David Rumsey answers:
It’s important that young horses should feel happy in their work and never as if you’re having to make them do something. Remember, you want your horse to work with you because you’re a team. We ride horses because we love them and this means we never want to bully them into working for us.
Someone once gave me some great advice – if you can walk, trot and canter on your four-or five-year-old without being bucked off, you’re doing plenty!
One way to ensure your young horse isn’t working too much is to limit the length of your schooling sessions, so a focused 20-minute session is much better than 60 minutes of problems, especially because young horses lack the muscle mass and fitness to work for long periods and can easily become tired and confused.