Was it worth the wait? Buying the youngster ( weanling, yearling, two yo ) success or fail stories?

[theresak]

I did it (well actually my mom made the purchase) when I was a senior in high school and selling my first horse. We bought a yearling from my trainer. He is a Dutch/TB cross from an unproven stallion and a polo pony.

I got lucky, really lucky, with this horse. Right now we’re out with a hopefully minor injury and we’ve had weird health issues and one serious injury crop up. But I’ve been able to train him through the levels, show well at regionals, get my bronze and sliver, and we are schooling GP.

My trainer got him going under saddle at 2.5 years and did about 3 months of riding on him and then I took over with about 3 months of coaching before I moved away. I’ve done all of the riding since then with help from lessons and clinics.

He’s not a a very fancy horse but very trainable - we were never going to do the young horse classes but we were consistently well placed at regionals at multiple levels. There are some conformation things that don’t help our efforts but we’ve just kept putting time in.

I would love to do this all over again - I’d like the next young horse to have a slightly better trot, canter with more jump, and better conformation of the neck and throat latch. I want to take more time sacking out and de-spooking and get the basics down better the second time around.

If I did it again with a new young horse, I feel like I might go through a few youngsters that I’ll get going and then sell if they don’t work out. I figure I can’t get this lucky twice in a row.

[netg]

i’m thrilled I did it.

When I bought my first dressage horse I went to look at some unstarted Trakehners from a nearly local breeder. I decided to get a little older and started at the time, but I absolutely fell in love with one of the youngsters who had a great personality but was going to be mammoth - and I am 5’1". I probably would have bought him if he were shorter.

I started doing research knowing some day I wanted to buy young and unstarted or barely started, and I discovered I consistently liked horses by that guy’s sire, Oskar II. There is a thread in the breeding forum here about Oskar, and after I commented on it I started corresponding with one of the breeders who at the time had a filly who was about 3 months old. Had I been in the right situation, I would have probably bought her right then. By some miracle, she was still available at 2 1/2 when I was on horse property and in a situation to be able to buy her. I knew what her two full siblings and older half brother were like, her sire had been a GP dressage horse, dam had been a hunter/jumper but had athleticism all over her bloodlines and I most often prefer jumper breeding in horses. I knew she was the hottest of her siblings, and I like heat because I tend to have a prozac-like effect on horses, I got to ride her sister who was green at the time and I was severely injured - and she just worked to try to understand what I wanted, and let out this great big sigh when she figured out what I wanted after patiently trying to figure out the response I wanted before that by giving me different answers. Ellie is much like her big sister to ride, just with a bit more of a constant “buzz” of energy running all the time - which I love.

I bought a young horse expecting to get a lot of training help and supervision, and my trainer started her and has taught me huge amounts of how to help a sensitive youngster feel safe and happy and want to work hard under saddle. I knew she was likely to mature slowly given what I saw of her relatives, and have no young horse/early goals - we are working toward GP someday, not huge scores now. So for her, we have worked on the brain and waited for the body to catch up. At 7 she isn’t quite strong enough to show second level yet, so we’re showing training and first to let her have a simple year of showing where she feels no pressure, and hopefully next year we get to show second. The only thing I haven’t liked is her heat cycle problems - she has a pain problem when she develops a follicle on her right ovary due to its location. It’s not genetic nor a problem which was predictable, and which we keep her to about 3 heat cycles/year through oxytocin use. She’s not really a surgical candidate to fix the problem, and it’s hard to see her hurting each time she goes into heat. She has taken to me and my trainer like glue when she’s hurting, sure our presence helps it feel better. I believe because of the pain issues and her preference not to eat while hurting her physical development has been even slower than it would have been normally, but the luxury of being an amateur with a desire to enjoy my horse into her 20s is that it’s not a problem.

I have been amazed that she has always had laser focus when I’ve ridden. Yes, we kept her sessions very short when she was started late in her 3 year old year, and through her 4 year old year they were still very short, but when I need to work on something on me, as long as she gets praised for her behavior she will just happily do something over and over and over if necessary for me to figure it out. When I do, she gives that same big sigh her sister did in my ride on her, and it cracks me up every time. She also has the piaffe just about every Oskar baby did, naturally and easily, and when she was very green and would want to look outside a 20m circle she would end up doing one tempis - look out and change, bend corrected and change back, look out and change, bend corrected and change back, look out and change, etc. Now she sometimes ends up doing one tempis when we’re working on straightness and she gets confused which lead she’s supposed to be on. We’ve never intentionally gone out to school changes, but there have been many times I goofed in the transition, got the wrong lead, and asked her to switch to the lead I meant to pick up - or at the end of a lengthening I hold too much with outside rein when I try to ride shoulder fore and she switches, then switches back when I ask her. Just overall, she’s very sensitive and very responsive which I love - especially since my left leg doesn’t work properly - but she’s also just a hard working pleasure to work with.

[quietann]

Not a dressage horse, but …

It didn’t work out for me. I bought a suckling, based on breeder’s reputation and recommendation. She was a very sweet filly, very trainable, a born-broke type. She stayed with her breeder until she was 18 months old, and got a really good introduction to Being a Good Citizen. I visited a few times, and the experiences were in general pretty good. But there was something eating at the back of my brain about it.

When I brought her here, I boarded her with an experienced breeder of sport ponies, where she was in at night and out in a herd with young mares and fillies during the day. It was a good choice. I visited a couple of times a week, did some very basic work with her but probably pushed a little too much. I just didn’t have the feel or the timing the breeder did, and I discovered that babies are way less forgiving than older, trained horses. Things started going south fairly quickly, and the breeder and I decided that she’d go back to the breeder for more training a little earlier than we had planned.

All of these problems would have been deal-able if I’d actually liked the filly, but we just didn’t mesh well. I’m your typical older adult re-rider ammie, so that’s actually important (there are several others on this thread.) Shortly after she went back to her breeder to be boarded, the breeder called me and asked me if I really still wanted her. I didn’t even have to think about it. I’d had enough. She’s going to be a perfect family Morgan, but not for me. The breeder bought her back, sold her shortly thereafter to someone who just loves her, and the breeder is starting her under saddle.

[Personal_Champ]

I bred my mare when I was out of the saddle for brain surgery. Resulting gelding is currently 3 years old. I foaled him out and have done all the work with him myself. He lunges w/t, and I backed him late last fall.

He will get 30-60 days under saddle this late summer/fall, and then get turned back out for the winter, coming back into work next spring as a 4 year old. So far I’ve been pleased, he’s on target to be taller than momma, with a higher neck attachment and a stronger hind leg, all of which I wanted.

[PDDT]

I bought a 4 month old filly. I am an adult ammie who boards. We had two horses at the time. It was a really fun experience “bringing up” a baby - but by the time I added the cost of boarding and training her, buying a young, started horse would have been as cheap or cheaper and you know what the gaits are like and to some degree the personality. If I had my own farm I would do it again - it was really fun, but when you board the cost of keeping the horse and training it make it an expensive gamble.

[ASBJumper]

Not quite the same situation as I don’t have big time competitive aspirations, but I have been not just buying youngsters but mostly BREEDING my own youngsters for over a decade now. I am in the “i want a clean slate” camp, but I take it one step further in that I want to not only know the entire history of the horse but I also want to know the dam really well, hence I breed my mares that I know are sound, sane and correct and lovely to ride, so I figure i’m hedging my bets even more. I know too many breeders who use mares to produce “ammie-friendly” foals who were rank under saddle or who couldn’t stay sound even in moderate work. No thanks. Most buyers think to ask all about the youngster’s history but don’t ask nearly enough questions about the parents. I don’t trust most people’s definition of “ammie-friendly” anyway, so I use my own mares and since i’ve started breeding my own, lo and behold, I stopped getting hurt. :lol:

Other than my first who unfortunately was born with a very crooked right front leg (other than that she was everything i wanted!), I have been beyond thrilled with all the young horses i’ve bred, and the one young mare i’ve bought, in the last 13 years. And I backed and started them all myself, and did some showing at local and recognized shows. I sold all my homebreds, for different reasons. Life circumstances, mostly. I board so I can’t collect them - hubby would kill me. I still own the two mares that I bought young, though. One was my first horse and to this day I wish I had been able to buy her as a baby as the few issues I did have with her could’ve easily been avoided had I bought her and raised her myself, instead of buying her as a coming 5 yr old.

I will never, ever, buy a “made” horse. Zero interest. But then, like I said, my main goals are not to move up the levels and be uber-competitive, so… different strokes.

[Mukluk]

I think I would enjoy the experience… but I will need to wait until I have time to devote to a youngster… therefore not until I retire. Luckily I have good genes and should have at least 15 years of good health post retirement!!!

[RTF]

At this point, I am very fortunate to have my own place to bring along the youngsters. I have brought some along to the training/ first level stage, with some mileage. That’s when I seem to loose my mind, and sell them on, you know, when they start to get fun. I currently have 2, two yos. One is my eventual dream horse, in the making. I also know that until you have ridden them for six months, what you have is a bit of a mystery. I looked at a very nice youngster today, with the thoughts of adding another prospect…but it just wasn’t a fit. So, I will keep looking. I am fortunate to have one to ride, plus a couple of training horses. I just want something to fill in my spare time while the others are growing up. My budget is tight! And I don’t need another horse, but if the right one comes along, I would gladly bring it home. I am being pretty picky right now, much more so than in my past when I would buy on impulse. The stories are wonderful to read though, I appreciate all of your sharing!

[RWR]

I purchased my mare as a foal and it has been a fabulous experience. She’ll turn 4 in about a month and it has been a pleasure to bring her along. I feel like having a really strong relationship with her has really helped me with her under saddle training and she doesn’t have any baggage. Definitely worth the wait in my book and it actually went by really fast!

[Pocket_Pony]

I guess you have to define “worth the wait” and what it means to you. There are so many factors that go into it that for some it is and for some it isn’t. It isn’t cheap raising a youngster and if you want to buy the horse as a 2 year old that you couldn’t afford as an 8 year old that is competing and doing well, then you still have to pay for training and shows to get it to that 8-year-old stage that you’ve probably spent more than you would have had you bought it at 8 in the first place. And you might not even get there for any sort of reason because, well, horses.

For me I bought a 2 year old because I had shopped with/for other people and saw what was out there and all the messes of bad riding, lame horses, unsuitable horses, whatever. I figured I had enough skills and experience to at least not do any worse and turn my horse into a wreck. For me, I’m not looking for strictly a dressage horse. I want a horse that I can jump and trail ride on and do some cow play dates or whatever. I figured the best way to get what I wanted was to buy a horse who was bred with the ammy in mind and who was bred for the right reasons, then I could create the type of horse I wanted with patience and without the pressure to get into the show ring.

So for MY reasons, yes, it has paid off . . . especially since the journey is equally important to me. What is the destination, anyway? I want a partner, a friend, a horse to have adventures with and who will be sound (knock wood) and rideable for many many many years. My destination is yet to be mapped.

Pony will be five next month. I take her trail riding (just crossed over/through water this year, yay!), to clinics with cowboys, to dressage lessons, and to jumping lessons. She’s done her first dressage show and first h/j show and was perfectly behaved both times. It is gratifying to know that the time and work I put in to her development has paid off with a great pony (of course her breeding is a huge part of it).

After a jumping lesson where we did some passaging (not on purpose) to impress the herd of geldings running around (they weren’t impressed), I found that to be more fun and grin-inducing than jumping so perhaps we’ll be headed to the dressage arena as our discipline.

[Kyrabee]

I usually have bought youngsters…long yearlings.

The first was a joy. Super easy to start. Beautiful bay Arab gelding with lots of chrome. Good gaits but bad joints:mad:. He got early onset hock arthritis at 7. I rehomed him and he turned into a superior mountain pony after his hocks fused. Then I found a 9yo Arab gelding. Nicely broke, nice gaits and level headed. But, we just didn’t bond. I sold him on and bought another youngster.

She was an Arab/WB cross. Another easy, easy start. I got her up to second level but my back just could not take her trot. She was a bit upright in the pasterns. I sold her on and got a full WB this time.

WB was average but I wanted an all rounder. At 2, she looked nicely balanced (big mistake I guess…not waiting until 3 to look at her). NO real FEI aspirations. But God was not kind to her in her growth. She didn’t get much taller but she got as long as a bus. She was an easy start though. Canter took a long while to establish due to her length. She just wasn’t going to make a dressage horse. Putting her together was a real chore. I sold her as a pleasure horse.

So, yes, I bought another youngster. A half Andalusian coming 2 filly. I had some trouble early with her reactivity but perservered. OK I finally got one that could easily make to PSG and MY damned body gave out on me with multiple issues. Bad foot, bad hip and a chronic pain in the butt. Just when I got her to second level and training third :disgust:. That was like 5 years ago. I have been able to putz around with her but not really ride and train as one should. I recently had surgery in the hopes to fix the chronic pain in the butt I have had. I had a spur on my tailbone and recently had the tailbone removed. If I can’t get back to riding as I want by next year, I will sell her and call it a career.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the youngsters. I like the bond I get through doing all that groundwork before undersaddle work and although I’ve never made it past second level, I don’t regret taking this path. It is hard to evaluate unbroken youngsters for the future but I think if you are a competent horse person, MOST youngsters will turn out fine. I have never had one that I couldn’t work through the minor behavior problems that presented themselves. And like several have mentioned, you aren’t buying those behavior issues which often present themselves as a bit surprise! With the youngsters I know their progression every step of the way.

Susan

[starsandsun]

I purchased a six-week old; love at first sight! He is now 5 and is a great horse. Fantastic gaits, great mind, unflappable. I have a trainer I work with but I get on regularly and he is worth the time I waited for him to be ready to ride.

[outerbanks77]

I’ve started several horses, including the 2.5 year old gelding my non-horsey parents bought me when I was 12. In fact, I’ve at best gotten all my horses as 3-4 year olds with 60-90 days on them; if someone handed me a broke horse I wouldn’t know what to do.

So fast forward to 2015, I finally decided to buy a nice, fancy horse. I would have preferred a started 3-4 yo, but didn’t find what I wanted within my budget, and given my history with starting a handful of horses and working with greenies, but jumped in and bought a 2.5 year old GOV filly form a reputable small breeder. I was careful to not buy a giant, hot WB with giant gaits, and carefully researched bloodlines expected to give an ammy-friendly temperament. The mare I bought was rated a “2” on the temperament scale by the breeder, and the stallion line is frequently referred to as an ammy-friendly line, so I thought I was golden. I did more ground work with this mare than with any of my other greenies, and felt she was well-prepared for backing. The first attempt at trotting, she launched me instantly, and short story made long, has been at the trainers’ racking but bills for the last six months because she bucks like an NFR saddle bronc (there was an accident caused by another trainer in there, exacerbating the problems). I don’t know if I’ll ever have the guts or velcro in my butt to ride this mare, so I’ve opted to step back to a green Appendix mare that is not as fancy, but at least I know I can ride her. Losing the year+, not to mention the money, has been really discouraging and frustrating. Luckily I wasn’t injured any worse with the surprise bucking.

If I decide to sell this mare, I doubt I’ll buy another baby, but if I do, I’ll definitely turn it over to a pro for the first few months of riding after this debacle.

[outerbanks77]

@outerbanks77

I’ve started several horses, including the 2.5 year old gelding my non-horsey parents bought me when I was 12. In fact, I’ve at best gotten all my horses as 3-4 year olds with 60-90 days on them; if someone handed me a broke horse I wouldn’t know what to do.

So fast forward to 2015, I finally decided to buy a nice, fancy horse. I would have preferred a started 3-4 yo, but didn’t find what I wanted within my budget, and given my history with starting a handful of horses and working with greenies, but jumped in and bought a 2.5 year old GOV filly form a reputable small breeder. I was careful to not buy a giant, hot WB with giant gaits, and carefully researched bloodlines expected to give an ammy-friendly temperament. The mare I bought was rated a “2” on the temperament scale by the breeder, and the stallion line is frequently referred to as an ammy-friendly line, so I thought I was golden. I did more ground work with this mare than with any of my other greenies, and felt she was well-prepared for backing. The first attempt at trotting, she launched me instantly, and short story made long, has been at the trainers’ racking but bills for the last six months because she can buck like an NFR saddle bronc (there was an accident caused by another trainer in there, exacerbating the problems). I don’t know if I’ll ever have the guts or velcro in my butt to ride this mare, so I’ve opted to step back to a green Appendix mare that is not as fancy, but at least I know I can ride her. Losing the year+, not to mention the money, has been really discouraging and frustrating. Luckily I wasn’t injured any worse with the surprise bucking.

If I decide to sell this mare, I doubt I’ll buy another baby, but if I do, I’ll definitely turn it over to a pro for the first few months of riding after this debacle.

[Arcadien]

I bred one and purchased several yearlings. None worked out in the end, had issues with size, soundness, temperament, finding out I really didn’t enjoy those early baby horse years, and mangled my confidence. Found all my youngsters more suitable homes, but by the time I came to my senses I think I’d spent about $30K - maybe even 40K? over those years. Yep, more than enough to buy 1 or 2 horses of my dreams, had I been willing to wait. I got swept into the baby horse thing by peer pressure, I realize now - it was what ‘everyone’ was doing, and its easy to get excited about the possibilities. If you’re a trainer or need upper level competitive type I could see it, but for the average lower level ammy owner like me, I think its usually a mistake (unless one really really loves all those baby stages, which I know some people who do).

Henceforth I only buy 5-6 or older, and what I can sit on and give a thorough test ride! Wala, happy horse owner again!

[Jackie_Cochran]

I am too old and disabled to do this now. Long ago I did buy weanlings (3 Arab colts, 1 Paso Fino filly) and a 3 year old Arab mare that was just halter broke. Nothing really worked out for me or the horses after a bad car wreck and my MS.

BUT I found out, through training these horses to ride, how an unruined horse with proper ground training felt under a rider. I learned how to build up a horse physically so riding did not hurt it. This gave me a clear mental “picture” of sensations and movement that guides me today when I ride horses that have been badly trained or somewhat ruined either mentally or physically (and nowadays that is all I get to ride.) Raising the young horses, doing the ground training, and then the actual riding was a great education for me.

Horribly expensive though. A green broke horse is a better bet. My first weanling colt as a yearling ended up kicked in the elbow, green stick fracture. I had bought him thinking of endurance, after the injury that dream ended.

[Goforward]

I bought a well bred warmblood as a weanling. I wouldn’t do it again. I love him dearly and he’ll be with me for life but he’s not suited mentally to be a competition dressage horse. That did not become evident until he was started under saddle. If I had met him as a 4 year old, it’s unlikely that I ever would have considered buying him. He’s got great bloodlines, lovely build and powerful movement but his mind is delicate. I’d only buy green broke and older from now on.

[The_Hobbit]

I really think it all depends on your goals and your budget. The pros to buying a started horse are that you don’t have to play crash test dummy and you have a better idea about how they ride, feel, and will ultimately mature. You also save some time assuming they were correctly started with no major holes. Of course the difficulty with this route is that if you’re wanting something with talent, brains, AND some training it won’t come cheap. In dressage land I would actually say that it’s nearly impossible to find a nice (i.e. FEI quality) 5 year old that has all of those qualities and is actually for sale. I assume that’s because the really top/IT horses that people have just aren’t for sale.

Going the youngster route allows for a more affordable prospect and the chance to make sure the training is correct but it also comes with the acknowledgement that you’re essentially buying “hopes and dreams” so who knows how it will go. You also need to have the ability and support system to bring them along. Even though that doesn’t sound super inviting, it’s basically my preferred route at the moment. I think having them from yearlings/2-year-olds on up and developing them yourself really solidifies the relationship and makes the initial training that much easier/better. And while you don’t really know exactly what you’re getting with a youngster, breeding can give you a pretty solid idea along with watching how they move free and interact with people. My current KWPN guy turns 7 this year, I got him when he was 1.5 years old. There have been some sticky moments and some fabulous ones but I would 100% do it again as I absolutely love him (and he knows it). He’s always been clever (for better and occasionally THE WORST) but this year in particular he really feels like he’s entirely with me. I’m actually quite excited about how he’s coming along. He’s only showing 3.3 right now but he’s schooling PSG and a bit more. His canter and walk work are easy but the trot has taken him some time to develop enough strength to carry all the movement he has so that’s been a challenge. But still, had I tried to purchase him even started I wouldn’t have ever been able to afford him and actually doubt he’d have been for sale. Here’s a video of he and I schooling a line of 3s and a line of 2s toward the camera. It was maybe the third time I’d ask him for the 2s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqhTjLdS_KE

[Pocket_Pony]

Lovely, The Hobbit!

[North_Dakota]

So I didn’t buy him, but my SO is a dressage rider and opted to do a bit of breeding for horses for himself. We’ve got a 2 and 3y/o. I’m meh about the 2yr old, my SO adores him though so that’s good! I’ve been head over heels in love with the 3yr old since he was born. Last summer we did a lot of ground work, wearing tack, getting used to someone on a mounting block. He wasn’t a fan of the mounting block, so I just chipped away until it was a non-event. The last young horse my SO had I backed it, but have other stuff going on in my life so this one went to my trainers for 60 days and just came home. I watched him go/rode him when he was at my trainer’s before he came home. We’ll see where things go, he could go be a dressage horse but I’m hoping he wants to be a jumper (where my interest is). The one thing is, he’s going to be big. I would be thrilled if he grew another in inch of so max and filled out a bit more and stopped growing. His mom’s influence is very strong in all her babies and they are all quite tall and solid horses, so lots of growing left. He’s about 16.2 now.

We’ve talked about in the future buying young horses, and that is an option on the table for us (as long as I’m willing to get on them at 3 and 4!) but my SO really likes the breeding/foaling, raising the foal side of it so based on that we’ll probably go that route.