How much time before the sale do you think they need to get used to them?

my consignor I worked for plated a month or so out, trimmed and replated just before the sale, but I guess it would depend on what condition the feet were in before.. prob. 8-10 weeks if not more.

Ours usually get them on right before the sale (sometime in that last week). They don't seem to require any time to get used to them.

Why do these yearlings need shoes for a sale? I assume they are being conditioned in some manner, but the answers suggest that the plates aren't being applied for that phase of training anyway, but just in time to be shown at the sale and go into ring. No barefoot freak here, no agenda, just curious if plating yearlings is by custom or need.

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"I'll lay me down and bleed a while, and then I'll rise and fight again." Sir Barton

Probably for look rather than function.

I would never do it if it wasn't expected (he only walks on grass). I'm also not down with leaving them in the barn all day so their coat doesn't get sunburned.

Mostly it's to keep their feet from getting sore at the sale. It's tough for yearlings that have spent the vast majority of their lives in pastures, on grass, to suddenly spend several days being walked back and forth a hundred times on peastone which is a hard, stinging, surface.

I never understand the objection to this. Sales prep happens during the hottest time of the year. All of our horses--mares and foals, riding horses, and yearlings--are in their stalls with fans, during the day in the summer. They go out at 4 pm and come in at 7 am--which is still 15 hours a day of turn-out. I'd rather have my horses be comfortable than standing outside in the hot sun and flies.

yearlings in full sale prep hardly go out anyway. They are normally hand walked, or put the eurociser for their daily routine and put back inside. This is normally done very early in the morning an/or late PM. It's kind of like the same schedule as a racehorse in training.

If you've ever seen a yearling at the sale. Quite a few are bouncey and jolly when they get there, yelling and carrying on..but by the end of Day 2 they are flat out SNORING in their stalls.

It is more excitement then they have seen up to that point. Briskly walking back and forth and standing hardly seems like a workout, but on Stonedust all day can take a toll on the hardest of legs.. especially the grooms!

I'm surprised to hear you say that. All of our yearlings that are being sales prepped are turned out--as I said above, 12-15 hours a day. Actually I don't know anyone who doesn't turn their yearlings out.

I'm curious...what would be the reason for keeping them in stalls? Aside from the mental health benefits of being outside, yearlings can also contribute to the conditioning process during turn-out. Plus, it just lets them "be horses" a little while longer.

Actually the worry, I think, is the nip, kick and play yearlings can engage in. Nothing like a rake of teeth to take hair off a strip to take $$$ off the price of a yearling at the sale.

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So Run for the Roses, as fast as you can.....

I get that. And certainly a serious injury would be a concern--but something like that is always a concern, right from the moment they're born. And yet they still get turned out. Missing hair? None of the horsemen who have looked at our yearlings at the sales have ever cared about the occasional scrape or a nip.

This picture always makes me laugh. I took it year before last in late June. The filly on the right was sold 2 weeks later at F-T July for six figures. The one on the left was sold a couple of weeks after that at the Saratoga sale, again six figures. Sure I would have wished that they weren't so rambunctious in the pasture. But bottom line, they're horses and that's what they do.

Love the pics Laurie - and thanks for showing us that sales prepped youngsters don't have to be hothouse flowers. Congrats on the nice sales, btw!

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Jessi P
330 383 1281
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Thanks Jessi! I'm glad you like the picture. Only one of those fillies was ours--the one being bitten, lol--but we were very pleased with her sale.

I saw tons of horses, very nice ones, and not so nice ones, wiht marks all over at the Sept. sale. It made no differrence at all in the prices