How to Safely Condition Young Horses

From a mental and physical perspective, leaving a horse basically untouched until his third year is more harmful than maintaining a small steady routine of exercise all along. Nowadays, most vets agree that gentle exercise can be introduced to yearlings and continued until they are broke to ride. But a young horse’s regime does have special considerations. This means owners and trainers need to think outside the box in terms of what a daily training session might look like. It should not just be an abbreviated version of what older horses in the stable are doing. In addition to the number one rule that all youngsters should spend the majority of their time living outside in a pasture and moving around naturally, the basic principles for exercise are as follows:

• Brief but frequent sessions (i.e., 10-15 minute sessions daily, or a couple of these mini sessions per day three times per week);
• Focus on general movement, nothing sport-specific;
• Allow plenty of time to pause and process what they’re doing (and rest their tissues) during any session;
• Avoid skeletal concussion (this includes hard ground, repetitive circles or longing, jumps, and sharp turns or lateral exercises);
• Avoid exercises involving excessive speed and/or intensity;
• Do not restrict the neck in any particular frame. Allow the horse to find a neutral balance on his own, which ensures that the vertebrae at the base of his neck, which are still growing and forming in the early years, will not be compromised.

While you want to avoid the concussive forces of jumping or raised poles, you do want to introduce your youngster to tasks that require him to organize his body and adjust his foot placement. This builds neural pathways that will lead to higher athletic capability later on. With poles arranged in various positions on the ground, practice sequences of walking across, around, and between them. I like to spend a focused ten-minute walk-only session a couple of times per week. As the horse grows and develops, some days he will seem much more coordinated than others and that is perfectly okay. If he initially seems apprehensive or trips over poles, make creative patterns wandering between and around them at first.