Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Horse Training Secrets - The Right Training Age

If you make a compilation about secrets on training young horses, you would end up with a book thicker than a dictionary. There was never any scarcity on tips about training young horses; and like opinions, most of these advice may never have been proven to be wrong or right. Really, these facts are important for horse trainers in their pursuit to develop a young horse's personality and physical characteristics.

For those who are beginning horse training, the sheer number of tips on training young horses can drive them to madness. The many principle and techniques that exist can be conflicting to each other; making the confusion more obvious. However, to really learn on training young horses, a person must be open to trying out diverse techniques by combining different horse training routines. For generations, the following are some of the most popular but effective training tips practiced by so many trainers for young horses.

Five years old is the average age that a horse can start training. Although horses are still very young at this age and therefore should not be trained strickly since at this age, a severe training program can harm their physical development. At this age, we should focus on letting the horse feel what it is like under the saddle.

Any horse training regimen depends on the breed of the horse that you are training. Like humans, horses have fast and slow learners. For example, the mountain horse, which can be trained under the saddle as early as two years of age. Or the Arabians, which are especially slow on their development; Therefore, at two years old, they can barely be trained for anything yet. Even under one breed, individual horses still have their own development rate; knowing this will make you able to change your horse training program accordingly.

Even though horses can start training at two or five years old, young horses should in no way experience a training program that is destined for fully-grown horses. Training sessions for younger horses must begin with fifteen to thirty minutes of training periods.

In the training of young horses, the training environment has a very important role. For example, deep layers of soft sand in the riding ring might not be a good idea for young horses as they will have to pull harder to move their feet out of the sand. Also, it could be stressful for a young horse's developing legs to train in an incline ground; therefore, it's better to use a level field.


Source: http://www.thecontentcorner.com/Article/Horse-Training-Secrets---The-Right-Training-Age/61302

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