I see so many of my friends struggling with equine partners that don’t suit them.
They often have:
-horses that are too big for them;
-horses that are too much for them;
-horses that are not built for soundness;
-horses that cost a lot of money (both to buy and keep).
We often go for the horse we think we should have rather than the horse we really want.
“I need a big horse to fill the judge’s eye”;
“All talented horses have a catch”;
“He has worked at Grand Prix – I need a schoolmaster to teach me”;
“It’s only one leg that is bent”;
“I work hard, I deserve it”
I have found that…
The more money a horse costs, and the higher the level he has worked at before, the more pressure on you.
The bigger the horse the more he will cost to keep and the more difficult he will be to ride.
The poorer the conformation the more the horse will be prone to injury and unsoundness and the less you will get to ride him.
The more nasty the horse is in the stable the more you will expect from him when ridden and the more disappointed you are likely to be.
What have you found?
Does size matter?
Big, or should I say, tall, horses have become very popular in competition dressage. Why is this? Is it necessary? Is it even an advantage?
Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling (19) believes that “a horse intended for a person 5ft 7in tall should measure between 14.1hh and 15.1hh. For a person 5ft 11in tall the horse’s height should be between 14.3hh and 15.3hh.” I am 5ft 7in. Why did I always feel embarrassed riding my 15hh Arab in competitions?
Take a look at photographs in books. Paul Belasik looks fabulous on his grey Andalusian “Exelso” in “Dressage for the 21st century” (7). Do you think that Exelso looks too small for him? Does Mr Belasik look better or worse on the other, larger, horses portrayed in the same book?
Olivera (8) was not a small man. Yet he rode many small horses. The partnerships could not be improved by horse size alone…
My partner is a cyclist. Serious cyclists are obsessive about their bike fitting them and have bikes designed with geometry to suit their individual conformation. I find this very interesting. Perhaps it is the same for the rider? Riders come in very different shapes and sizes. Perhaps we need to bear this in mind when we look for our equine partner and aim to find a horse that better matches our own conformation. After all, we can’t change that!
The perfect horse
I’m not saying there is a perfect horse, for there is no such thing. But I think there is an ideal horse for each one of us, where the balance of positives and negatives works for us. In other words we can accept the problems. In my experience it’s whether we can live with the down side that defines the sustainability of a relationship.
What qualities do you appreciate in horses? Why?
My old horse, Shantie, is a head-shaker. I didn’t know it when I bought him. I certainly didn’t like it and wished I could change it for him as well as for me. But I couldn’t. And no amount of anguish and “miracle cures” worked. Eventually I learned to live with it and see it as a part of him. Someone else may not have felt this way. He may have been passed from owner to owner and probably have ended up at the knacker man relatively early in life.
The same horse also has a club foot. I guess that technically he is a disabled horse. But because he is a horse nobody ever told him about his disability! He just got on with his lot and achieved an amazing amount. This was the first horse I bought myself. I loved the way he looked – Shantie is a 15.1hh Palomino Part-bred Arab. He floated over the ground and jumped like a stag. He is the most forward thinking sensitive little horse I have ever sat on. Ignorance was bliss!
My friends told me he was too small for me (I’m 5 ft 7ins). They told me not to waste time on a head-shaker. They told me I deserved better. I knew different. I loved and still love and appreciate him!
Since Shantie I have bought 3 more horses. I bought Penny, a 4 year old 15hh Trakehner cross thoroughbred mare, with a friend (my riding teacher). She was unbacked and going cheap at a local dealer. I bought her as an experiment to understand how horses were backed and trained initially. I never thought of her as “mine”. My friend eventually bought my share of the mare for her daughter.
The big mistake I made was buying a horse I will call J. A 16.1hh 6 year old Chestnut Irish Sports Horse gelding with 65 BD points. He was a “dressage horse”. I had a video of a professional dressage rider schooling him in a beautiful outline to prove it. I tried him several times, including out for a hack in the woods when the owner was bucked off her other mount and broke her finger. J did nothing. The owner assured me he would be perfect for a novice aspiring dressage rider such as me. More than that she said she would help me if I had problems with him (and I believed her). The vet gave him a clean vet’s certificate. My riding instructor rode him and said if I didn’t buy him she would. The owner gave me a written warranty for soundness and temperament.
Everything told me he was ok except one thing; my intuition. With other horses, I had known straight away that they were for me. I didn’t with J. He ticked every box in the logic stakes and this meant that I was looking for something wrong, a concrete reason to discard him. But there were none, except this nagging doubt inside me. I doubted but went for it anyway. I didn’t have much experience buying horses and put it down to this.
I regretted it immediately. He was rearing as I led him for the first time towards the riding arena. And it got worse. He was nappy at all times but particularly out hacking. One day he spooked and returned to the yard down the road at a fast canter – then reared up and landed on a car bonnet. I wasn’t there at the time but it certainly frightened me. I called the previous owner. She told me it was my problem and that I had caused it. I thought about legal redress but couldn’t face yet more hassle and decided to put it down to experience and sell him on.
I sold him to a capable rider for a third of the price I had paid. She knew about his nappiness because I told her. She saw the video and liked it too. The relief I felt as he walked onto her trailer and the ramp closed behind him was immense. But the impact on me was far reaching. The horse robbed me of confidence in horses. The previous owner robbed me of confidence in horsey people, especially those selling horses.
I kept in touch with J’s new owner. She worked with him for a couple of years but said he would never make a competition horse (after a few scarey moments at shows) and she sold him on to a rider without ambitions this way.
After J I stuck like a limpet to Shantie. He was the only horse I could trust for a long time. Gradually I recovered my confidence and started to look for another horse. Shantie was getting older and I knew his limbs weren’t up to the stresses of dressage.
I must have viewed over seventy horses over a period of several years. I know I lost count. It became an obsession with me. The feeling of excitement and anxiety as the Horse & Hound dropped through my letterbox was unbelievable. I drove miles viewing horses. The feeling of excitement and anxiety as we got closer to each destination - this could be the one. Several of them probably could have been the one, but I didn’t trust myself to make decisions like this any more. When the crunch came I couldn’t do it. It mattered too much. I had to get it right. But I didn’t know how to!
Equally, the sort of horse that I wanted was what everyone wanted; and it would be unlikely to be for sale. It must be responsive and forwards, but safe. Good paces but comfy to sit to. 100% in all circumstances – stable, field, hacking. About 16hh. A gelding.
Shantie developed a shoulder lameness when he reached 19 years old and I decided, with the advice of the vet, to retire him. He said the money I would spend on investigations (for he was too old for insurance to cover him) would be better spent on a new younger horse. This gave me a renewed impetus. I decided to narrow the search. I had visited Portugal and enjoyed riding the Lusitano horses there. I decided to only look at horses of Iberian origin.
Soon after, I found Relampago (Eric to his friends) - a 15.3hh Grey 6 year old pure bred Lusitano gelding. The minute I saw his face looking over the stable door I knew I wanted him. He wasn’t perfect in the stable. He seemed anxious. He wasn’t perfect to ride. He was unbalanced and unsteady in the contact. But none of this seemed to matter. I liked him and I wanted to work with him. Imagine the surprise of my partner when I returned home…”Hi, was he the one”. “Yes”. “Sorry I didn’t hear that”. “Yes I’m going to have him”. “Are you sure?” “No, but I want him.”
I nearly blew it after that though as the old doubts returned when the owner at first refused to give me a warranty. After an anxious weekend of soul searching I spoke to the owner again, shared my past experiences, and he shared his and suddenly it was obvious. I wanted to buy the horse and give him a home for life. The owner wanted the same thing! It was OK. We were all OK.
Eric has filled all my expectations and more. As a friend commented, “he was born about the time you first started to search for another horse – he was born for you”.
My conclusion? Buying a horse is an emotional purchase not a logical one. If it feels right do your homework and check out the logic. If that doesn’t work forget it! If the logic works, but it doesn’t feel right, walk away. You’ll know inside if he’s the one.
What tales can you tell about buying horses? What advice would you give to others?
Building a strong support network
“Understand and accept that things may take a little longer to achieve. Make sure that your partner/family are on your side in terms of support and background help with domestic chores, etc. which will enable you to fit in the required amount of training, fittening work, etc. Learn to prioritise.” Hilda Rodger (35)
The truth is that horses can get you down. You’re going to need the best support network you can get especially if you work too!
It helps to think about who has a stake in your riding ambitions. These are people who are affected by, or who unfluence, your riding ambitions. Make a list. Examples could include your partner, coach, friends, boss, livery yard owner, grooms, feed/hay suppliers, vet, farrier, organisations eg British Dressage, British Riding Clubs.
Then go through each sequentially and ask “What do I need from them?” and “What do they need from me?” Put yourself in their shoes. It may help to go and talk to each of them about this. How is what you receive and give different to what is needed? What can you do about it?