Making Good Horses

I am proud to say that my family makes good horses. They're sane, they're sound, they're uncomplicated, they have good ground manners and they're enjoyable to ride whether they're just started or getting close to broke. How do we do it? Leadership, consistency and a program.

The whole thing starts the day they arrive at my Dad's place where all the young horses go first. Most likely, the horse is a barely handled yearling colt or gelding. We don't buy horses started by other people anymore because we can't afford to buy horses started by trainers we admire and it's a lot easier to get one going right than to have to fix one someone else left training holes in. When the colt arrives, he goes into one of the smaller front pastures to settle in and graze for awhile. From that day forward, every day he will, at minimum, be caught, tied, thoroughly groomed and fed his grain ration while in a tie stall. If he doesn't want to be caught he can be run into a round pen from the pasture where the approach and retreat method can be used to catch him. After a few days, depending on the weather and footing, some ground training will start. He'll learn to give to the halter, respect his handler, navigate obstacles and tolerate scary stuff.

By the time he's turning two, the colt is easy to catch and probably comes when called to get caught and get his daily grain and grooming. He's pretty well sacked out, gives well to the halter and follows direction well from the ground. He then learns about the saddle; back cinch and breast collar included. He does everything he learned before while wearing the saddle. Pretty soon he gets his first ride. If all goes well, which it usually does, by his fifth ride he's heading out the gate to ride trails and logging roads. He walks most of the time, sees the world and builds his strength going up and down hills. As he gets older and stronger he learns more-- jogging, loping, good stops, leg yields, turn arounds, lead changes, etc. When he has a pretty good handle on him he'll get to meet some cattle. He gets arena or round pen work every so often, but most of his exercise and training is outside on old logging roads and trails. He works in a smooth snaffle bit his first year or two, but from the first ride he's ridden on a loose rein, except when he's being asked to soften, and gets the foundation laid for his future in a curb/bridle.

Through all of this, EVERY DAY of this colt's life in our program, he gets caught, tied, grained and groomed. If he gets pushy or nippy or obnoxious, he gets corrected. We realize that every time a colt is handled or ridden, he's being trained. Every day should be better than the last, and if you stopped at the right point the day before, it will be. We don't ride just to get through some time under saddle. We ride to make the horse better-- carry himself better, stop better, turn better, have better transitions, handle more obstacles on the trail.

Of course, not every ride is great. When things go wrong, we have to evaluate. Is the horse having a bad day, an awkward growth stage or a pain issue? Are we asking too much, asking the wrong way or having a bad day ourselves? That's part of responsible training and continuing to learn from the horses.

Overall, though, it's consistency in handling and riding that makes good horses. They tie, they hobble, they load, they haul, they take shots and dewormer, they stand for the farrier, they stand for saddling and stand when mounted until asked to move off, they ride outside and most of all they're just enjoyable to have around. It's not any grand expensive 90 day wonder training program, it's doing something every day to make the horse better. In the process, each horse makes you a better trainer, which makes the next horse even better than the last one, and so on goes the cycle of becoming a horseman and making good horses that go to good homes where they are valued. Or, in my case, keeping one around for awhile just because you like him and know that you can still do more with him.

Shopping for a kid's horse

I hear a lot about the current horse economy out there. Cheap horses, free horses, horses being dumped/turned loose.... I've heard it. Recently, I got to test the economy by being assigned the task of finding a good gelding for a teenage novice rider at a reasonable price. We weren't looking for anything fancy, show quality, registered or even perfectly sound, just something pretty broke with a good temperament for the rider to expand her skills on. We were even looking at older horses, around 20. Should be a piece of cake in this market, especially since we were willing to accept kind of ugly and deal with minor soundness issues, right? Wrong.... very wrong.

The biggest problem in the market out there right now, to my view, is older horses that aren't broke, aren't trained and don't even get handled much. I was upfront with everyone that I contacted that I was shopping for a safe horse for a novice teenager. I was able to weed out about 70% due to honest sellers or my own intuition based on the sellers' responses. I went out to look at horses that wouldn't stand to mount, then tried to take off under saddle, a horse that cow-kicked every time you touched a hind leg, horses that hadn't been ridden in years, but were allegedly very broke at some time in the past, but couldn't seem to recall any skills under saddle, a horse you couldn't bridle and various other equines with no manners or bad manners brought on by being spoiled or just flat not being handled for years.

In previewing advertisements I was appalled at the number of pasture pets for sale. Older geldings either never started or started briefly (30-90) days at two or three and then turned out back home where they've lounged about the pasture and now the owner is trying to sell them at 9+ years old. I have started and re-started older horses, mostly broodmares and recently-gelded stallions, and it's no picnic. It's much harder to develop a work ethic in a 15 year old that has gotten their way most of their life than in a 3 year old that's still figuring out the order of things. And, I have to say, with the market the way it is, if I want a project for myself I can find a nice two or three year old for the same or less money than the owners want for the spoiled 12 year old. But, I digress.

Back on the kid's horse shopping tour, I did manage to at least not get hurt and leave everyone with a diplomatic, "Thanks for your time, but he's not quite what we're looking for." Finally, when it looked like this was going to be a year-long project, I spotted an older gelding on Craigslist. He sounded nice and the owner was selling due to not having much time for him due to her career. She was honest about every quirk he might have ever had and had owned him for 15 of his 18 years so, feeling guardedly optimistic, I went out to look.

Unbelievable. The horse lead, tied, stood for saddling, was good with his feet, stood at the mounting block and is broke and trained and sound! Hallelujah! He's trained to second level as a dressage horse, although only shown through first level, was shown western at some point and rides outside on the trails. He's 18, but sound, and even a nice looking horse with papers. I actually enjoyed test-riding the horse. The true test, the teenage novice riding, went well, too. What a gem!

Needless to say, the horse was purchased and, even better, the teenager is taking lessons from the horse's trainer for a month while he stays at his current barn. Things are going well.

So, what did I learn about the market?

There are a lot of cheap horses out there, but, they should be cheap and they would have been cheap before the market crashed. The only market for a pasture fat spoiled brat gelding that's 15 years old and not broke is the slaughter market, and that's pretty much kaput. Before the slaughter market went away, those horses were worth around $500. Now they're worth nothing, since they don't have any value beyond being pasture decoration and winter feed is expensive.

There are a lot of sellers that really, truly believe that their horse is an angel and that being "spirited" or having issues with ground manners doesn't make them inappropriate mounts for novice kids. These aren't malicious people, they just don't know any better (often novices themselves), but they will waste your time when you drive out to find out what the horse really is.

There also are diamonds out there, that maybe aren't even rough, but just aren't marketed quite right. I inquired about the horse that was purchased after viewing a Craigslist ad that the owner had put up. I passed on the same horse when viewing the ad published on Dreamhorse by the trainer. The DH ad put the horse at a temperament rating of 8 and used the term "a lot of horse"-- both red flags for me when looking for a mount for a novice. What the trainer was trying to convey is the amount of training that the horse has, but she made it sound like he's hot and reactive, which he is not. At any rate, the teenager now has a great horse and the horse has his own girl again. The previous owner is happy, the girl is happy, the horse is happy and even I'm happy... so happy to not have to get on any more supposedly "broke" horses for awhile. I'll happily keep riding my four year old who is well on his way to being truly broke.