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Getting A Great Deal On My Next Horse
I am often asked this question as I travel around the country, “how do I get a great horse, cheap?” Most people are very surprised when I give them the answer. Below is a letter I received via the Internet asking exactly this question.
“Dear Bonnie,
I've always wanted my own horse but they are really expensive. Is there any possible way I can find a great horse at a lower price? Thank you for taking your time to read my letter. I hope to hear from you soon!
ZeeZee”
Choosing The Right HorseIf you have no desire to train a horse or have a green horse (young inexperienced horse), then you ought to look at buying a horse that is ..... The best way to find the least expensive horse is to make sure you are the best rider you can be. This may sound funny, but in point of fact, people who don't have any formal training as a rider, have to spend more money in order to find a horse that they can get along with safely. HOWEVER, really good riders can buy much less expensive horses and finish them out themselves. My suggestion to you is to invest in yourself first by taking riding lessons for at least one year. During that year, volunteer your time at the stable. Clean tack, muck stalls, and offer to ride boarders horses while they are on vacation or out of town. Offer to exercise school horse or sale horses in the barn and volunteer to do anything else you can think of, including feeding, watering, etc.
Since you are probably going to be in the horse world for the rest of your life, it shouldn't seem like a big sacrifice to devote a year to your education. After all, if you devote the first year to making YOU the best rider you can be you will save money on every single horse you buy for the rest of your life. In addition, you will have more fun with all those horses because you will be better prepared to handle whatever may come up.
I would compare this advice to buying a house. For those folks who are handy with a hammer and nails and who enjoy “working with” a house, there are plenty of deals to be had in the real estate market. For those “Bob Vila” types, they can often find fabulous homes for very little money, just because the house is in need of some basic repairs or some talented elbow grease. However, if you have no clue about how to fix up a home, or have no interest in learning how to fix up a home, you will pay the going price.
Using the “Bob Vila” example, I would point out to you that even Bob doesn’t take on every house he sees. First, he carefully examines the “bones” of the structure to determine if the job is worth his time. The same is true with horses. If you are a trained, talented, well mileaged rider, you can look over a horse and quickly decide whether or not the animal is worth your time and energy. As a professionally trained horseman, I always look for the fundamental soundness of the animal first. After that, and equally important in my mind is the character of the animal. Anything else after that, I can teach to the horse, but I can’t fix a horse that is physically wrecked and I can’t change the basic character of an animal anymore than I can change the basic character of a person.
About Horseshoeing ProblemsIf you’re like a lot of horse owners perhaps you’ve tried several horseshoers or perhaps there was only one choice in your .....
Character changes are one of the few areas that are completely in the hands of the individual. I’m sure everyone has met someone in his or her life that was a complete jerk. As you well know, all the begging, pleading and threatening in the world didn’t change that person at the core of their being. The only person powerful enough to make that change was the individual themselves. The same is true of horses and here is a perfect example of what I am talking about:
I met a woman in California who was in her 50’s. She decided that she wanted to do endurance riding on a more serious level. Her present mount was a very suitable, kind, generous, trustworthy Quarter Horse cross mare, but she had been convinced by the other competitors that in order to be competitive, she would have to buy an Arabian. Although the woman had ridden for many years, she had limited experience with Arabians and little or no formal training as a rider.
She bought a green broke, young Arabian horse that was sold to her as a perfect endurance prospect. Prospect means the horse is unproven, but has demonstrated talents that might be suitable for that line of work. After owning the horse for a few months, she asked if she could bring the horse to our home for a month or two because her fields at home were too muddy. We agreed and the horse arrived a few days later. I quietly watched the horse after warning the owner that there was a live strand of hot wire running around the entire field at the top of the fence. Of course, there had been plenty of horses in that field before who never touched the hot wire and others who did touch the strand one time, jumped back a step and then went on about their business of eating grass.
I suggested to the horse owner that you could tell a lot about a horse’s character and his common sense by watching what they do in a new situation. As a professionally trained horseman, I already knew what this horse was going to do. I knew he was going to do it before he even came out of the trailer, based on his behavior when he arrived.
After less than two minutes in the field, her horse felt the need to test the fence. He flunked the test because the hot wire bit him in the nose. What happened next is what I mean about buying a horse for his character above almost anything else. This particular horse galloped around the field for the next five minutes screaming at the top of his lungs with his nose in the air. The fence bit him and he was going to tell the world about it. I suggested to the owner that she note what he was doing and how he was doing it. He was galloping at full speed over rough ground that he had never seen before with his nose in the air. I warned her that this particular animal didn’t have enough sense to look out for his own safety and she would be wise to recognize that if he didn’t have enough sense to look out for himself, he surely wasn’t going to worry about her safety. Was this an Arabian “thing”? NO, it was a character “thing,” and this horse lacked both character and common sense.
Endurance riding is one area of riding where you either choose a horse with good character and common sense, or you spend a lot of time in an emergency room. The owner of the horse told me that he was “just sensitive.” If I had a nickel for every time a horse owner told me their maniac horse was “just sensitive”, I would be a rich woman!
Because I have always tried to respect a man’s right to be dumb, I made the suggestion to find a more suitable mount but wished her all the luck in the world if she chose to keep him. As a trainer I know that the difference between green broke and well seasoned is 400 hours of time, effort and work on your part. To start out that timeline with a horse that lacks character is the equivalent of choosing to walk down the aisle with a man that you know is a moron. If you choose to devote 400 hours into a horse with no character, you will end up with a “well trained” horse with no character and the first time he is pressed into a corner, what will come out of that corner is his true character every time.
Less than 60 days later, the horse owner ended up in an emergency room with torn ligaments in her knee. The owner was on crutches for a long time and finally turned the horse over to a trainer who thought he would make a good cutting horse because he was “so handy on his feet.” Was it the horse’s fault that the owner ended up in the emergency room? Absolutely not. It was no one’s fault but the owner who not only witnessed all the signs of a horse with a lack of character, but was actually told by a professional that the horse had no character and was never going to be a horse you could put your trust in.
Any trained horseman would have spotted the character flaws in that horse before he came out of the trailer, just as I had done. So, as I mentioned earlier, the best way to save the most money on all the horses you will own in your lifetime is to invest in YOU. Do all that you can do to ensure that YOU are the best-trained, most well rounded rider you can be. This means learn to ride Western and English. Ride with professionals in all styles of riding that you can access. Find a riding instructor that you trust and you respect. Make sure their credentials include a safe, effective, fun, well-rounded program. I suggest that you spend a day visiting the stable of your choice and watch the lessons being given. If you hear a riding instructor screaming and yelling at students, keep looking, you haven’t found the right teacher yet.
If you want specific information on how to find the perfect first horse for you, check out my book, "A Parent's Guide to Buying That First Horse." It is filled with helpful information on exactly this topic.
I want to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions that you would like to share with the rest of us, drop me a line at:
Bonnie Marlewski-Probert
P.O. Box 548
Yellville, AR 72687
Or you can reach me on the Net at BRMP@AOL.com
For more information on any of Bonnie’s books,
A Parent’s Guide to Buying That First Horse
Debugging Your Horse
The Animal Lover’s Guide to the Internet
Horse Tales for the Soul, Volumes 1 – 5
Dog Tales for the Soul, Volume 1
Or for her videos,
Debugging Your Horse and
Trail Riding, Rules of the road
Visit, http://TheCompletePet.com.
Bonnie Marlewski-Probert is an internationally respected writer and speaker. In addition to her work in the horse industry, Bonnie has also written for some of the top magazines in the world including Good Housekeeping, Science Journals, RV and Travel publications and a variety of Animal-related publications. She taught college courses on the art of writing and getting published and wrote a teaching guide called, "If I Can Do It, So Can You!" Bonnie has published more than 1000 magazine articles, ten books, two how-to videos and two syndicated columns. She is an internationally respected speaker for her content and for her humorous presentations. For more information on Bonnie, her work and her books/videos, visit her website at TheCompletePet.com or e-mail her at brmp@aol.com. Bonnie is also the founder of Whitehall Publishing. You can learn more about that by visiting Whitehallpublishing.com.
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