Is jumping dangerous for a young horse?

[Petra]

I was just wondering how hard is jumping on young horses joints. I mean not riding her, just jumping accros something she may come accross to, like a ditch?

[elevenelevenxo]

My guess is it isn't the best for them - when a horse jumps, for a brief moment ALL of their bodyweight is placed on their front two legs. Young or old, that's a lot of pressure. And for a young horse with a growing body, I'm sure it's not the greatest....but as long as you're not training over lots of jumps, especially larger ones, I don't think it's a big issue.

Wild horses have to kind of leap up enbankments and such from time to time.....I don't think any real damage can come of it. :)

[WashingtonBay]

Young horses certainly rock and roll in pasture, and should! It's good for them. But any compulsory jumping should be really limited.

[zoel_222]

Hopping over a couple "jumps" like 1 foot every now and then is fine. But running a young horse over jumps like 10 or 12 times a day is not good. Keep it short, keep it limited and she'll be fine.

[Petra]

Thanks for all the answers.
Well to explain - I have no intention making her jump...if for nothing else, I'm not in that kind of shape. We do everything together, I don't mind running with her, but jumping is little too much for me; I'm not a horse lol.
Anyways, we went for a walk and I'm trying to desensitize her to whatever is available. There was this ditch between the road and the field. So I figured I'll see if I can get her walk through it. She got glued to the ground at first, but when she has seen me walk through it didn't take much to make her follow me.
As I wanted to get back on the road I wasn't bothered to walk through and I just jumped. I figured she'll walk through the same way as she did the first time, but I guess her little head decided she can do it too if I can. We did this 4 more times. She seemed to enjoy it a lot, which surprised me. (I didn't think jumping across a ditch can be so much fun for a horse.) As soon as she jumped she was all ready to turn and try again. I didn't let her jump more than 4 times, because I wasn't sure if it could hurt her joints.
We went through this ditch with Trigger and with Sydney - none of them ever attempted to jump it, they walked the steep way down and than climbed back up - and did it as carefully and slow as they could.

[Petra]

Young horses certainly rock and roll in pasture, and should! It's good for them. But any compulsory jumping should be really limited.

Lol, I didn't think of that...this was nothing compared to her performance in the pasture. Sometimes she is totally nuts - few days ago I froze - she was kicking around so high she almost kicked Sydney in the head.

[elevenelevenxo]

She sounds like a cutie....and a total sweetheart! Not to mention one heck of a future trail horse. :)

[Petra]

Thanks! She is my favorite out of our horses. I think she will be a lot of fun to ride one day.

[zoel_222]

She sounds like a cutie....and a total sweetheart! Not to mention one heck of a future trail horse. :)

Yep. Sounds like you're going to have one solid horse when she grows up.

What you're doing with her is absolutely fine :)

[outriding01]

I'd say it's not a big deal. She's going to put more stress on her joints than that just bucking and letting loose in the pasture. The problems start when you add weight to their back, saddle, rider, etc. Hopping across a ditch while being led should be just fine.

[quest]

I would say it depends how old the horse is. Jumping is strenuous with or without a rider (much more so than jumping) and I wouldn't jump a horse on the lungeline until atleast three (small jumps) or free jump maybe a little early (small jumps)

[Petra]

She is 19 months and I don't lounge her at all. We jumped accross the ditch. Really I didn't think of it until WB pointed it out - it was nothing compare to the crazy jumpes she does by herself in the pasture. I didn't have a problem to jump, so I guess it really couldn't harm her.