Your Horse Purchase Guide - Questions #7, 8, 9.

In this section...
You asked for it! An introduction to horse buying tips.
Your Horse Purchase Guide - Questions #1, 2, 3.
Your Horse Purchase Guide - Questions #4, 5, 6.
Your Horse Purchase Guide - Questions #7, 8, 9
Your Horse Purchase Guide - Questions #10, 11, 12.

Question #7: Disposition.

What is this horse's personality or more appropriately horse-anality?  In a recent web site article, disposition was ranked the #1 factor in the successful performance of horses.  Equine students at a community college were asked what is the most important consideration in a horse?  Their most frequent answer: disposition.  This is where the rubber meets the road.

Would you like a horse that’s a pleasure to be around or a pain?  I don’t know anyone who does not want to enjoy their relationship with their horse(s).  Most of us don’t want to fight with, be afraid of, or get angry with our equine partner. Simply put, you don’t need to have a problem horse.

Ask the owner about the horse's disposition. How is he/she around people? How are his ground manners? Who rides him?  How old are his riders?  Remember to listen carefully to what you are being told and don’t forget to take notes.  Horse-anality, disposition, attitude or whatever we call it is paramount to the fundamental relationship between horse and human.

This leads us to the next question.

Question #8: Does he have any vices or bad habits?

Vices may affect the horse’s usefulness, health and/or dependability.  Charging, striking, kicking, biting and bucking are aggressive vices.  These can cause injury to humans and/or other horses.  Other bad habits can be caused by boredom when the horse is confined to a stall or has had only minimal exercise.

Horses learn from each other. Frequently when your horse’s stable mate has bad habits, your horse develops them too.  Stall vices include stall kicking, chewing wood, cribbing, weaving, stall walking, pawing, tail rubbing and eating dirt or bedding.  Many vices are difficult to eliminate, so think through it before you purchase a horse with bad habits.

Question #9: Training/Experience/Usage.
 
Now we want to know what this horse has been used for?  What type of training did he get and what is this horse’s experience?  If he is thoroughbred off the track, with not much other experience and has been out to pasture for the past year and you want a nice calm trail horse, guess what?

You should move on. The training experience and usage of this horse should match your needs.  If you want a racehorse, the thoroughbred may be ideal, but if you want a calm trail horse this is probably not going to fit your needs.

Quick Note:

Many of the so-called experts will advise a new or novice horseperson to take along an experienced rider when you shop for a horse.  I know of several of these situations where the horses selected by the “horse rider with 27 years experience around horses” turns out to be a problem or has a permanent injury.  In the horse-world knowledge of horses and horse behavior are extremely important.

The same is true of all professions.  Most of us have had good and bad insurance experiences.  Some of those relate directly to the knowledge level of the insurance person.  I have known many insurance representatives that never learn anything new once they pass the license exam.  Others constantly work to update their knowledge.  Number of years on the job has nothing to do with it.  Most people in the horse world have an opinion, very few are accurate.  Always ask for credentials when seeking advice.