Horse shopping/ownership anxiety

[anon40672407]

@fivestrideline

Am I just seeing the worst of the situation?

Yes, this.

One goes from Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence to Unconscious Competence. Note that the two steps in the middle both require conscious awareness/time-consuming analysis/second guessing as you struggle along. You are in one of those two stages as you learn more about the trials your current horse has experienced, and you’ve learned a whole toolset of new things.

It’s scary, you are looking at a big commitment (and you are now aware of how big that commitment is!) and each choice precludes another one, so it’s also limiting.

My advice to you is to find a stable you like with a trainer you mostly agree with, and lease one of their going horses. It will be expensive and you will not own the animal, BUT you will be able to jump and show, and the risks sit with them, not you. Later, when you get closer to Unconscious Competence, and/or your goals shift a bit, you might consider picking an animal you’ll purchase.

This suggested course of action is more expensive than boarding/training one of your own. But I’ve seen happy results with this course of action, and very productive show careers, so you’re paying a bit for that part as well.

Just my 2 cents.

[Scribbler]

@fivestrideline

Sometimes I wonder how I’m supposed to consistently ride enough to keep the horse fit, clean my gear, and still work my job and commute. The actual riding and coinciding barn time isn’t the issue so much as the driving all over and special trips for misc tasks like throwing lunch hay or changing blankets - seems like I can never find a barn that offers my Must Haves, or is at least convenient to work or home . If I have to start trimming feet, hauling out for every lesson and appointment again, or build my own place, I don’t really know if there’s enough hours in the day! I’m lucky that time at the barn is relaxing, rather than feeling like a chore.

I want the best for my animals and I do actually enjoy creating routines that work for them, but sometimes I wonder where the line is. I thought I had a good system with my personal horse (hay during tack up, 10 minute walk warmups, lots of variety in footing, carrot stretches and backing up after), but then I see some pretty intense routines from people whose experience I respect. I just wonder, where do they find the time (and money!) for 30 minutes of ground exercises and another set of stretches after; the daily foot pads and tail pulls and massage blankets; the constant chiro and massage and PEMF and what have you. On multiple horses! With all that, how do you know what’s working? Is it truly all required to hopefully keep the modern, expensive, low-level sport horse going? Or are so many horses these days just this unsound, and people are throwing everything at them hoping to tip the odds in the favor of a rideable horse?

Edited to add: More importantly, am I insane that I still feel much better after riding, and STILL want to keep at it?

Are you really seeing people doing this IRL. Or are you getting suckered into Instagram posts by people who are selling gadgets?

I’m at a self board barn a 7 minute drive from my house. Feed set up and stall cleaning and water for 2 horses takes me 45 minutes a day. I have automatic feeder drops in the loft. One horse gets 4 overnight/morning drops and the other gets 2. If I didn’t have drops I’d do giant hay bags. Unless there’s a unique problem I go down once a day for a couple of hours to do chores, ride my horse, and some kind of turnout or handwalk for the horse that isn’t being ridden.

I do inhand stuff with my riding horse on her days off or if we can’t ride.

Neithrt horse is clipped no blankets this year, barefoot, riding horse gets Scoot Boots when she wants them. They eat good Timothy hay and a small mash to carry salt and a VMS.

They are super healthy and don’t injure themselves.

We get hay delivered, vets come to the barn, coaches come to the barn, I haul out for better trail rides or camping trips.

The reason you need a lot of horsemanship knowledge is not so much to fix problems but to avert them happening in the first place. That includes not letting your horse get obese and founder, keeping an eye on hoof angles, and not working through early stage chronic stress injuries. Also not riding in a bad fitting saddle. Arguably things that are meant to “help” a horse like jump boots can actually harm them (heating up tendons).

Simple really is best and my ideal would be year round pasture board.

BTW startyng as I did in Western World, I feel cleaning tack is over rated. You do not have to clean tack every time you ride. You do have to wash your saddle pads before the dirt starts caking up though.

[lenapesadie]

I keep my two at home. They have free choice between barn and paddocks. I pick up my own feed and hay at my choice of multiple conveniently located suppliers. The vet hospital is around the corner and they will come to me for scheduled work and emergencies. The farrier will come every day if I need him too. My riding horse is healthy and sturdy. My retiree is more delicate.

I don’t do a bunch of bodywork or support therapies. I’m not trying to ride the Grand Prix either. Pretty sure that makes a big difference.

[fivestrideline]

I do see people doing the intense routines. In person, at multiple barns in the last half a decade. Obviously people with time/money to burn can spend it however they like, and social media does indeed make it SEEM more prevalent.

[Libby2563]

I feel a lot of these responses! Some days I really do feel like quitting. I also feel a bit trapped because I have invested a lot of time and money in my farm and have made career choices around horses. Plus I have a 26-year-old who obviously is with me for life, and a 13-year-old who brings me a lot of joy and I also don’t think I could sell because I’d worry about his hoof angles for the rest of my life. So even if I decided not to ride or buy any more horses, they’d still be in my life. Someday I do think I’ll take a break though…

I think being active on COTH can contribute to horse-related anxiety. I don’t do other social media or have a large network of horse friends I speak with regularly, so the forum is my main exposure to horse news and other people’s experiences with riding/ownership. I’ve learned a lot since I discovered the forum in 2013 or 2014, and I hope some of it has improved my horses’ lives. It has also opened my eyes to health issues I knew existed but didn’t spend much time thinking about (LTLH, Lyme, kissing spine, ulcers, etc) or didn’t know about at all (EDM, DSLD). Turns out there are even more reasons to worry about horses than I knew about!

I also think that as diagnostics progress, it’s easier to find issues and harder to think of any horse as sound. Sometimes I wonder why the hell any of us are staking our happiness on the health of such fragile creatures.

I do have horse friends who are less informed but probably happier because they don’t have a good eye for soundness, don’t see their horses’ crazy long toes or underdeveloped toplines, don’t worry about whether they’re eating too much grain and not enough hay, etc. Ignorance really can be bliss, at least until something goes seriously wrong.

[Scribbler]

@fivestrideline

I do see people doing the intense routines. In person, at multiple barns in the last half a decade. Obviously people with time/money to burn can spend it however they like, and social media does indeed make it SEEM more prevalent.

First everything on SM has an element of fantasy in it, and much of it is to sell things. Gear, services, or just attention so the feed gets monetized. Do not take anything you see on SM as really true.

Second, if a horse gets a chronic stress injury the first thing you need to look at is workload, hoof angles, and general management. I know lots of people can cripple a horse schooling Training Level Dressage or Pony Club D or even just going on the free choice hay bandwagon for a trail horse. But in every case, I can see the multiple things they are doing wrong. Self board is a real education in watching how everyone manages things.

Obviously at very high levels of performance there is an incentive to push horses past their perhaps natural limits, and try to ameliorate damage to keep on competing. And if you buy a schoolmaster horse with preexisting issues you might need to go a treatment route.

But horses should not be breaking down in lower level riding, and if they are you need to look globally at management and training.

I do have a couple equine bodyworkers I like and have them out semi regularly. They may help with some aches, and are a really useful source of feedback that let’s me reassess my management and care.

Anyhow if you want models of horsemanship look at the people whose horses do not need constant expensive therapies. What are they doing to keep their horses healthy, happy, fit?

Happiness, mental stability, is a really important component because the horses that are not for whatever reason are more likely to get ulcers, colic, or injure themselves freaking out.

[atr]

I see it to some degree at my current barn, where I am the outlier surrounded by people with lots of time and money! I also feel that I look at their horses sometimes and they are pretty much saying “would you just leave me alone now to eat my hay and hang with my buddies!”

I like to feel I’m an observant horsewoman. My horses are in good shape and the working one is a high-level dressage schoolmaster more than capable of doing his job and doing it well (far better than me.) He is also groomed and trimmed and maintained by me to a traditionally high standard, and I do clean my tack regularly. They are fed well, get regular farrier care, vet care and maintenance when they need it (but having had horses at home in a remote area for many years I can manage a lot of stuff that will cause my barn mates to call the vet.)

I do take the time to educate myself about current horse care practices, can tell a good farriery job from bad, am fortunate (or careful) enough to have reliable and capable vet and farriery care and am now in a barn that I can rely on if I’m sick or traveling.

But, I’m not Bemering and Theraplating and doing all the things. I’m not living at the barn. I have a job and a home and family and yard to care for. Many days I have to blaze in and out of the barn and stuff doesn’t get done to my normal standards. But because I do have normal standards, it doesn’t matter much.

I think some people believe they are protecting their considerable investment doing it all and they do love their horses, so it’s all good. But I’m not sure it’s all necessary.

[twostinkydogs]

I bought a horse in 2018 that within 6 months I knew was never going to be the right horse for me despite literally everyone saying she was a perfect match. I paid $25k and sold her less than a year later for $7500. I was bitter and sick to my stomach for just throwing that money away.

I started looking again in 2020 and exhaustively analyzed my finances for 2 years trying to figure out how much I could afford. Finally I just asked myself how much money I was comfortable lighting a match to and went with that. It’s too much of a crapshoot to think otherwise.

[rulex]

@fivestrideline

I want to jump and show again.

Sorry for going on my own rants about horse keeping anxiety and missing this very important point.

If your primary goal is to jump and show then 100% find a lease at a good barn and learn to let go of the horse care stuff that will be out of your control.

In terms of developing my own riding and improving my riding skills, my biggest leaps forward have been while I’ve not owned my own horse.

@Posting_Trot

while you may have plans for what you want to do with your horse, your horse has plans for you!

This is so true. My plans were to ride and show but my horses have taken me on very different journeys! I still hope to eventually get into the show ring, but I recognize that buying my own horse is not the quickest way to get there lol.

I did want to have more say in care and management though, and that was always a challenge with leasing. But there’s no reason you can’t lease for a bit, go out and some fun after everything you’ve been through with your current horse, and then maybe consider revisiting ownership in a year or two.

[quietann]

So you found a horse! Awesome!

(amb and I know each other IRL, through an entirely different connection.)

[amb]

Yep, after looking all over the darn country (actually several horses in Canada too) I get a text about a horse who’s all of a half-hour away and owned by a friend of a friend.

This is surely the upside of being at it so long that everybody knows I’m horse shopping, although it’s also dangerous, because… people are still texting me!

[Larbear]

@amb

When I was getting a PPE on my latest, the vet (who has been around horses and horse people approximately forever; this is Dr. Orcutt at SRH, for those in the area)

Dr. Orcutt did the ppe on my first horse (Larry). When he finished up the exam we were talking and I asked him if he was looking for an event horse, would he purchase him. He didn’t even hesitate…said nope! Larry was flipping his head a lot so his concern was that he could be a headshaker. Lol I was crushed but kinda said uh ok. Still bought him anyway Dr. Orcutt was great