What are some fun things to do with a yearling?

I don't want to do anything that will get her too excited or put too much stress on her joints. Now all she knows is haltering and leading an she will let me touch/brush her everywhere and pick out her feet. What are some fun things I can do with her? Anything that would help with training her in a few years would be awesome. Thank you

"Anything that would help with training her in a few years would be awesome."A trainer who knows what they're doing.

desensitizing to "scary" things.Hand walk on the trail. SHORT lunge line/round pen sessionsloading and unloading from trailerTyingstanding when tied

parelli is always fun, and it builds trust with your horse.

There are all manners of things you can do with your yearling. :)First thing to remember is to never ever slack up on refreshers courses. Always keep her interested, paying attention, and learning! Work on the lead should always remain important, do it often, and don't let her get away with *any* bad habits on the lead.Desensitizing at this age is a good idea. Get her used to everything. There is no limit to the absurdities you can expose her to, but the more, the weirder, the better. The usuals of course are tarps, cones, bags, whips, clippers, etc. Horns, vehicles, general commotion, leaf blowers, weed eaters, just... everything! Don't be afraid to expose her to something. If you can think of it, you should do it. These exercises can be really fun for horses, especially young, curious horses that like to learn. My horses love to see new things and make friends with them.When desensitizing, go kind of slow. You won't know what your horse is skittish of until you try, and if you find your horse spooks at something then that'll give you something to work on. Your filly won't spook at every single thing you bring out to desensitize her to, but there's always the chance she may be terrified of something really stupid like bags. The first time I brought out a tarp for my boys they fell in love with it immediately, I didn't have to do desensitizing techniques at all. But when it came to umbrellas, it was a bit scary, because they could go from tiny sticks to gigantic elephants (and do umbrellas of all kinds of colors and patterns!).In the same vein, can she bathe? When spring/summer comes that will be something to work on as well. What about spray bottles? Can you put medication in her eyes or on her face? Can you handle her mouth easily and put tubes of wormer/medication in her mouth with ease? Think about all of the things you would do with an adult horse and begin getting her used to similar procedures and activities. If you ride English, there is nothing wrong with introducing one of these saddles to their back at this age and showing them the girth. If you use a weight tape then having a tightening around the girth is something they will be used to already, so tightening the girth to a small degree at this stage should ideally be no problem. I've saddled my long yearlings with ease, and they love the saddles a little too much...If you're absolutely sure she is good on a lead, take her for walks around the barn or your house (wherever she's living), let her get some worldly experience. There's nothing wrong either with trailering her to trails and getting her used to the real world, too. Walking isn't just great exercise, it is A great exercise -- it helps solidify your relationship and reinforce the trust each of you have for one another.The key though is to not move too fast! You have another (ideally) two years before real backing should begin so just imagine all of the time you've got to introduce new things and teach her how amazing learning and new things really are.(I do desensitizing at one year. Light lunging and ground driving at two. Backing at three, but no work. Walk/trot through four, and up from there. So there is tons of time to improve, teach, and learn.)

work on her ground manners it never hurts to get an early start, you can start to teach her the concepts of lunging on a lunge line do some desensitizing exercises and get her use to spooky things, and just spending a lot of time with her as well, you can read up on some natural horse man ship and try some stuff out with her, get her use to the trailer feed her in it work with loading, teach her to tie or ground tie, take everything slow with her have patience and always end on a good note, even its just taking her on a walk and making her behave on the lead, respect is the biggest thing you need to teach her show her she can trust you and respect you that you are in charge hope this helps some good luck!

You could do some ground work with her, teach her about space and respect. I do this with all of my horses every once and a while and they seem to enjoy the stimulation.Make her walk next to you at your shoulder like a good girl, then stop and say "whoa" or whatever your command is, and work with her on that till she can stop on a dime. Then ask her to back up first using the end of your lead on her shoulder as an aid, then just with your body language. Then start walking forward again. Keep stopping every once in a while, backing up, over and over. Also teach her to give way when you are turning towards her, and to follow when you turn away from her. She should always be within arms reach of you when you are working on the ground, not leading or lagging behind you. These exercises will teach her to respect your space and to listen to your body language. Eventually, you should be able to do it all without even holding on to the lead line.The more you can get her to listen to your body language, the better off you will be down the road.

You could do many things to prepare her for being broken like mouthing or lunging with/without a roller. I have a friesian yearling colt and we do parelli and natural horsemanship together witch is a lot of fun and amazing watching a horse that does it with someone we have lots of fun and heobeyss me better i can walk him around the yard without a head collarr orlead rope he just follows me it's fun and makes them better horses xx

I would work on desensitizing. Make lots of noises, make her cross every thing and any thing water, tarps, bridges, mud,etc.Rub plastic bags on her and shake them all over the place. swing your lead rope beside her and rub it over her body sorda like your smacking her only not really your just letting it fall on her.Do a few rough things like small tug on her ears and tail, of course while standing off to the side. This is just in case a kid or some one who doesn't know much gets a little to rough with her. The ear thing helps for people who struggle to put on a bridle or halter when they are first learning since they tend to catch the ears.You could imitate her getting her hooves done by tapping on them and suchjust a few ideas

There are a lot of great suggestions out there but one that is missing is getting her used to being lead off another horse and possibly off of a pickup tailgate. Have used both these methods more than once in showgrounds parking lots and a time or two on trails when necessary.