It is that time of year… Congress has come and gone, and the World Shows are upon us. It is the culmination of months and years of hard work for many horses, their owners and trainers. However, it is also that time of year when owners and trainers begin to evaluate and make plans for getting the coming 2 and 3-year-olds ready for the next show season.

If you own a young horse that you are thinking about sending out for training, it is your responsibility to make sure that horse is ready for the task at hand – both physically and mentally – before he starts his training career. If you are training a young horse, it is your responsibility to protect that horse physically and mentally as much as possible during the training process.

It is really important to remember that there is still a lot of growing to be done by a young horse. In essence, those coming two year olds are technically yearlings.

A good place to start is just to look at your long yearling – does he “look” like a mature horse? Many yearlings go through some pretty gangly and awkward stages while they are growing throughout the yearling year, and that can make it really hard for them to balance themselves and carry the weight of a rider. If the coming two “looks” like a mature horse, they are more likely to be able to physically undergo training.

Another key point is to take in consideration the birthdate of the young horse – horses born in January have 5 months of growth and maturity on a horse born in May. That difference in age makes a huge difference in body strength and mental maturity – a yearling born in May or later may be better suited to wait until his 2 year old summer or even later to be started.

Remember that growing horses have open growth plates at the ends of their long bones. These growth plates are the location where the bones grow in length and diameter. Growth plates in horses start to close from the ground level upwards – so the growth plates in the pasterns are the first to close, and on upward. The femur growth plates do not close until they are 4 to 4.5 years of age.

There is a lot of emphasis placed on worrying if “the knees are open”.  The term “open knees” refers to the growth plate at the distal end of the radius above the knee joint not being finished in growing. This happens at about 2.5 years of age.

Being mindful of open growth plates is important in protecting the long term soundness of the young horse by taking precautions to prevent soundness issues.

Such preventative measures, like front leg wraps, oral or injectable joint supplements and taking care to prevent repetitive joint strain with excessive use of small circles or hard turnarounds in young horses just starting their training can go a long way in preventing joint soundness problems.

Before sending off your young horse, a good physical exam by your vet, including a basic lameness evaluation to detect any abnormalities should be performed. Some owners and vets choose to x-ray the knees to see just how open they are, but know that if the horse is less than 2.5 years of age, they are still open. However, any suspect areas, like front feet, hocks or stifles can be imaged to see if there are any underlying problems or issues that would prevent the horse from training up comfortably .

A Coggins test should be done, and vaccines updated as necessary for the geographic area where the horse will be in training. Colts not destined for a breeding career should be gelded. Young horses also have very sharp points on their teeth where they have been erupting through the gums, as well as caps that may be impacted and need to come out. Also, having the wolf teeth removed. Having all these items taken care of before sending them out for training can save you valuable down time at the trainers if the horse needs to have time off to recover after these procedures.

Tanis MacDonald Walker, DVM graduated from the Atlantic Veterinary College on Prince Edward Island and currently practices both small animal emergency and equine medicine in Delaware. You can email her at tanis_macdonald@hotmail.com or visit her at www.drtanis.com. You can also write to her in care of InStride Edition.