Starting colts

Andre, Don’t feel bad we have one just like her in that sense. We started her in an open bridle and even the manure spreader didn’t faze her. She pulls good ,stands good, holds a load and drives single and double and has only been hitched about 15 times. Her younger brother is only a yearling and has the same traits. I guess we’ll have a good walking plow team in a couple years. The filly will work in our six horse plow hitch this year because she is an August filly and is 2 1/2. With six none of them will have to work too hard on a two bottom.

We just started our 19 month stud colt Dan on Sunday. I walked out in the pasture with a halter and rope, he came over and stuck his nose in the halter and followed me out to the hitch rail on a slack rope. We fit him with a collar and he stood there like a statue while I went to get his harness he will wear for all of his working life. I slid the harness on him fitted the hames and buckled the hamestrap. We worked our way around him adjusted the harness. As we got it fitted and put on his bridle we stepped back to see how he looked. He just looked back unconcerned. I said to my Dad, “I’ll go get your new single lines, you won’t be happy until you drive him”. Reply, “We might as well he’s all harnessed”. Dad drove him around for about 20 minutes he did have one small burst of energy and bucked once but then settled right in. Next time he’ll drag a fence post or two just to get the idea.
Dan’s sister Dixie our 3 yr old is just as laid back. In the past year she has took us for sleigh rides, raked and mowed hay,spread manure, plowed, cultivated, and cut corn for 3 days on a binder this fall. Her temperment is just like her brothers and by next year we should have a good quiet team of stocky blacks that should be about 16.2 1800# when mature. This is the easiest team we have trained in 20 years even though most haven’t been bad. We have had a couple that were difficult but they came around with a little work. I guess we’ll have no excitement here this winter so we’ll have to go help a friend train some colts this winter to get the adrenalin going and make the winter go faster.

Andre – as i understand it, you won’t know if you started them too young until later, when lameness shaves years from their working life. If you have other horses, why not wait til three yrs old at least to really get ’em working? They take to it so fast anyway if you’ve been with them all along doing ground work. I don’t think you’re gaining anything much by working them before this – unless of course you’re short on horsepower.

That’s a great one Jen, Thank You and Ted for sharing it. It is great how many things can be applicable to horses, humans and most animals, I wish more people would catch onto this.
Erika

@amanda07 5036 wrote:

At just three years, with all that bone growing still to do! Personally, and I’m feeling a little lonely here, I wouldn’t be asking for heavy work until five or six. physical and mental/attitude problems arise when we ask for too much too soon, just ask my mule!

Amanda, I felt much the way you do and I still do to a point. I would definately be careful about doing too much too soon with a youngster. BUT a youngster can learn alot about what is to be expected of them, by working (with little to no load…go back and read Carl’s post) being hitched next to a steady horse. If you go back and read the whole thread you will see that the youngsters spoken about are being handle and introduced to work right next to their mothers in many cases.

I had the opportunity to work with Mark Rashid 18 months ago and he encouraged me to bring out my then yearling belgian and start doing some exercises to get him ready for work. I was surprised at the time, but he really felt that starting younger is better, as these drafts get big fast. If you wait till they are 4 or 5 to put them to work, you lose some leverage if you need it (paraphrasing what he said). Obviously he was not recommending that have him pull a load at that age…just simulations…to make it easy later. I don’t have the advantage some of these guys have with generations of horses to help out with the youngsters…maybe some day:)

I agree that 3 is young for heavy work. I hitched mine starting very young, at first next to the mare who was hitched single, then with the evener adjusted so the big horse had most of the load, and then only on light work with wheeled vehicles, like spreading manure, plowing, mowing, and cultivating. By 4-5 he was a big well-developed horse that could get an increasing amount of the workload.

The main reason for starting them this young, in my mind, is to get them accustomed to not only the commands, and the routine, but also to managing their energy. I have started a few horses that were 4,5, and 6, before they were put to work, and they generally have so much energy that it takes a fair amount of time and experience for the teamster to get that energy focused. I know a lot of people who buy a young (6-8 years) team of “started” horses that turn out to have way too much energy for them. This is not entirely the horses fault, but also the fact that they have not been working long enough to have a sense of how to manage their energy when working. Starting a young horse in harness goes a long way toward this.

I watched Andre”s young horse this fall at NEAPFD, hitched in a four abreast set-up. While Andre’ drove the horses back to the barn, he stopped to answer a question for me. We were standing next to the Woodmizer sawmill exhibit, and as they started the saw up to cut a log the engine revved up, and the saw blade squealed, and that colt stood like a statue!!!

All in all though, as teamsters we need to be responsible for the physical expectations we place on our young horses.

Carl

My grandmother used to say “you already know that which you are about to say, this is why the the wise place their lips together and listen”. I have taken great pleasure
during our current bout of foul weather, reading the questions and thoughts of the members here. If I have misled readers into believing I think it’s bad to train young horses I apologise; nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps it’s the way I express myself and a slightly different vocabulary. If I may I’ll take this chance to explain my stance. I do belive that it is necessary to train horses from a young age; training being everything from handling to exercising that forms the horses’ apprentiship. Like you, I belive that this training develops the horses’ physical (and mental) potential and is essential for future strength and health; look at racehorses with those started as 4yr olds being twice as likely to sustain important injury than those who started racing as two year olds. However, the demands on the musculoskeletal system of heavy horses are different and the time to maturity longer.The influence of pull and push forces on ligaments etc; have the potential to interfere with solid bone deposit and may be associated with impeded growth and complex fractures in later life (tho’ I’ve no evidence, what about all that shoulder and hip arthritis we see in working horses?). I do not profess to to be any kind of expert. I do have a keen and current interest in learning from others and in understanding their beliefs. I’ve been doing what I do for over 40yrs now and welcome that “given” knowledge changes.??part of the work of sites like this one.Anyway, enough of what I think, and again sorry if I left youse feeling critised.
Thanks for listening, A