Can An Old Horse Learn New Tricks?
livetoride44 asked:
I have a 16 year old pony that was only ever used for driving, so I’m wondering if it’s too late to teach him to jump small fences (2′ 6″ at the very most)? Does anyone have any tips for training older horses?
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all horses have the natural ability to jump, so yes, what you are trying to do can work. just take your time and don’t get frustrated! one plan that might help is to have your horse follow another horse over the jump, as horses like to be together.
well, he’s still technically a teenager in horse time. i have a 26 year old quarter horse and the main problem : PAIN. some older horses may suffer from arthritis in the front legs especially. so check with your vet and see what he recommends. after all, he is a specialist in your horse’s health
Yes. You can’t teach old cats and dogs new tricks, but horses are smarter. Yes, you can teach your pony to jump. It is their natural ability. It will just take a little bit of time, just like with any horse.
Start your pony over cavalettis and increase the height. If he responds to the cavalettis then I’d say give it a try. Be conscious of his age and don’t over do it. Jumping can be very hard on the legs and joints if the ground is not conducive to this type of activity.
If he is still sound and healthy, then you can try breaking him out. Since he has driving training, he should be pretty easy to train (he will already know the comands for different gaits, and how to move his body and stuff). It really depends on the individual horse with how easy they will be to train. Breaking a horse to ride is tough to do no matter how old they are, it can get harder when they are older, but you never know, your pony may already have been ridden at some point in his life (assuming you haven’t owned him his entire life). I would advise you to get a trainer out to help you with him. My only concern would be teaching him to jump at an older age. Ponies can stay sound a lot longer than horses, but by the time he is broke out and trained enough on the flat to be ready to jump, he may be on the old side for jumping. Jumping is really hard on a horses joints, if your pony’s soundness is at all questionable, I would not jump him.
Work with him like you would any other horse or pony that hasn’t been ridden, be very cautious and take things slowly. Since he is older and trained to drive he will know things that younger horses don’t so he will be easier to work with in that sense, but he will be more ingrained in his ways. Try and figure out what works with him, and use that to your advantage, you won’t be able to change the way he is used to beig worked with, but you should be able to teach him new things.