Most wildies are basically sane horses because they have grown up in natural herd situations, they have learned the horsey rhthymns of now we run, now we relax. Also I think a feral population selects for common sense. Whatever blood is in the mix, you dont get amped up OTTB or Arab behaviour persisting. Once they get tamed and accept the new environment they tend not to be fence pacers, stall walkers, cribbers, etc.
As a kid I had a Canadian wildie off an Indian reserve that did a year or two on a dude string. Fantastic horse for me at the time, best trail horse ever, for sure-footed and stamina. Fast off the mark when you wanted speed. But she came well broke but totally green to schooling, and I put all that on her learning as I went. Flying changes, sliding stops, roll backs, spins.
Her down side for an adult’s horse was she was only 14.2, and while she had tough functional conformation and developed into a cute little horse, she didn’t really have performance conformation for any discipline.
But someone that is an adult today looking for a going trail horse isn’t going to want to spend 3 years learning how to school a dude string horse. Or a raw halter broke mustang.
I really admire the ability to add skills and value to a horse, and strive to do this. But I have to admit it often takes much much longer than you expect and very often the ammie with a green horse never quite gets where they expected. Me included, in retrospect.
If you have a goal, often it really is smarter to buy a horse already doing the job. That’s true in dressage and jumping. But it’s also true in back country trail riding. If it is January and your goal is to ride a particular loop in the Rocky Mountains in July, or participate in a cattle round up in May, or deer hunting in October, then you should be getting a fully broke trail seasoned horse.
Back country riding is not a competition but it’s a discipline in the sense that it requires a set of skills and attitude and conformation for both horse and rider.
It’s no fun to go out for hours on a horse that gets foot sore or jigs or trips on logs or can’t use his hind end going down hill or lacks stamina and can’t do multiple days of long rides or balks or bucks or over reacts to cattle bears deer ATVs or gunfire. Or doesn’t trailer and tie like a saint. My Paint is actually the best trail horse in my social circle and we do a lot of babysitting my friends on their horses. But even my Paint does not have quite the stamina of my teenage honey. Paint is 16 hands and solid muscle, weighs at least 50% more than the honey, and gets winded much faster on hills than my friends Arab.
In general lines of working QH come factory loaded with a predisposition to this life, but they still need miles and exposure and sensible training.
Before the pandemic a good ranch horse like this was selling for trail riding for about $5000. That’s not cheap. When I returned to riding about 15 years ago, $5000 would get you a nice enough kid’s jumper, a quiet TB with local miles.
At my barn, self board recreational, almost everyone buys projects. The riders with some skills move forward but slowly, even the approved coaches have setbacks in their personal horses. The returning adults and the adult beginners have a very long road ahead of them. It’s very hard to school a green horse when your own seat and hands need work.
If you can take a green horse and get him to where you want in a couple of years, that is a fantastic skill set. But if 5 or 10 years down the road you are still having to work around training or behavorial issues you can’t fix, that free or $1000 horse is no bargain.
Anyhow, for folks with time and skills, project horses can be a fantastic learning experience. But for those with a set goal, less time, and less inclination to spend the summer at groundwork clinics relearning the basics :), they are not the best choice.
