Definitely an older, WELL MANNERED, horse. Enroll her in a good 4H horsemanship class if you can find one. Friends here lead the 4H horsemanship class and we often go over and watch the kids. It's fun to watch and we can't believe what we learn at the same time the kids learn.
There are a million lessons to learn with horses, and we've got a long way to go, but we're trying hard.
Your granddaughter can enjoy her horse far more safely than she could waiting for a colt to grow up and be big enough and well trained enough to ride. A good older horse will have already learned his social skills and manners, while a young colt is easily ruined for life by inexperienced riders and trainers. Not to mention the dangers involved when a young horse and an inexperienced horseperson are combined. We have ridden all of our lives, but our friends have been kind enough to spend time teaching and explaining horse training to us over the past three years. We both look back now on the mistakes we've made with horses out of sheer ignorance and shudder. We thought we knew how to ride, but now realize we only knew how to saddle a horse and climb on its back.
There are few young horses that are safe enough for a new rider to enjoy. Out of the 5 well mannered horses we own, the 17 hand, 23 year old, gaited Saddlebred/Tennessee Walker gelding is still too much horse for an inexperienced rider - he still has power and heart, but his body's beginning to betray him; the 6 year old Saddlebred mare we just bought is a possibility, but needs more time in the saddle and to get used to a snaffle bit handled by an experienced rider; the 6 year old Arab is a blast to ride, and an excellent trail horse, has very good manners, but needs an experienced rider who knows how to handle him; the 5 year old Morgan is a born people horse and we've had young neighborhood kids on his bare back while he follows my husband around in the pasture; the Quarterhorse filly is going to be a wonderful horse and has a great disposition but is too young to be ridden for a couple of years yet. And, you know, as much as we've managed to learn the past few years, we're not going to attempt to train that filly ourselves. I'm going to build a website for our friends and they will train the filly for us.
> Nine year old granddaughter wants
> a horse.Would it be better to get
> her a colt to grow up with or get
> her an older horse? Thanks