Each
spring receive inquiries from people wanting to sell their current
inappropriate horse, and how they can find a better suited one. I could write a book on the things that
should be considered when buying a horse, but I'll leave it for now at the
below synopsis.
The
"ideal" safe, reasonable, sane, sound, fun, experienced, confident
and not-too-aged horse has become the most sought after horse. So they are
really, really hard to find. In a limited location such as north
Idaho, they are near impossible to find. I'm currently searching the
entire USA looking for two of them for clients of mine.
Horses
are not what they were 25 years ago; between backyard breeding and a lack of
quality exposure to a multitude of locations, activities, disciplines, riders,
etc. horses nowadays don't have the confidence and experience most things
pleasure riders will ask of them. Riders also have a limited skill set and
cannot positively support their horse through troubling or worrisome experiences.
It can become the blind leading the blind, which does not build confidence in
the partnership.
Is
it possible to find a great horse? Yes, but it requires a LOT of effort, research,
energy and time. Folks imposing a time pressure upon themselves when
buying a new horse leads to an inappropriate match. If the wrong horse is
purchased, there are new issues in both the daily handling of the horse and
then trying to re-sell it, often costing the person more money. Another factor
in people buying an inappropriate horse is by allowing their emotional
"hopefulness" to take over, versus believing what their initial
rational assessment of the horse is.
When
searching for a new horse, a person needs to "educate" themself on specific
questions to ask, and how to interpret what is or isn't being said by the
seller. Have a list of scenarios to expose the potential new horse to; this can
help assess his mental and emotional state in new situations. Unless
you're a "horse trainer" and this is your lifestyle, the horse's current
attitude, experience, emotional state, etc. TODAY needs to be the horse you
want. DO NOT maintain hopefulness that he will evolve into the horse you want
"someday, further down the road.
The
value of horses has dropped significantly and most "pleasure" horses
aren't worth much, but the well broke, happy horse is highly sought after, so
rarely will you find him under $4,000 US, because people realize they are worth
their weight in gold.
Pleasure
riders without the time, education, experience or clarity to independently help
an unfamiliar or newly bought troubled horse, can lead to dramatic and
sometimes dangerous
outcomes, inducing fear in the human for a very long time. I also warn folks
the most dangerous rides are often when trying out a new
horse. Always watch the owner first do EVERYTHING you might ask when
trying out the potential new horse.
As
for attempting to sell a difficult horse, if they don't have
exposure, miles, or enough "quality" traits, often the price has
to be low enough that whomever takes him on as a project horse, can justify the
amount of time and effort they will have to "invest" in him for him
to evolve into an ideal horse. The problem with pricing him low, is
that it brings two groups of unwanted buyers- the "horse poor" buyers
who are the ultimate hopeful horse folks who often lack the skills and
abilities and therefor can get hurt by a horse like that, if they fixate that
he needs "saving"- and then there's the kill buyers.
Putting
the word out to those who see and know a lot of people within the horse
community, vets and farriers are usually best, is a good place to
start. If in a remote location, it is hard for people to find
out about a horse. The problem with online horse sale listings is there are
many time wasters who will contact you. It can be an emotional
rollercoaster every time someone sounds "good" and then shows up and
turns out to be different than what they had implied in their knowledge,
abilities, etc. Remember people "hear" what they want
to. So even if you as the seller are morally and ethical honest and
direct and disclose all of the faults, flaws, etc. about the horse, as soon as
potential, hopeful, buyer sees a "pretty" horse, most of what you say
isn't "heard" because they are too busy falling in love with horse in
an ideal version of him in their head.
I
wish more equine professionals were really honest about all the effort it takes
to find a quality match in finding an equine partner, to prevent folks from
ending up with a less than ideal horse and learning the "hard" way.
The illusion that if someone follows a DVD, magazine article or TV program on
how to “train” a horse, that the average working full-time/have a
family/life, etc. equine enthusiasts can "train" a horse for what
they want is troublesome to me.
Please
ask for help in assessing and buying a potential horse. My basic rule of thumb
is to have people go seeing at least 20 horses before they say “yes” to
anything.
The
"honest" answers aren't always the ones we want to hear, but they do
tend to be the ones we NEED to hear.
Yes!!!!
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