# Boarding a yearling...



## oh vair oh (Mar 27, 2012)

So I'm looking for a place around Los Angeles to board a yearling colt and I was wondering what some people's opinions were on what type of boarding I should do.

The colt is very nice, he's intended for yearling lungeline and in-hand trail at the world APHA show. 

I have looked at an incredible ranch that I love, but the problem is that there is very little turn out. They have a lot of pipe pen stalls that range in size, some with partial cover, and the larger ones without, and they also have a proper barn with closed stalls. I was thinking he might like having one of the pipe stalls because they are larger and give him more room to see, but neighboring horses can reach over them and he's pretty unprotected from rain and wind (it's up in a canyon region). I'd like to put him in a proper stall, but I don't know how bored he'd get... He is my "fancy show horse", and I don't want him to get busted up, but on the same turn, I don't know if yearlings can stand to be turned out in a small pen for maybe a couple hours a day. Or maybe they can? Where he is now, he just stands in his pasture all day anyway, sleeping. He never runs around unless I make him - very, very low key.

A trainer suggested that I send him to a place to pasture board in the mountains with a bunch of other yearlings... Which I really don't know about. Since I work with him a little bit every day, I really need the round pen facilities and to be able to catch him. I also don't want to expose my horse to the elements...

Does anyone have any experience with show yearlings and keeping them safe and sane? Los Angeles is a terrible area to try and find decent pasture in, that's for sure.


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## Endiku (Dec 6, 2010)

What about a pasture for just him with a shed and acess to a stall when the weather is extremely poor? This would minimize chances of him getting chewed on by the other colts (they feed off of eachother and can get very rowdy) but he could still have enough room to exercise whenever he wants for as long as he wants. 

Its really not healthy for any horse to be stalled for almost the entire day, but it's even worse for a young or old horse because they really need to stretch their legs. It helps them grow strong, sturdy bones and good muscle tone- which will make him look very nice in the show ring. And after all, he's still a baby and he needs to act like one in order to mature mentally


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