I agree that I know right away as well. I think most riders can feel a deal breaker pretty quickly. Like I hate a push ride. If the horse doesn’t have it’s own motor from the minute I ask it to trot I’m out lol.
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Not a H/J but when I tried Woodrow, I rode him down the driveway about 50 feet in the pitch dark and rode back and said I’d take him. I just knew in my gut that he was the one.
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My current mare came into the barn to be sold and I fell in love with her instantly. First ride, even though she was a green hot mess there was something about her that was just FUN. After ride two I texted my husband that I was obsessed and we might have a problem. Her personality is the best too and we just clicked. I’m her person and she’s my girl.
Previous mare was quite the opposite. She scared the ever loving shit out of me the first time I rode her and I thought her personality was bland. But she was all there was for me to ride so I learned how to ride her and trust her. And I learned that she wasn’t bland, she was regal and you had to get to know her before you found that out. We were never two peas in a pod, but we made it work and I loved her to bits.
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Same. I’m an amateur, one-horse owner (would looooove to have 2 or 3, but money). So I don’t sit on lots of horses. When I was shopping for my current unicorn, I was very nervous. Looked at quite a few horses, and always asked the sellers to ride first. I only felt comfortable to get on about half of the ones I went to see, and out of those there were three that I was happy to have a fun canter and a pop over a small cross on.
My criteria for trying is (a) do I feel safe playing around a bit on this horse; (b) would I still be feeling safe if no one was watching; © is it a pretty horse 
C is important, because I can only afford one and I’d rather be paying for a pretty one!
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Do not ever get on a horse to try it without watching it go first. No one should. Professional, amateur, whoever you are. If they can’t find someone to show it to you then you don’t want it, and this is a common cause of very serious accidents.
Plus, a seller is always grateful when a trier says, “no thank you I can tell it’s not for me” before putting the horse through needless extra work with an unfamiliar person.
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THIS is so important to me, as well, as I get older. I’m tired of dealing with the unpredictable ones of my younger days. A good, safe, honest horse is worth its weight in gold to me.
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Just a story I thought I’d relate, thinking about this post yesterday…
I have a friend, who I’ve known now for several decades. She’s a racetracker. She never had “much” in life, worked as a groom for a few decades, lived in a trailer. Rode recreationally sometimes. Lived in a trailer for cheap, or in a tack room at the track. A good horseman, and a hard worker. Worked for a lot of people over the years. Often owned a cheap racehorse, who might win one race a year, “non winners of the year, bottoms claiming”. She rubbed some good horses over the years. She went to the yearling sales, as we all did, to look. But no real money to spend.
One year, there was a filly at the sale, who was related to some good horses she had groomed. It was a first foal for the mare, and first crop of a stallion who had died soon after covering his first mares. The filly was offset in the knee, and plain. My friend WANTED her, because of the family. The filly did not get a single bid in the sale ring. My friend went back to the barn, and bought the filly for $500… much to her husband’s dismay.
The filly was broke to ride that fall, and the rider liked her. She was sent to me to winter, and I was to ride her in the early spring before going into training at the track, just to remind her that she was broke after having the winter off. They sent another filly too, that the husband had bought at the same sale. He paid more for that one. He was not pleased that his wife had bought this cheap filly. When I rode that cheap filly, I was astounded… she was magnificent. I felt like I was sitting on a superstar. She was an athlete. I was SURE!!! The other one was OK, nothing special. I did nothing but walk/trot, in my frozen arena in February. But I was IN LOVE with this cheap filly. I told my friend who owned her how I felt about her.
At the track that spring, the workouts started. That filly outclassed everything. Easily. When she ran, she won EASILY. She won every time out. She won stakes races. She earned A LOT of money. It was the best “rags to riches” story EVER. She earned “Champion” status for several years. Then she hurt herself, and became a broodmare for my friend, who still owned her. And each year, her offspring has ALSO been outstanding. Stakes winners. When she was hurt, I happened to be down at the track with my trailer, and was asked to transport her to the breeding farm to recover, and start her broodmare career. Which I did.
This is just a little story to tell you that if you have a “hunch” about a horse, a feeling that you can not deny, that you MUST buy this horse, because if you don’t you will kick yourself FOREVER, buy the horse. Even if everyone else thinks you are crazy, and wrong. Even if your spouse gives you a hard time about it. Because, sometimes you just KNOW. It can be a “life changing” occurrence.
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I’m casually in the market right now and so I found this an interesting topic, because it’s made me think about my own process.
For me, it basically goes like this: If it doesn’t have any dealbreakers, I’m going to buy it. But by the time I’m actually sitting on it, most of the filters have already been applied.
Pre-sitting filters:
- Mine: has to be a mare, can’t be a grey, no older than 12, has some exposure to eventing and seems to enjoy the job, scopey enough to bail me out of my poor life choices, potential for my desired level, good feet, in my budget.
- My coach: at least 16.2, correct mover, putatively appropriate to my current level of development, near enough to go sit on.
Intra-sitting filters:
- Mine: not a kick ride.
- My coach: no facepalming while watching me ride it, deliberate confirmation of “scopey (and kind) enough to cover for bad choices” when she gets on it.
Specific PPE filters are all mine. They are: no crappy necks/backs, no known neuro history or problems, and my PPE vet thinks it can do the job I want it to do (I know some vets will not provide this opinion at a PPE, but all of the ones I use do.) I’m not saying there’s nothing else that would make me walk away, but I would consider it in the totality of the horse in front of me and the opinion of my vet and coach.
But if it meets those criteria, I’m going to buy it. I don’t mind needing to install some life skills on the ground, I don’t need to feel an instant connection with it, and if we have that base to work from, I’m pretty confident that it’s going to work out once we build a relationship. I might (would) feel differently if my coach didn’t have the eye she does, or if I didn’t trust her implicitly (with long experience backing up that she actually does) to act in my best interests.
As a result of the above, we don’t usually go see a whole lot of horses. The last time I was actively shopping, it was a one-shot one-kill: I bought the first one we went to see.
(That said, there’s a bit more to that story, as there was a previous shopping period in which we didn’t buy anything at all because the Venn diagram of The Ride I Liked and The Horse I Would Survive was two circles, and she flatly told me so after we did a bit of looking. So I wound up leasing for a year to get legged back up before the aforementioned one-shot.)
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That’s a fantastic story!
Do you have just a ballpark idea of how much she won at the track to offset her $500 price tag?
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It’s so interesting to hear everybody’s different perspectives.
I think one of the most important things is to just keep an open mind in both directions when/if you actually go to see the horse.
You can try one that seems perfect on paper that just is not your type in person, and vice versa.
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I always go to look at a horse with a personal list of “absolute noes” in my mind. Rubbish feet: total no. Mean eye: total no. Sway back: total no. Bad hocks: total no. After that, I look at the bigger picture and allow my emotional side free rein after my rational, cautious side has done its job. Some horses are just nice people and I immediately enjoy their company and they seem to reciprocate, responding to me. Then we can both have fun.
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This!!!
I’ll never forget being a (stupid) teenager. A friend of a friend had this little chestnut mare, and we never could figure out a time to meet up for a trial ride.
“She’s fine! Her tack is located XYZ. Let me know how it goes!”
Free riding, heck ya. Did I mention I was a stupid teenager?
Lead her to the mounting block. She took a step forward and I gently asked her to move back a step. Cue a complete blow up - flew back with enough force that it snapped the cheek pieces of the bridle as I was still holding the reins. Quick enough that I didn’t have enough time to even comprehend what was happening or else I would have dropped the reins.
Total near miss and a VERY big learning experience.
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Many years ago, we went to try a horse that was supposed to be a very safe first horse/beginner type. So I got on the horse without seeing anybody else on it first.
And at some point when I was cantering across the diagonal, it took off bucking. And to make matters worse, when I pulled on the rein to pick its head up, the rein broke in my hand. So now I was on a strange bucking horse with just one rein.
Somehow, I managed to pull the horse in a circle until I stopped it. And then I got off. And I apologized to the person for breaking the bridle.
And I learned two valuable lessons that day.
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Always watch the horse go with somebody else before you get on it.
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Always take a close look at the tack before you get on it. Lol.
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I’ve never actually shopped for a horse, and out of the 8 horses I’ve taken in over the years, I only paid for 1 ( a weanling) who’s 25 this year. Her cost was $1000. 
Of the others, which were OTTBs plus one branded Trak, I only rode one before I agreed to take him, and knew it was a good match. Tragically he died young from a massive E. coli infection.
The other 7 I actively disliked until I started working with them. Then each of them were perfect.
So there’s an alternate POV.
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Did your friend’s life circumstances improve at all? Or at least get a little easier? Great story!
Will PM you. It’s not my horse.
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Together with the mare and her offspring over a million I would guess. I never added it up LOL. I just appreciated being able to ride this horse for a few weeks, and feel the power and athleticism and the “class” first hand. I told my friend that she had to ride the mare herself, once the bowed tendon healed (which it did), just to feel it first hand for herself. She did this. And let me know that she HAD done this!!!
As far as I know, the mare is still fertile, and currently still a broodmare. She is a special jewel.
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Oh yes, of course!!! Not so short of cash these days.
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That’s awesome. 
