Exercising/Training Two Year Olds

[Tremor]

I have a two year old gelding who I am going to show this spring/summer. Just for fun, you know.

I am kind of wondering what I can work with him on though, at such a young age.

Can I:

-Ground Drive?

-Ground Poles?

-Cavaletti Poles?

-Jump?

-Lounge?

Any other suggestions?

I don't want to do anything that would strain him at such a young age.

Thanks!

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

I would say ground driving, a few ground poles, and lunging should be fine. Keep the sessions short (30 min). I would wait for jumping, if you must do cavaletti wait till 2.5.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Free lunging- I shall never use a rein again, it makes the horse stiff in the neck. If you do not have, or have not access to, a round pen, make one out of hotwire- you will then need to use a rein but you do not get the automatic resistance that you get when free lunging.

You can use ground poles but only do so if there is a reason, ie muscle tone, head carriage etc, three is quite young enough to start all this otherwise. I will long rein for fun, but again, no bit, no blinders, two years olds are pretty silly, mentally, on the whole, you have the rest of his life, there is time enough for everything.

 

[jyuukai]

I lunged (lightly) ground drove (quite frequently but mostly at a walk) and used some ground poles on my mare when she was two. Honestly I started ground driving her from pasture to barn in her halter when she was a yearling, just to give her something to do, and she loved it!

When lunging her as an early-mid 2yo I did not allow her to canter on the lunge line, we did walk and trot only. I felt that she was too immature to have the balance required for a good canter on a circle and besides that, it was a bit much stress on her joints. Now that she will be 3 in April I have finally introduced short canter sessions (no more than say 6-10 strides) on the lunge line, and I'm glad I waited.

 

[KGminiaturehorses]

I have a two year old filly that I have been working and showing for the past year and a half. I started training her at 7 months and have since shown in 25+ shows. Even as she is still very young, she is a finished halter obstacle, showmanship, and halter horse. All before her second birthday. She was a little wild child when I first started her, but now she is the absolute BEST filly to show. We were able to take 1st/18 last month on an AMHA halter obstacle class at a show. I personally think that starting them young really helps out in the long run if you plan to do performance events with them. As for her workouts I do a bit of everything now. When I was just beginning, I would only work on one move per session, and keep working that same thing each session until she picked it up. Then I moved on to something else. I lunge my filly now at a light trot, as she knows what to do and is very relaxed doing it. We trot ground poles, do "courses" of them to help with hunter training down the road. She is also ground broke to drive. I had her teeth checked out and got the green light to begin light bit work. Now we ground drive everywhere! The possibilities are endless.