Deciding on when to start a young horse in Training can a concern for many owners and riders.
Particularly when we have a horse like this one.....
We have a rising 5yo WB gelding by Danone who just didn't grow early on. At 3yo, he was just on 14hh. By 3.5yo, he was 14.2hh at the wither and 15.2hh at the rump. Then he stopped for a while. He just grew so weird and soooo slow. He's now 4 years and 9 months and starting to even out - the stick says his croup is now 16.1/2hh and his wither has caught up to 15.3hh. I generally like to wait until they're less down hill to begin work under saddle - else the movement becomes very straight legged and you run the risk of causing injury. To top it off, this little guy's knees haven't closed over and a dental assessment a month earlier said his head still has 1-2cm to grow. Ok, so at least he's going to grow a bit more..... but what does a specialist vet/chiro/acupunturist say about this horse and his likelihood of starting work under saddle soon.
We asked Dr Mark Curtis (BVSc(Hons) MACVSc CertVetAcup(IVAS) Grad Dip An Ch (RMIT)) for an assessment. Watch the video here:
Vet-Chiro Assessment of 4yo horse: https://youtu.be/ngzgJdKxR3w
more details about Dr Curtis and his work be found at: http://www.evac-vet.com.au