Originally Posted by
str
Q. remember you recently mentioned the difference a few months can make in development and I guess maybe maturity also (do some behave better with age relatively speaking ?)
A. If you think of it as a baby in March is just about 2 years old (24 months). Add 6 months to Sept. and you have increased the age by 25%. You have also increased the bone density in the legs and added muscle through training. All that adds up to a totally different horse from March to Sept. This goes for the mental side of things as well but only to a degree. Scared is still scared and they all have to learn from experience. And just like people, some more than others. Short answer though to behaving better is yes, probably about 25% on average but for a few, it's night and day and those are usually the ones you see in the winners circle quickly.
For the most part, the MSW horses you are looking at are more equipped mentally to act the way they have been shown quicker than the cheap ones are, but along with that goes the stubborn side as well. I mean, every class has a clown and horses are no different than people in that regard.
One of the coolest things about training a lot of horses was watching and understanding all the personalities. Probably miss that as much as anything when I think back to those times.
Good luck everybody. Should be a fun and enlightening thread.