backing and turning away - necessary or not??

[connieD]

when a yongster has been backed i know often people 'turn them away' of give them a break for a bit.

i see this as a time for them to take on board what they have learnt and mature physically and mentally.

i am currently in the 'turn away' phase with my youngster.

i didnt back her until 4.5years as she is very immature. people at the yard keep telling me its not necessary to turn away as she is older.

i dont agree and wont be bringing her back into work yet for other reasons that prevent me doing so anyway

what are your thoughs, turn away/keep going - if turn away then how long for??

i dont have the facility to turn out 24hrs so i still have to bring my youngster in at night.

[puzzles]

it is absaloutely necessary. Horses need time to mature and digest what they have learnt, most of all to mature mentally as well as physically. failing to do so can cause problems later on as the horse struggles to cope with the work required, being still a toddler in relation to humans at that stage.
turning away is done for a few months (usually about 3); over the winter/summer for example.
the horse can still be learning thoughout this period - in that he can be becoming ever more socially adept in the herd situation, which is essential for a well mannered youngster who nows his place and the wills and ways of herd life. a youngster denied this will have problems adapting to other horses and, to be honets, won't know how to act like a horse.
bringing your horse in at night will be fine, so long that he is always turned out daily, in company and preferably with older horses and even others around his own age.
;isten to what others say but only use the advice that is revelant to you. you know your horses better than anyone else, so you know what is best for him.
well done so far, and good luck for the future with him!

xxxxxxx

[Marusenka]

I think it hugely depends upon the horse- one horse at my yard was backed late at 4, only turned away for a couple of weeks and has been in work ever since- he is now 10 and doing very well- he was just physically and mentally ready for work and gets bored very easily when doing nothing.

My little one on the other hand is rising 5- was backed and turned away and has just had another period of being turned away because he was just giving off signs of not coping so well, coupled with the awful weather over winter and no turn out for those on DIY! He has just come back into work and is doing really well but he will probably have another couple of weeks off soon to digest everything!

Only you can make the judgement about your horse and know whether she can cope or not or if she needs time off- never be afraid to give her as much time as she needs- a youngster at my yard has just had 6 months off and come back with such a different attitude it is amazing what some time off can do! If she is coming in at night anyway she is still getting plenty of attention and handling and will be learning lessons from this too.

[Mehitabel]

i think it is generally more of a mental benefit than physical, unless the horse is backed on the early side, or has a growth spurt suddenly. as puzzles said, thye need to digest everything, let it sink in and assimilate what they have learned - backing is a big learning curve, like a kid going to school for the first time, and if they didn't have holidays after the terms they'd soon be frazzled.

i think it very very rarely does any harm, and much more often than not does good, so i do tend to do it unless the backing process has been very drawn out. for instance, one pony i did was only worked at weekends (nobody else small enough to ride her, and i ws commuting at weekends from london to do her), and ont every weekend, so it took her 6 months from backing to cantering. we didn't turn her away because she had a whole week to think about each new thing, so didn't need it mentally, and was already nearly 5 so physically was fine. but as a rule, and especially if the backing was done intensively - sent away to be done, or fit into a summer holiday - i think it is either positively beneficial or at least does no harm.

[Skyhuntress]

I disagree. Having backed and helped back over 20 horses, we've only turned one back out and it was because he was just physically so unready that it wasn't worth the effort.

I find that if you are gentle, most horses actually LIKE having something else to do then sit out in the pasture. If you don't overload them and expect too many things at once, they handle being ridden just fine. I find that turning them back out just delays the training process unneccesarily.

[Libbyo]

those we have backed recently have all been turned away. when they came back they have all been better able to handle the work.

[connieD]

interesting to hear different opinions - anyone else? the majority here seem to agree with turning away

[SJ wanabe]

I think that it depends on the horse that you are backing and also the age of the horse, some horses may be ready to be backed, broken and put into work at 2, but we normally do it a stage at a time and turn horses away because once you put a horse into full work they stop growing so if they are backed at quite a young age and still have growing to do we usuall turn them away:)