Horse and rider © Benkert

Training basics and training principles for young horses

Are you thinking about buying a young horse or do you already have a young horse at your side and don't know exactly when you want to start training?
Are you wondering if a young horse is the right thing for you and how to start with a young horse?
Do you want to train your young horse gently and lovingly and are you looking for the right way?
Do you ask yourself how early you have to break in and train or what is right and wrong when dealing with the young horse?

Start young horse right

If you have bought a young horse or foal and want to start riding quickly, it doesn't fit together.
Giving time to the young horse: A nice picture is always to imagine that you yourself are 3 years old.

You separate from your parents for the first time and come to the kindergarten. Everything is new and exciting. You are separated from your siblings and a stranger is waiting.
You come into rooms you have never seen before. Everything seems incredibly strange and big. You are excited and a little nervous. But instead of playing or making friends with the new rooms and playmates, a caregiver gives you a pencil and a math notebook and you have to solve mathematical equations within a few hours. If you don't do this right away, the supervisor will immediately scold you loudly or you will even get a slap on the fingers with a stick.
But this is exactly what happens to a matter of course with many young horses.

Species-appropriate breeding of young horses © Rubly

Far too many young horses are trained at kindergarten age and then have to learn and function very quickly. Apart from the fact that tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles are not yet "mature" enough to carry the human weight, this also does something to the horses' soul.
The comparison with kindergarten makes it quite clear - without wanting to humanize horses - what is demanded of two and three-year-old horses as a matter of course, while they are actually still children of horses.
But for many young horses, this is exactly what everyday life is like. For horses every small step with us humans means something. Therefore we should give patience and small steps to our horses in training. Especially when you have a young horse at your side.

When you want a horse:

that walks with you at your side with confidence and motivation
that old age is healthy and remains rideable for a long time
that has alert eyes and shines with you
that gladly comes to you at the gate

... then you should give your young horse the time it needs to grow up healthy and also to develop the mental maturity to carry someone on his back.

Trusting approach of the rider to the horse © Benkert

Tips for a gentle training of young horses:

Find good and gentle trainers on site who will accompany you and look at your training from the outside every now and then
Always prepare everything very well on the ground and start early and very playful
Start riding at the age of 4 years at the earliest - so that the back, ligaments and bones can develop and strengthen to a certain extent
Allow yourself and your horse all the time in the world and especially walk at the pace of your horse
Approach everything playfully and without pressure of expectations
The way is the goal
Pay attention to good equipment and small-scale training

False statements about breaking in young horses:

Horses must be broken in early for their physical development
Horses are sufficiently developed at 3-4 years of age that we can sit on their backs.
Horses must be imprinted on the rider's aids, otherwise they will not learn them properly.
The will of the horses is too strong if they are older than 3 years when they are started.
Horses are trained on the lunge, because this allows them to get used to saddle and rider.

No Go’s:

If someone wants to tell you that you should lunge your horse on the lunging circle first like this, then with saddle, then with rider, then fire this trainer.
If someone tells you that you need instructors and auxiliary reins for training, then fire that trainer.
If someone tells you that you should start riding your horse at the age of 2 or 3 years, because otherwise it will be "stupid", then fire this trainer.

It might make sense, for example, to start riding at 5 or 6 years of age gently and slowly - depending on the breed, its stage of development and the individual physical development of the horse. You can start the ground work at the age of 1.5 to 2 years. Then, however, correspondingly short units and playfully designed.

The tip:

It is incredibly important, because a young horse learns to interact with people from the very beginning and to have fun doing so. If you start a horse with 5 or 6 to break in, then ground work is really helpful. We can't leave the horses like wild animals on the fields for 5 or 6 years and then want them to educate stress-free and friendly as a riding horse in short time. A relaxed and elaborate ground work is necessary to prepare the horse, so that the teamwork between horse and human gets usual.
Because every young horse got its own personality, there is not an only way to educate it. It is necessary to go into your horse individually.

Break in step by step

1. Start of the training
A foal should let itself be touched, let itself be stopped and let lift its hooves. This you can train playfully with the foal. First on the field, later in the barn. The necessity of a visit of the vet or a correction of the hooves is always possible. So the foals should be trained for that. But especially foals should be free to learn this playfully with treats, love, fun and curiosity - not with force or physical pressure.

2. Ground work
First ground work with 1,5 to 2 years:
Now you can start with ground work slowly. This means, first trainings in leading and serenity, leaded walks, let itself be tied up, let itself be groomed, apply a blanket and educating everything around daily life.
Ground work with muscle building at the age of approx. 3 years:
Now you can slowly start the ground work to build up muscles. Of course, always very short units first. Especially young horses cannot concentrate for such a long time. So 10 minutes can be really long.

Exploring the environment with the young horse © Benkert

3. The cavesson from now on
At the age of about 3.5 years he started to do gymnastics and muscle building on the cavesson.
4. With about 4 years
Now you can train the reins from the ground. For example, you can walk beside your horse and give the signals at neck level and practice. You can also practice stopping with a lot of praise. 5. With 5 yearsbr>You can practice climbing up. You can lean over your back from time to time and tap from both sides. At some point you can also climb up for a minute or two and then descend again. You can practice this for months and months in between, until you can let the horse run a few steps. This can be extended more and more until riding becomes a natural part of the routine.