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Is a three year old horse to young to begin training to jump2007-11-24 21:17:52

I have started a 3 year old Paint gelding (Davy Jones) undersaddle. I'd like to train him for jumping. His around 15.0 hands but still has a bit of growing to do. I'd like some other opinions because I dont want to really jump him until his joints fuse to avoid problems in the future. Right now I have him trotting over ground poles and such but would it be bad if I started him over jumps that were under 2 foot? Probobly not even that high?

Answers:

I'd wait at least another year, maybe more. Consult with your vet to see how your boy is maturing, since each horse is different. You don't want that kind of wear and tear on joints that aren't even done growing, to say nothing about being fused. I'm sure there's plenty to do on the ground still, and you can get a lot of mileage on ground poles. It's not worth cutting his future career short just for a quick bit of satisfaction now. Something we have done with the babies is do 'baby courses', which are nothing more then well decorated ground poles set up in a course. They get used to the flowers and other filler without the wear and tear on the joints. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

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I'd stick with the ground poles and wait for his joints to fuse. Even little jumps put a LOT of pressure on open knees. Please wait, you will not regret it.

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Well, it depends how well of a job training you've donw for one thing.