Seven Hacks For Picking A Great Dressage Foal - Hack #7: Form Your Opinion At The Right Age

The prevalent myth that foals look their best at 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, and 3 years is not a hard, fast rule. I think it’s time to move on from that outdated

advice. With modern dressage breeding, we are seeing foals with long legs that aren’t ready to look at when 3 days old. Some foals are too weak at that age or their long legs haven’t straightened out yet from their time spent in the womb.

That said, every foal has its own growth/maturity timeline. The best time to get your first impression is when the foal is strong enough to handle itself with a degree of grace. That initial window of time can be different for each foal. 

But don’t wait too long to form your first strong impression. There is a period of time typically in the 2nd half of their first year of life that foals go through an unimpressive growth stage. Their hind end might be outgrowing their front end, making them look clumsy and downhill. They may have shed out their baby hair in patches. They may appear to have terrible toplines and appear to have low set necks. Their movement may be far from impressive at certain stages, and they may become thin, even with proper nutrition. 

But even the ugliest stages of growth eventually resolve. By the time foals are in their 3-year-old years, you can often (but not always) get a better picture of how they’ll turn out. When you get a first look at that 3 or 4 year old on the longe-line, wearing non-invasive side reins, you can get your first good look at the technique of the canter. 

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This post is the opinion of Steven Wolgemuth at the time of publication. If you have ideas you'd like to contribute to this article, a question, or even a disagreement, please share them with Steve. Together we make one another better.

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