The Perfect Horse

Finding the Perfect Horse
By Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

I recently received a letter over the Internet that addresses important horse buying issues that everyone who is thinking about buying their first or next horse should think about. Below is part of the letter:

“Hello, there. I am thinking about buying a western riding horse this summer because I'm saving up with my babysitting money. I just have one problem, I'm not sure what type of horse I should get? … I would like to know what breed or type of horse would be best for me? Do you have any suggestions, and if so, what might they be? Caya”

The PERFECT first horse for each person is going to be different, depending on what you want to do with your horse most of the time. For example, if you plan on showing your horse 99% of the time, you would buy one type of animal. If you are planning on trail riding with friends 99% of the time, you would buy a completely different type of horse; if you want to jump fences 99% of the time, still a different horse. So, the best thing to do FIRST is to decide what you will be doing with your horse most of the time (not what you would like to be doing with your horse 99% of the time, but what you will actually be doing). If you can get a really clear picture of the answer to that question, you can save a bunch of money on the purchase price and save a bunch of time trying to make a horse that was trained to do one thing, a horse that will do something completely different.

I'll give you an example of what I mean. I used to have a boarder who always dreamed of having a Quarter Horse show horse, but she owned an Appaloosa gelding who wasn't really beautiful, he wasn't really tall, he wasn't really fancy, but no matter what she asked her horse to do, he was kind, gentle and generous (including parades in town, trail riding, riding in the ring at home, bareback, riding double, games at the local fun play day horse shows, he was perfect when beginner friends of hers came over to ride and he was a perfect gentlemen to be handled by her 6 year old son). Best of all, that horse cost her 700.00!! So, one day she came to me and said that she was going to sell her horse and buy a REAL horse, as she called it. I strongly advised her to rethink her decision because in my eyes, for what she used her horse for 99% of the time, she already had the perfect companion. She wouldn't hear of it because she had been to a big time Quarter horse show and suddenly, her perfect backyard horse seemed not good enough - SO, she spent 2500.00 dollars to buy a young, green broke, full blooded, black quarter horse gelding. She couldn't afford to buy a finished, fully trained QH, so she bought a young, semi-trained one and figured she would save some money and finish the horse at home.