[QUOTE=Hayforhorses87;8828661]
Thank you everyone for sharing experiences and offering advice. I have another question for everyone. To share a little background information: I’ve been riding for quite awhile and grew up riding horses. However, I’m definitely more of a beginner dressage rider and just learning to use my seat, outside rein, etc. and just learning lateral movements. I have no showing aspirations but I would like to learn how to correctly ride dressage on a trained horse. I doubt this will be the first horse I own. Is it better to look for an older but better trained school master? Or better to find a younger but green prospect and invest in training? I’m worried about buying an older horse because of possible health issues and maintenance. How old is too old? What is a reasonable price for an experienced school master that shows at third level but is training at fourth level? I’m located in an area on the west coast that doesn’t seem to have a lot of options available - is it worthwhile to travel to the east coast? I don’t have a huge budget - 15k is my absolute max.[/QUOTE]
I would also say that if you have access to lessons or lease/lessons on a well-trained horse, go that route until your seat and use of aids is secure. You want a horse that is under the care of a coach or trainer, and getting regular tuneups to keep him remembering how to respond.
The thing about buying a “trained” horse is that, every time you ride, you are teaching the horse something. If you are not yet able to use your weight and aids in a manner as sophisticated as the horse expects, the horse will either act up out of frustration (if he has strong opinions) or if he is more agreeable, just re-learn that shifting weight, etc., is meaningless and isn’t a cue for anything.
It doesn’t mean necessarily that you can’t ride a more highly trained horse just w/t/c. But it does mean that you would need to be in control of the aids enough so that you were accidently signalling half pass, lead changes, etc., when you didn’t want them, didn’t need them, and were scared or unbalanced by them.
Even something as basic as riding the extended trot. Lots of beginning dressage riders don’t have the balance or the courage to ride a true extended trot (or even a correct working trot) on a big-moving horse, even posting, so they end up choking back their horse, and causing all kinds of problems for the overall training and even soundness.
Likewise, if you buy a green horse, you are going to have to be an integral part of his training. Even if you have a trainer doing rides 2 or 3 times a week, you will also need to be riding and taking lessons. And if your own balance and use of the aids is in contradiction to what the trainer is asking, then the training will not proceed very smoothly.
I’ve definitely been there/ am doing that with my current horse, and if I had known how long it would take to get her balanced and going correctly, I might not have signed on at the start. I’ve made some mistakes that have created problems I’ve had to figure out how to solve. I’ve had to learn what a shoulder-in feels like while trying to train it from scratch. It’s been a great learning experience 
but not one I’d recommend if you are starting from scratch and have that much money to spend.
I’ve seen other ammies get very nice younger horses, and then stall out, or get scared. I think that I’ve survived because maresy, while cranky at times, is not really hot or explosive, which is why I felt safe with her when she was a greenie. But then she isn’t a “dressage horse.” If I’d bought a “real dressage horse” green prospect (big gaits, forward, lots of brio, a bit hot) for $10,000 or $15,000 (considered good money around here), I might have more to show for all my work. But then, after watching a number of ammie (and low-level pro) trainwrecks, I suspect that I’d probably have gotten badly injured or at least scared off the job.
And remember about OTTBs, that they are going to be extra hot and explosive because they have been taught to race. That’s all they’ve been taught. And even years later, with lots of other training, they often still want to just bomb full out. This on top of any inherent hotness. I think an OTTB, on average, is going to be more of a handful to retrain than a purely sport-bred TB, who was handled like a regular horse, if any exist. But if there was such a horse, the price would reflect that. The OTTB is sold at a bargain price because they are culls (not fast enough), suffered career-ending injury, or have aged out and retired sound (those are the ones that want to keep running forever — often gorgeous horses, but a major handful).
Anyhow, I feel like I’m a bit of an expert on all the ways adults ammies can go wrong, especially at the bottom of the market and without access to full trainer support :). i’d say, stay in good lessons/lease on a good horse until you are riding well enough to be able to make a positive contribution to training or maintaining the training on your own own horse.
