circuit, 30K seems about average for a GOOD packer.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?i agree, young horses need time to adapt to their environment and the people that take care of them. People should remember that they are only babies, so starting them too early is going to be a waste of time. For a normal school horse or something like that, I think 3-4-5 is a good age to start them. However, the rules change for racehorses, since their careers are done by that time.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?i do ground work w/ my horses when they r 1. i start riding them @ 3. i have trained 2 horses @ age 4. it didnt make a diffrence. i think it helped becasue of the ground work. i think u should start ground work when they r 1 and ride them anytime after 2 1/2 yearsDo you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?Don%26#039;t do those classes? they have other classes for older horses ya know...Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I%26#039;ve always thought it a shame that the industry puts money ahead of the physical and mental well being of these beautiful animals. Would love to see the ages changed for a year or two later. But I doubt it will happen any time soon if ever.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I think the associations want to start horses earlier, because then the horse will excel early in life and when the horse is 5,6,7 then they will be the STAR of the show because of there age. They will have there show life earlier.
In the future, I think that the associations will actually try to even go earlier. Sorry. I think they will. Then someone important will say %26quot;what the heck! this is horrible for the horses look at the horses dying earlier and having problem when they are only 10 year old (exaggeration lol). Then they will be like oh yah there rite ok lets delay the horse starting!Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I hate it so much that we have to not only ride them so early but then compete on them at such an early age. I think Futurities should be at least for four year olds, if not older. I don%26#039;t see a problem with getting on a two year old, and riding it around the pen for ten minutes several times during the year, and then when they%26#039;re three taking them on a few actual rides. But to have a completely finished horse by the time it%26#039;s three? I don%26#039;t agree with that at all. It%26#039;s bad for the horse physically, and I think it%26#039;s bad for them mentally. For the first few years of their life they should be allowed to be a horse. Now I%26#039;m not saying they shouldn%26#039;t be trained at all, I%26#039;m also very against not doing anything with a horse until it%26#039;s four years or later. But you can start to train the horse and still let it have fun and be as natural as possible. Am I making sense? I kind of feel like I%26#039;m all over the place.
It%26#039;s nice in theory to say that horses owners should band together and petition the associations to move back Futurities and the age we are expected to break in a horse, but personally I can%26#039;t see that ever happening. You said it yourself, tradition and money. There%26#039;s enough people out there who don%26#039;t care about their horses and want to make as much money as they can as quickly as they can. So that leaves it so that the people who actually care about their horses have no choice but to endanger them. It just makes me sad to think of how far we%26#039;ve come in so many ways, and yet we can still treat horses as if they%26#039;re tools.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?In Europe, most young horse classes (ridden) state for 4 yrs old upward. This obviously does not apply to racehorses. Since a horse%26#039;s skeleton is not completely %26quot;finished%26quot; until at least the age of 4 -5 depending on type and breed, I never started competing my horses until they were 5. OK so I missed out on young horse classes - so what ? But my horses stayed healthier and didn%26#039;t develop joint problems at a youngish age as so many sports horses do these days. It is such a pity that money has to rule the sport.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I think they need to be started later too. But do they care about the horses? Nope. They just care about the money that they can make from them, so the younger they can start making money from the better.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?this question is asked every frekin week. if you don%26#039;t agree with it, then don%26#039;t do it. no one%26#039;s holding a gun to your head forcing you to %26quot;train%26quot; anything, and the majority of people do not show futurity horses. there are hundreds of competitions for open show horses.
and BTW, I%26#039;ve never had a problem turning down a two year old and not making enough money because of it. Maybe its you, or maybe you need to relocate.
i%26#039;m not arguing with you. i%26#039;m simply stating that if you actually have a problem with it, then either do something about it, or stop training horses. its fairly uncomplicated.
i just have one more thing to say, and the person that talked about training youth horses, that is a great idea. a youth horse will bring the highest cost always. and if you practice at it, you can really fine tune your training plan to fit the needs of a youth horse, and people will bring horses to you especially for that.
Futurities are for the highest quality horses. Horses with perfect minds and conformation, and that is why the stakes and purses are so high. the problem that is run into is when people try to take a horse that is not of the highest quality and make it into a futurity horse. Your job with these people is to be knowledgeable and realistic about the health of these horses. if the horse has cannon bones offset an inch, obviously you need to point that out and explain that yeah, he%26#039;ll never be a world class cutting horse.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I would LOVE to see it pushed up a few years, so at least horses start at 3(ridden, ground work should start, at least handling so the foal get%26#039;s used to it before weaning) and not be finished training at three.
Will it ever happen, probably not. People want money and results NOW not later. They also can%26#039;t see that the animal is still a %26quot;baby%26quot;.
In order for the rules to change, the people or the organizations(specially the higher ranking people) need to ban together and protest the rules. They need to take charge and show there horses after they have been ridden at 3, while protesting the current rules. They have enough evidence and proof about the matter. The thing holding them back? MONEY and RESULTS! People want those. So even if you get some people on the band wagon, I really don%26#039;t see those who abuse there horses through cruel training methods wanting to start there horses later, what difference does it make to them? Before horses are started later, you will see some of the proven torture I mean %26quot;training%26quot; methods for horses banned.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I agree, the Futurities need to be pushed back a year or two.
Or the breed associations need to put more emphasis and importance in Maturities rather than Futurities. I mean, you%26#039;re pretty much guaranteed to ge a better horse if you let it mature and take longer to train it. Rushing a young horse might get you a winner, but it doesn%26#039;t necessarily mean a better horse.Do you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?this is a very taboo subject.
Here in Ireland we start breaking at 3 or 4 usually and the horse is actively ridden and competeing at the age of 4 or 5. When done properly and professionaly I see nothing wrong whatsoever with this as longterm it is beneficial to the horse to be trained young - have the human interaction - and be taught how to encounter different things when younger - I find it stands to them later in life.
I have often been abused on this site for questions regarding my 4 year old horse jumping - only by Americans though, whom seem to think this is extremely cruel.. obviously they start horses later in life or something, but I dont think any culture should abuse another cultures way of doing things, particularly when Irish bred horses are the most sought after in the world for high level competitions.
There are of course cases where young horses might not be physically able for breaking, due to different circumstances, but a true professional would recognise this - which is why breaking and training is so necessary to be done by someone who does see a horses limitations and mental and physical limit.
I think theres always going to be people that have different opinions on this.. some will be for, some against, but so long as its done right, then I see no problem with younger horses being worked with.
xxDo you think the rules will ever change on how young to start horses?I don%26#039;t think it can ever change. Many many people will want it too, but realistically it can%26#039;t.
There will always be people just in it for the money who have no problem starting early and producing horses that will for sure break down later in life. As long as these people are around, those interested in improving breeds and producing quality horses will have to stick with these, as if they decide to start bringing them on later in life, they will miss valuable time that the money-makers will have on them. As you said, there are bills to pay for everyone and nowadays people cannot afford to keep horses out in pasture longer than the 2/3 years before bringing them on to sell. Private owners for sure may be able to, but as a whole I agree that it is a ideallic but unreachable goal
