Young horse classes
How beneficial are young horse classes to a fledgling star’s dressage career and how do you know if your horse would benefit? Alice Collins investigates
Would your horse benefit?
THE cream of the crop at young horse finals always look like finished products; uphill, extravagant and responsive. But the execution of any test is only ever as good as the preparation, so how can you tell if that rough and ready four-year-old has the wow factor to excel in young horse classes — and just because you can do them, does that mean you should?
Young horse classes differ from normal tests most significantly in the way they are marked. The classes are designed to allow the judge to assess the horse’s future potential, and not to see how accurately they can perform a movement or transition at a particular marker. Scores are given for each pace, as well as overall impression and the horse’s ability to lengthen and collect within the paces — as opposed to the accuracy and obedience required in normal tests, where each movement receives a separate mark. If they impress on all these fronts, the horse should have the key ingredients needed to excel in top sport as they mature.
Seasoned young horse producer Rebecca Hughes knows her way blindfolded round these classes, though they aren’t for every horse, she points out.
“I love doing the young horse classes on some horses to give them exposure to big shows and acclimatise them to the competition environment without the pressure of having to be super-accurate in the arena; and a little moment of tension doesn’t actually matter,” she says.
While it’s a real boon to do well in young horse classes, for Rebecca and her husband Gareth, the vision for each horse is always long-term, with a view to crafting a grand prix horse. And not every horse is suited to these classes.
Gareth’s Rio long-listed ride Classic Briolinca was not a candidate for that stage.
“With Briolinca, we believed in her but chose to skip the young horse classes,” Rebecca explains. “She had a good walk, not a sensational walk, and her character was
unflappable already, so she didn’t need the exposure to the big show atmosphere.
“To win in those classes, the horses must have three really good paces. In a normal test, you only need a good walk — a seven of a walk — but in young horse classes, you need an exceptional walk.”
These classes have come in for some flack in the past by putting horses with gigantic paces — regardless of their ability to collect — above more modest-moving horses, when in all likelihood, the smaller-moving horse might be easier to train up through the levels.
Both Valegro and Farouche swept the board in young horse classes, and their exceptional paces have been nurtured by talented riders to take them up the levels. But huge paces can be hard to collect, and a massive, slinky, over-tracking walk can become lateral (losing its clear four-beat rhythm) in the wrong hands, which is disastrous for the marks both for that movement and in the collectives of normal tests. A huge trot may be nigh on impossible to balance, and a young horse with a gigantic canter can make even a 20x60m arena feel very tight indeed.
SO how do you know if you have the next young horse champion in your field or if he should be given more time to mature? Judith Davis of Hawtins Stud has plenty of experience of plucking out a muddy diamond. The exceptional, leggy Hawtins San Floriana was champion four-year-old in 2016 ridden by Bryony Goodwin, and repeated the feat in the five-year-old division a year later with Charlotte Dujardin. She is one of the few horses who have huge, loose paces and an active hindleg combined with the ability to remain balanced and expressive, despite her youth.
Judith agrees that not all young horses — even those carefully bred for the job — will be ready to compete in the young horse classes.
“At home, we’d look at the youngsters late in their three-year-old year,” says Judith. “We look at which ones will be ready; naturally balanced at a young age, physically well grown with some natural strength. It’ll typically be about two out of eight that we seriously campaign in age classes.”
There’s no need to feel glum if your horse isn’t ready; some are simply not suited or not extravagant enough to excel against the big movers.
“We breed for long-term — for grand prix ideally — and some youngsters are quite boring as four-year-olds but exciting by the time they’re six or seven,” adds Judith. “The classes are only a moment in time and, ultimately, we let the horse’s mental and physical development dictate whether they compete or not. For example, a gangly youngster often needs a lot more feed and work to be ready for a show, and we’d be reluctant to do that. Horses grow more at four than at any other ridden age, so we don’t want to put them under too much pressure.”
THE risk of unwarranted pressure is also of concern to rider and trainer John Bowen.
“I’m not sure it benefits young horses — especially four year olds — to be asked to move in the way that is rewarded with high marks,” he says.
“My opinion is perhaps old-fashioned — I was educated quite a long time ago when young horse classes didn’t exist — and we probably gave the horses more time to mature. I still do that.
“Young joints and soft tissue are very much still developing at four, and still even at six years old, especially with big-moving horses.”
John acknowledges the part that these classes can play in bolstering a young horse’s CV, particularly if it is on the market or earmarked for sale. These classes are a shop window and good placings boost asking prices.
“If I have a very nice young horse with no intention of selling, then I don’t do the young horse classes,” concludes John, “but I fully understand that it’s part of a business for a lot of people.”
Everyone familiar with age classes agrees on one thing: there is no hard and fast rule.
Ultimately, deciding whether competing in young horse classes will help or hinder a horse should always be made by sensitively assessing his training level, mindset, strength, attitude and aptitude. If they’re physically in the right place at the right time, then age classes can
‘If I have a very nice young horse with no intention of selling, then I don’t do the young horse classes, but I fully understand that it’s part of a business for a lot of people ’
JOHN BOWEN
be a fun, low-pressure outing for a budding young horse. Often the horse’s natural progression will dictate whether or not these classes are right for him.
If your horse isn’t ready, don’t panic. You may have a modest-moving horse who will blossom in later years, or a huge-moving youngster who can’t yet cope with his power. Either way, training shouldn’t be a relentless, tunnel-vision push for the next step, and skipping age classes certainly doesn’t mean it’s time to start drafting the for-sale ad quite yet.
‘Some youngsters are quite boring as fouryear-olds but exciting by the time they’re
six or seven’
JUDITH DAVIS OF HAWTINS STUD