Hi Shae,
What an exciting perspective, starting your young horse!

so let the horse find pleasure in cooperating with you in all fun things you do with him.

This way you create a willing partner and one day, maybe next year, you'll feel he's ready to carrry your weight. Maybe have a vet check his growth and readiness for being ridden.

Have fun, stay safe and please keep us posted on your progress!
Miriam 

Hi Shae. I agree, unless this is a thoroughbred please be aware that he will be physically too weak & mentally too immature to benefit from being ridden now. Ground work will strengthen him. I have 2 youngsters, homebreds, who were born 14 months part, from the same parents. They are so different from each other. Kirk is 14 months older than his little sister, Holy Moley. They have both given me challenges, different challenges. Often they have faced the same challenges on the same day & shown me very different reactions but with similar levels of trust. Kirk will be 4 on March 18th & I'm confident he will become a great partner for me - but no saddle yet ( read my post on 'Trust is a two way street' in horse behaviour ). Holy Moley is so very like Bella-la-Conoodler, her Mum, I'm very certain she will be a very willing partner. If you believe this horse is likely to be special then wait, let him mature & grow so he can be that very special individual. Cheers, Jo.

Hi Shae, I tend to agree with both above I have 4 horses which to me are all still babies & two are 1 1/2 yrs and two are 6mths old all of them are so different from the others,I have no plans of riding or training them for riding until they are at least 3yrs old. I will be concentrating on them learning their word cues and all of their ground work before I ever even get on them! Safer for them and safer for you!!  One also is a stallion which is already 16 hands high he also is big for his age but his bones will still be growing but that doesn't mean I should ride him now. They are all learning and growing for the next couple of years or 3. The best thing is to develop a relationship with your horse and make it one of partnership between the two of you. We had 3 horses before and have learned more from them along with their learning. Hope this helps,either way have fun!

Hi Shae;  I have foaled out 30 babies in my life time and raised them all to meet the expectations of the   interested public.    A balanced conformation and total soundness were a must for people to express interest in our horses.  Along with this came many hours of study and planning and learning how one body type effects another of a different type  when breeding horses.  A good part of that education came with me knowing how a horse matures [growth rate] and what happens when a horse matures earlier than expected.  This is what I learned about the physiology of bone growth and especially when the major bone plates come together with solidification as a horse matures.  The maturation of the bone plates in the joint areas begin in the lower extremities and migrate upward joint by joint as the months go by for the horse.  The very last plates that mature are located in two places in the anatomy of the horse.  One in the vertebral column of the back and the other is located in the neck  area.  When this happens is directly commensurate with the length of the back and the neck of the individual horse . In other words, the longer the back and neck, the more time is needed for the growth plates to be healed and solidified.  In most horses this come down to 5 to 7.5 years.  The problem is that this is the area that the human sits when riding the horse.
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The thorobred and the quarterhorses are used to the extreme at an age of 2 yrs old.  This has led to the alarming statistic that 6 out of 10 of these individuals are physically compromised by the time they are 5-6 yrs of age.
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I share this information with you with the hope that you will delay your plans to back your horse until eclipse has a few more years to mature.  I have bred a number of Arabian horses that reached 15-1 size during their yearling year, but no-way did I try to back them before they were 4yrs of age.
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I also am a professional farrier and have seen first hand what has happened when a horse is backed at too early of an age.  They have to deal with pain for the rest of their life.
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I hope this helps you with your decision

Sincerely   Bud

Hello Bud,
                 This is one thing I am sure of, that you do know what your talking about! Myself I have read and talked to many people,learnt many things off the internet as well as having a few horses too, and I still agree about waiting just as long as you can before you ever mount that horse is much better for that horse and will be best for us as well. So you say four yrs ,I am convinced now that it is better to wait until they are at least four yrs of age. If Shae hasn't been convinced of this I definitely am!! Thank-you for this info Bud!!  We must all want what is best for the horse!! I wish I could get ahold of a professional farrier here where I live,I have 4 horses that all should be trimmed in the next month some sooner. Thanks Again !!

Hello Shae
I wanted to point out, in addition to what has been already talked about, the reputation that the horse industry has for MISINFORMATION.   I know from a personal point of view when I started out with horses and my belief system about how to do certain things with horses.  Thoughts seemed to filter down from where ever and become a way of doing things with horses.  I now see that these thoughts were baseless and had very little to do with helping the horse to experience the world of humans with clarity and with the expectation of a good life.  This information led me into assumptions that were not the best thing for the horse:  ex. if the thoroughbred industry started race horse at 1.5 - 2 yrs. of age and they have all of that money behind these horses that they start, then I formed the thinking that it must be OK.  This is only one aspect of bogus information regarding the horse.  Unless, you as your horse`s keeper, are willing to go the extra step and find out what other folks might do, who could be farther down the line with their horse keeping skills, you will be at the mercy of your belief system which may or may not be in the best interest of your horse.  look carefully and ask questions
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.This forum is comprised of people, led by Monty, that have stood in the wake of the wind storm of misinformation about the horse industry They are horse by horse and person by person helping as spokespeople for the horse in hopes that each horse might have choice to get a better deal for living its life.  I personally regard this information as golden from each one of these folks.  We may not always agree, but one thing for sure, the horse is always considered to the up most.
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I wanted to finish my thought about the horses maturity and its anatomy in the back area.  When evaluating a horse as a candidate for riding, i look at the area where the saddle is placed as suspension bridge.  Measure from the wither [where it drops down into the spinal column] to the forward point of the hip.  Then measure from that point over the hip to its rearward point, where the back leg muscle starts.  The second measurement will, hopefully, be longer than the first measurement.  When this is so, the suspension bridge is stronger in the horse which affords the area of the back less of a chance to go south with pain.  Coupled with this is the core muscling that keeps everything in place.  When a two year old is started, the mature core muscling is usually not in place plus the vertebrae are not fused in their growth and that equals pain.
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.Then there is the emotional readiness of a two year old that is for sure questionable.  Miriam and Jo touched this eloquently.
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.I have coming four year old stallion that could be the best horse that we have ever bred.  You all talk about being anxious; even at my age I can hardly wait.  I him watch daily express the joy of life.  He plays alot with his boat bumpers and rubber jolly balls.  `So much fun to see them develop into the ballet of motion
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. Hope all is well

Bud

Shae,

I'm glad you came here before you started to ride your young horse. Now I am crossing my fingers for you taking the advice given already to heart.

I see no reason to repeat what has already been said, except to emphasize the importance of playing the waiting game with young horses. I know you are eager to get on his back, but you will have many more sound years out of him if you wait.

That said, may I suggest other stuff you and he can do? (All can be done in a Dually too!)
Keep in mind I have no idea what skills you already possess - then again, you can't have too much knowledge in any area! ;)

1. Sign up to learn how to long line (two lines). Work in the arena or go for long walks - great for training to cope with all the things you might meet outdoors, without the risk of falling off and bolting home, as well as learning lots of aids.

2. Find a hill, if you can, and walk up and down it for 30 min each week.

3. Build labyrinths and obstacle courses with poles and whatever you can find, and do lead or driving exercises over and between them. Great for coordination, balance and learning the turning aids.

4. Load him and go places where he can watch other horses or just go for a nice walk.

5. Look up agility tricks for horses and teach him a couple

6. Loose jumping if you have access to an arena with good footing and preferably other people who know what they are doing.

6. Take the driving a step further and learn how to hitch him to a cart. I do stress the word "learn" here! Find professionals who give good clinics or similar. Do not, unless you already are a professional, attempt to teach yourself and your 2 year old how to pull a cart!

7. Put the saddle and bridle on and ask someone to hoist you up every now and then, just to hang there and get him used to the feel. You can not do this exercise enough times before actually mounting.

Have a great time with your youngster!!! A year will just fly by, and taking that time to wait is well worth it!

Hello Shae. I have a welsh cob , I bought him just before he turned 2 years, I spent a year working fromthe  ground with him.
He was sent for training for a couple of months to a professional trainer, and now he is turning 4 years old this year and we are only now just starting riding, I can ride him at a walk so far and have to get this discipline down 100 % before going further.
I started Shilo in a rope halter and then bought a dually halter, he only has has a bit and bridle on in the past few months. The point is, please listen to what Miriam, Bud and the others write to you, they know what they are talking about. I have had somuch  good advice from this forum over the past year, these people are invaluable.
Don't rush it... believe me, I tried to rush it, and had a couple of nasty scrapes. Shilo and I have a fantastic bond which only has come with time, patience and lots of love, mistakes, ups and downs, tears and laughter, fears and doubts, success and failure.
One day at a time. 
Best of luck
Dionne , Denmark