What is important to keep in mind when acquiring a young horse?

It’s crucial to put a lot of thought into acquiring a young horse—not just for your own sake, but just as much for the horse's sake. It requires a lot of responsibility because you’re not only developing and training the riding aspect, but everything else around the horse to create a well-rounded and harmonious animal. From learning to be led, to working with the farrier, loading into a trailer, to getting used to new environments, it’s important to set aside time for all these aspects and have the energy to deal with challenges as they arise in your busy daily life. An older horse is better able to "handle" mistakes or overlook things because it (hopefully) has many positive experiences under its belt and has been told enough times what our rules and boundaries are that it’s ingrained. A young horse needs to be guided all the time. It doesn’t necessarily step outside our boundaries on purpose, but simply doesn’t know any better. This is where consistency is key: correcting small things right away, so you don’t create unnecessary conflicts or confusion because you haven’t been clear enough yourself. It would be like driving a car but only trying to correct your course once you’ve gone off the road. It’s much harder to get back on track and potentially much more dangerous, but the responsibility lies with the driver, not the car.

In my opinion, the most important thing is to know yourself—both your strengths and weaknesses—and be realistic about your time and energy. What is your own temperament like? Would you have the patience to remain calm in a stressful situation where the young horse may get nervous and need support? Do you want to be a leader and take responsibility? Are you prepared to correct the small things that come up all the time (just like with children), or do you want a horse where you can relax and have a good ride because it already knows what’s expected? Can you stay in the moment with the horse and not focus on the 1,000 other things you need to do? The young horse is incredibly receptive to everything around it, so it’s important to be aware of the body language and mood you’re projecting.

You also need to be aware that things will go up and down, and there can be many reasons for this. A young horse doesn’t necessarily follow a straightforward upward curve. The real problem is rarely where it manifests. The horse’s body is constantly developing, which can create challenges along the way if you're not paying attention. For example, the horse may have been fine with the saddle and girth for a long time, but then it starts growing from behind, which could create tension in the front, and suddenly you may have a horse reacting to the saddle, not because it's being difficult, but because everything hurts or is tight. Similarly, a horse may have been fine with the bit, but suddenly struggles with it due to teething. These are all understandable issues, but if you’re not aware of them, you could create problems by staying too long in a situation, leading the horse to refuse or become stressed because it’s too much to handle. It’s also important to be aware of the signals you’re giving and what your goals are. You might have a lovely, cooperative horse, but if it experiences enough conflicting signals from you, it will become uncooperative and confused, and might even refuse to work or become dangerous. For example, you might ask the horse to move forward with the leg aids, but because it responded too strongly and you were surprised, you might pull too hard on the reins, inadvertently punishing it for something it did right—just too much of what you asked, which could be a sign of a good work ethic. If this happens repeatedly, the horse could become stressed, grab the bit and bolt, start kicking out at the leg aids, etc.

It’s important that you’re in good physical condition to help the young horse because, even if you're not riding for long periods, you need to be able to manage your signals and stay relaxed in your body without tension, so you’re more receptive to the horse’s responses and can quickly reward it when it does something right. Everything you do with a young horse matters.

You need to think about how you want the young horse to understand the signals you give in all areas of its life. Being clear about your goals will make it easier to break the process down into smaller, manageable parts, making everything understandable and achievable for the young horse. This means you can’t just do things the way you’ve always done them—you need to know why you're doing them while keeping the horse’s mentality and physical development in mind.

Working with young horses is fantastic, incredibly rewarding, and always a learning process. You should enjoy the journey and not just focus on the end goal, because otherwise, you might lose the joy in the process, and that applies to both you and the horse. It’s important to have skilled people around you who share your mindset about horses so you can trust them to guide you. And time—time is essential. Good things take time, but they’re worth it in the end, both for the horse and for yourself.