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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
   
Location: Texas | Here is my 2YO finally on the pattern. I think he's going to be nice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzpz8ew1Ug |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | really? lots of people i know have their 2YOs trotting the barrels right now. Actually, I know of more loping the pattern.
He sees the pattern maybe once a week, and gets maybe 3 rides a week. I think he's fine.
Edited by casualdust07 2015-11-26 11:55 AM
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I Am a Snake Killer
Posts: 1927
 
Location: Golden Gulf Coast of Texas | Looks nice! I see nothing wrong with getting them patterned at that age. Also, if you have any futurity aspirations you have to get them going young. Yours looks to be definitely broke enough. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | He looks really good! Certainly comfortable, confident and more than broke enough. Great job and nice horse! |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | Thanks, I was scratching my head because I've been watching other futurity tracked 2YOs and thought mine was behind because they are more patterned than he is. I don't ride him very hard or very long.. maybe 20-30 minutes 3 times a week like I said. I made sure he breaks at the poll, moves off my leg, stops and backs, knows how to tip his nose when i pick him up and knows how to come around with a little outside rein and leg pressure. He's still working on loping circles so he won't lope around a barrel for a long time. I mean if this colt breaks a sweat its a hard day for him LOL. Some days we just walk around for half an hour and watch the lesson kids do pattern work. I consider it practice handling a race atmosphere with 6 kids working the barrels and poles in an arena... he just stands and watches. |
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Veteran
Posts: 147
| Different strokes for different folks Lauren - don't worry about those who disagree.
Edited by fabulous2006 2015-11-26 12:25 PM
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | casualdust07 - 2015-11-26 12:21 PM
Thanks, I was scratching my head because I've been watching other futurity tracked 2YOs and thought mine was behind because they are more patterned than he is. I don't ride him very hard or very long.. maybe 20-30 minutes 3 times a week like I said. I made sure he breaks at the poll, moves off my leg, stops and backs, knows how to tip his nose when i pick him up and knows how to come around with a little outside rein and leg pressure. He's still working on loping circles so he won't lope around a barrel for a long time. I mean if this colt breaks a sweat its a hard day for him LOL. Some days we just walk around for half an hour and watch the lesson kids do pattern work. I consider it practice handling a race atmosphere with 6 kids working the barrels and poles in an arena... he just stands and watches.
To be honest, whether or not a 2 yr old is behind at this time of year is only dictated by the program that they're in. Those trainers that have a crop heading to the Juvi need to have those 2's cruising through a set now. They're going to be turned out for a bit, or at least not have that trainer on them while they focus on campaigning their horses for the early part of 2016. You don't have to be in as big a hurry and continuing on with a lighter program where he gets these lower pressure rides more consistently will serve him better in the long run. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | I train for them to have long careers too. I would never raise a horse to be useful for two years then quit. There's plenty of horses out there who raced as 2 and 3 YOs, then went into barrel training, and ran into their teens and 20s. Most of the horses we (my sister and I) run are teenaged horses who have run since they were 4. The horse I have with the MOST soundness issues is the one who barely ran barrels until I bought her.
I can guarantee you what I am doing on him as a 2 YO is not demanding work. And research has proven that training at early ages helps bone remodeling in the future, that horses don't get as much benefit from if they are started 3 and later. Its called cortical remodeling. If i were running the barrels on him right now- that would be bad for him. But mild-moderate exercise to a 2 YO is not strenuous.
I also think theres a ton of horses out there who futuritied, stayed sound, and had long careers in open events and rodeos later. People forget about most of those horses after their futurity year unless they had a stellar derby year as well. Then they get sold to different people and go down into other areas in our sport. youth rodeo horses, high school horses, weekend jackpot horses... some make pro rodeo horses.. some don't hold up. But there's always going to be barrel horses that don't hold up. The ones of mine that have had career ending injuries weren't futuritied either!!
I have found several of my friends who didnt even know the horse they bought futuritied when they were young. I found them while researching other horses and recognized their registered names..
Edited by casualdust07 2015-11-26 5:34 PM
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | FLITASTIC - 2015-11-26 2:17 PM
Out here all our futurities are 5 yo. Lol but I was thinking more joints. I don't train to have them ready for futurities. I want them to last and have long careers. Was just thinking wear and tear is all that's why I put LOls.
Now wait a minute.. I can't help but ask. Didn't you make a thread about running your 4 YO on previcox because of sore feet? I don't understand here. I'm lightly working my horse so that he is on schedule to run as a 4 Year old. Why is it okay for you to run your 4 YO, but I get flack for lightly starting mine so he's ready to run at 4 too? |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| casualdust07 - 2015-11-26 5:37 PM
FLITASTIC - 2015-11-26 2:17 PM
Out here all our futurities are 5 yo. Lol but I was thinking more joints. I don't train to have them ready for futurities. I want them to last and have long careers. Was just thinking wear and tear is all that's why I put LOls.
Now wait a minute.. I can't help but ask. Didn't you make a thread about running your 4 YO on previcox because of sore feet? I don't understand here. I'm lightly working my horse so that he is on schedule to run as a 4 Year old. Why is it okay for you to run your 4 YO, but I get flack for lightly starting mine so he's ready to run at 4 too?
I am not defending flit.
But there is research proving that early strenuous activity on colts even up to the age of 4 can have a negative impact on joints.
This is one of the long list of reasons why barrel horses have such hock problems.
Each person to their own, you are in vet school, you have access to the most current peer reviewed scholarly research, you can gather the information and do what you want with it.
Also horses on the track are fed to grow fast and even some are given growth hormones to promote early maturity. It also depends on what your program looks like nutrition wise as this can prevent some of the issues.
To say that the one horse who broke down was the only one who wasn't started at an early age, is a poor defence. To support your claim (starting horses young has no long term ill effects) by using the horse who broke down, you need to look at all the variables, nutrition especially within the first two years, any traumatic injuries (kicks, cuts, etc) any treatments, regular farrier work since birth (spoke to one vet who educated me on the large amount of foals under the age of 2 months that have lamanitic episodes), training regime (was this horse rode on hard ground for hours on end (concussion injuries). There are more variables then I can list that contribute to whether a horse will break down long term or not. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | I think the deal here is that many of us have really come to hate hearing folks say "I want my horses to be around for the long haul" as a way of intimating that those who do start horses in time to have them on track for the futurities don't care about their animals. It's bull *%$! to say that those who are prepping 2 and 3 yr olds for the futurities don't care what happens to them afterward. There are far too many trainers who have started, won with and continued on with horses that they have ridden to success at Futurities, Derbies and then gone on to rodeo on to make such blanket statements. It would be about the same as me saying that anyone who doesn't start their colts as 2 or 3 year olds are all a bunch of Natural Horsemanship nitwits who take until a horse is 10 to get it to trot a decent circle. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
| I will keep a long story short. I like to have my babies early like in February. They are broke as two year olds and ridden if I have time until January. They go to my trainer who really doesn't like the to know too much so she can train her way. She does not cram in a bunch of training in a short period of time. She is ready to go to the juvenile but it was my decision to hold her out of it. This horse has not been rushed but she was not started as a two year old and really was not ridden much as a two year old. I can't make a link on this tablet but if you go to YouTube and search for Mia at Marshall you can see how she was working two months ago. The point is you don't have to start them as two year olds to have them ready to go.
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | No, you don't have to. But the entire point I'm trying to make is, he's not being pushed hard. He's had maybe 40 rides in his life over the 6 months I've had him under saddle. And I will stand by that I don't think its wrong to break a horse at two years old. And I don't think its wrong to trot a barrel pattern on one either.
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | Heck, at this point, he's not even really trotting a barrel pattern! He's trotting a few straight lines that are connected by a couple of circles at the ends, which just happen to have barrels in the middle of them... |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 382
| I'm so jealous of your horses!!  |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25352
Location: Bastrop, Texas | Nice colt...great job! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| I just ride them at 2 do lots of circles get lots of basics then when you start them late summer as three year olds they have all the moves down and it's less stressful on them and me it is all personal preference i don't mind if someone else wants to work barrels at 2 to each is there own. My four year old i bought he wasn't even started until three and he is doing as well as a lot of Colts his age he is very mature mentally and physically |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | Oh for crying out loud, did anyone making critical comments even watch the video? The horse is trotting the barrel pattern using correct, larger type circles around the barrels. He's not even loping!
The OP is in vet school and is obviously not over-working this horse.
It just makes me scratch my head that people lose their mind over a 2 yo (3 in 2 months mind you) TROT a pattern for fear they will break down, yet some of those same folks have no issues going out and buying one of the track.
Sigh.
Anyway.... very nice job with this colt. He's a nice horse with a great start on him! He looks very confident.  |
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BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25352
Location: Bastrop, Texas | What's funny is that Lauren probably weighs 100 lbs soaking wet and she's working that colt in nice, collected trot. People probably wouldn't be going apesh!t crazy if those evil barrels weren't there. I bet anything when she turns that colt out he runs off 9-0 bucking and farting to beat hell, and he probably does that sort of thing multiple times a day.....but put a tiny, gentle rider on him and people are like, "Oh my God......his tendons are going to bow, his knees will be destroyed, and his legs are going to snap!"
Now, if this young Vet would have waited a month or so and posted the same thread as a "3 year old", it would have been ho hum. I sense there's a little jealousy here, on the part of some. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| I deleted both of my previous posts because they were both way misinterpreted. Probably cause it's hard to really convey meaning with a keyboard face to face. My comments were not meant to criticize.
I used laugh out loud symbols to kind of convey that but it didn't work. As for running the 4 year old on previcox for sore feet. I absolutely did make that post. And i did that after consulting my farrier and my vet. It's all good and my posts are removed. And no, I am far from being jealous.
Edited by FLITASTIC 2015-11-27 10:08 AM
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 Best of the Badlands
Location: You never know where I will show up...... | Looks like a nice colt to me.
I don't think lightly working one on barrels is any worse than the ranch work that we do on our young ones here. Looks like a big, strong colt, and I know that you are tiny!
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | Very nice work. I personally am afraid to ride one when they are two and prefer they be broken at 3 instead and turned out that winter and brought back in spring as a four year old. BUT this is not hard riding that you are doing and I don't partake in the futurities simply because I've never had the opportunity. However, If I did have one eligible I may consider breaking at two. 
You are not asking him for anything more than the basics and I applaud you for your hard work WHILE IN SCHOOL. Wow. Takes dedication. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
| First word that came to my mind was beefcake. He looks more than capable to handle what you are asking of him.
Certainly there are some immature, fragile looking 2yos that have no business being ridden hard, that is absolutely not what I see from that video. Big strong colt and an easy work out. |
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 Expert
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Location: Gainesville, TX | Y'all are looking good! |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Your dog sounds like a seal |
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2YOs