Pedigree Query

many years ago when I worked on a large private farm it was common to see the long yearlings broke and going a little under saddle.

Whats everyones feeling on breaking and training of long yearlings?

depends on the horse, but that can be a great time, especially if once they are broke they are just turned out again to grow a little more.

gotta agree with Madelyn. I've done it both ways and when I waited til they were two, I wanted to kick myself.
If you get on a yearling, (I usually do mid to late June of the yearling year), and just teach them the basics, mounting from the ground, steering, forward motion off the leg, you will end up with a 2YO that doesn't bounce you sky high. At two they are so much bigger and are under the impression that life is great because there's no work involved. They're not real optimistic or open minded to now you want to make them work.
If you do it as a yearling, they're just coming off being handled and "worked" every day as a yearling. They haven't had a full year of turnout to play and get lazy. They're more apt to accept the work without balking and they're still a manageable size.

I usually spend from June til September with my yearlings, and before that, from April to June, in hand work under saddle, getting them used to the process of saddling, bitting up. Then - they go back out to grow up in the pasture.