Horse Training - What You Can Do With a Two or Three Year Old Horse

What type of training can you do with a two or three-year-old horse? What should you train it and how much handling should it get used to? Here's an overview of what you can expect when training and handling a two and three-year-old.

Learning to Be Ridden

For many horses, this is the age at which a horse starts learning to be ridden or driven. By now, it should have good ground manners, stand for the farrier and load on a trailer. It should be able to spend some time alone and be respectful of other horses. With all this in place, it may be time to slowly train a two-year-old to learn to hold a bit and carry a saddle. While some trainers believe it is acceptable to work a two-year-old under saddle, many believe that riding is best put off until the horse is more mature.

Many wait until a horse is up to four or five years old to begin training under saddle. During this time the horse is still growing although they may be approaching their full height.

Considerations

A two-year-old's joints will still be maturing and susceptible to overwork. While the skeletal maturity of the bones in the knees is considered a sign of physical maturity, it's worth considering that the musculoskeletal system throughout their bodies mature at different rates. While legs may be ready, hip and back may not. The horse owner ultimately decides how old a horse is before it goes to work.