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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
 
Location: SW MO | Thinking about buying my first yearling. What should I look for in a yearling? The filly I have my eye on is by a son of DTF and a DFC daughter. Anything I should keep my eye out for conformation wise? what about feeding, etc? the filly has had 30 days training and is halter broke and can do a trail course ( in hand). Is there anything I should keep in mind about facilities needed for the yearling? Would love to hear experiences with them since this would be my first |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 878
Location: "...way down south in the Everglades..." | Mzbradford - 2015-09-30 4:20 PM Thinking about buying my first yearling. What should I look for in a yearling? The filly I have my eye on is by a son of DTF and a DFC daughter. Anything I should keep my eye out for conformation wise? what about feeding, etc? the filly has had 30 days training and is halter broke and can do a trail course ( in hand). Is there anything I should keep in mind about facilities needed for the yearling? Would love to hear experiences with them since this would be my first
Fencing...mine decided she likes jumping fences and she hasn't quite managed to clear them yet so until I made some modifications she cut herself pretty good on the no climb wire. I think of yearlings like young children...if they can get into something, they will. I love the young ones though as it's a different challenge. Feed-wise, IMO, they will need about 60/80% of their body weight in a good forage. I think a good mix of quality grass with alfalfa hay is ideal. High quality grain that is balanced in nutrients such as calcium and formulated for growing horses with a higher fat content than you might get for an older horse.
I also think a round pen is an essential item for any of the young ones to aid in training both on the ground and eventually when you go to saddle them. I also try to limit stall time as much as possible to let them condition themselves naturally.
I'm not great on conformation so I'll let someone else chime in on that. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
 
Location: Oklahoma | I love yearlings... my favorite in fact. Good diet is essential. Mine get free choice bermuda and I feed alfalfa pellets and Blue Bonnet. I handle mine daily. We work on picking up feet, yielding our body, giving to pressure, etc. I also will work mine in a round pen. They get daily turnout too just to be a horse. I blanket mine. They are also on a worming and farrier schedule. |
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  Living on the edge of common sense
Posts: 24138
Location: Carpenter, WY | We don't do much...they stand tied, lead, pick up feet and learn to love grooming, trailer load and give to pressure and teach them to respect my space. They are turned out in pasture with a round bale of grass/alfalfa hay, mineral block and that's about it. I'm old and old school and not a big fan of supplementing as I like to see what genetics give us honestly but we don't show them and breed for performance. Say alot of prayers they don't get caught up in wire or banged up. I just love the young horses and working with them and think it is just so rewarding to watch them come along. Best of luck with your prospect!!
Edited by teehaha 2015-09-30 6:57 PM
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 Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | teehaha - 2015-09-30 6:53 PM
We don't do much...they stand tied, lead, pick up feet and learn to love grooming, trailer load and give to pressure and teach them to respect my space. They are turned out in pasture with a round bale of grass/alfalfa hay, mineral block and that's about it. I'm old and old school and not a big fan of supplementing as I like to see what genetics give us honestly but we don't show them and breed for performance. Say alot of prayers they don't get caught up in wire or banged up. I just love the young horses and working with them and think it is just so rewarding to watch them come along. Best of luck with your prospect!!
This ^
Let them be horses for the most part. I have mine in my herd of broodies. I handle them for maybe 10- 20 min a day: leading, picking up their feet, grooming and stand tied. Their herd will teach them manners and keep them in line/out of trouble I find. Mine get a bale of good timothy grass hay and a mineral/salt block. In the summer they are in 100 acres of pasture with a mineral/salt block. |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | ndiehl - 2015-09-30 6:33 PM teehaha - 2015-09-30 6:53 PM We don't do much...they stand tied, lead, pick up feet and learn to love grooming, trailer load and give to pressure and teach them to respect my space. They are turned out in pasture with a round bale of grass/alfalfa hay, mineral block and that's about it. I'm old and old school and not a big fan of supplementing as I like to see what genetics give us honestly but we don't show them and breed for performance. Say alot of prayers they don't get caught up in wire or banged up. I just love the young horses and working with them and think it is just so rewarding to watch them come along. Best of luck with your prospect!!
This ^ Let them be horses for the most part. I have mine in my herd of broodies. I handle them for maybe 10- 20 min a day: leading, picking up their feet, grooming and stand tied. Their herd will teach them manners and keep them in line/out of trouble I find. Mine get a bale of good timothy grass hay and a mineral/salt block. In the summer they are in 100 acres of pasture with a mineral/salt block.
I agree with both of the above. Sometimes I think we overthink the horse thing and we really just need to let horses be horses sometimes. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 618
| I manage a QH race horse farm. They are born in a pasture and raised in a pasture. As yearlings they stand tied, for farrier, bathe, load, lead, groom etc. They are on regular schedule with farrier. No stalling but have a nice loafing shed with kick wall. They have free choice Bermuda and get alfalfa 2x a day with their grain. This month we will get them ready to be broke for the track next month. It is my goal to make the transition as easy as possible for them because they ARE still babies. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | We make sure they can be handled (tie, bathe, load, farrier, lead, blanket) and have a feed designed to meet the nutritional needs of a young, growing body and otherwise just let them be horses in the pasture. I do stall just a bit around weaning time (a few hours a day) so they adjust enough to it that when they go to a trainer's they settle in well. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 456
Location: SW MO | I have a large pasture, a dry lot that can be divided in half with a lean to shelter, automatic waters. I just want to make sure before I do it that I have the right place for one. It has had 30 days handling at a trainer and can do a trail course (lead line). So maintaining it would be my biggest goal. It is 7 months old and I just want to make sure I cover my bases. I have a brood mare, and two barrel horses (another older mare and a gelding). I would probably make the brood mare its pasture buddy. what types of fencing do you have your yearlings around? |
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 The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | At only 7 months old, it is a WEANLING. :) There is a big difference between a weanling and a yearling or "long" yearling. (Which is what one born in 2014 would be called by many folks that this stage.) |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Dang 7 months old and been at the trainers. Definitely keep it with the broodmare. She will probably teach it the ropes since it may not know much about horse behavior. People keep them in all types of fencing. They tend to get hurt. If you have to keep it in wire fence or barb wire, run an electric fence on the inside. It will keep them safer.
One thing about them that I do know is to not baby one. Worst thing you can do. My wife breaks a lot of horses and would rather have one pulled right out of the pasture as a two year old than one raised in a pen and handled improperly (which is not that hard to do) by people. I imagine you would have less problems with the one you are getting. But, it's fairly easy to reverde. But raising them is fun!
Edited by Tdove 2015-10-02 1:26 PM
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