Everyone has their own preference but the major things I look for besides soundness are character aptitude, pleasantness, and having some sort of consistent mileage record. Keep in mind that I am not buying for UL, but for my own amateur enjoyment for eventing.
I trawl through the listings fairly often – while I need another horse like a hole in the head, I do enjoy looking (and buying :winkgrin: ).
My general first criteria is I want a horse that is naturally pleasant with a soft eye. I want this attribute because I am an amateur and I want a horse who wants to work with me, not against me. This suggests a base “work ethic” in the horse’s character that IMHO you cannot train into them. I am drawn to the listings where the horse has one ear on the handler, kind of “watches” and matches the pace of his/her handler, and demonstrates a general charisma that suggests he wants to be around people. This horse happens to be one I took home, but is a good example of what I mean by a horse that is mindful of his people without being dull: click
Another good example of a horse with the kind eye/good aptitude I was impressed enough to consider despite the soundness bobbles: click
That is not the same as “good ground manners”, as I’ve found a few bad actors that have good ground manners but are not very tractable. I want a horse that has a very kind eye. I was taught to look for that eye by my mother and she has never been wrong with the horses she’s purchased.
In general, I tend to be drawn to horses that have big and uphill shoulders, broad limbs, deep stifles and hocks with lots of angle. I don’t necessarily harp too much on the neck connection or length (as a LL rider, it’s not as important as it would be for an UL trainer) but I prefer a horse that has a mid-set connection to the neck. Too low and we can have trouble with collection – too high and you run the risk of having a horse that tends to, in my experience, want to curl behind the vertical. I don’t want a long or weak back, and I will rarely consider a horse that has a short, upright femur combined with straight hocks - gooserumped & straight behind is almost always a no go for me. Some limb asymmetry is ok - the best jumper I ever owned was a quick and fast little TB that was all of 15.3h that had a slightly crooked front knee - it never bothered him.
Height and gender are generally not a factor for me - my perfect size is 15.3-16.2, though I do really well on the smaller horses (think Dixieland Band and co). I do not want a horse over 17h personally as I have found they can be quite hard to maintain soundness-wise.
As far as jewelry goes, generally, anything in the knee or fetlock (chips, fractures, etc) I will not consider. Bows, older suspensories up front, osselets, and other minor jewelry is okay. Bows do not bother me hardly ever as I find 9 times out of 10 they are caused by too much work/stress on very unbalanced feet. Correct the feet and the bows never bother them, at least in my TBs. Any sort of visible scarring on their pelvis, SI, I will not do.
When watching a video I listen and look for clarity and evenness in the steps. I want a clear 4 beat walk with lots of swing and activity in the HQ. The walk is the gait I weigh the most - good walk generally means good canter, great walk generally means fantastic canter - I want overtrack and looseness. I want the trot to look light and comfortable, 2 beat and even cadence. I expect even tracking and prefer overtracking, but sometimes with the mileage/stall time that racehorses see, you really don’t know how their trot will turn out until they’re let down. Some will surprise you how much they change in a month. I’ve only test-ridden three TBs on the track as generally, most trainers don’t want strangers on their horses unless they know you for liability reasons, but if I am riding a horse on the track around the shedrow, I am feeling them for evenness, especially behind. I do not judge their undersaddle knowledge or exuberance.
As far as movement, I’ve had 2 movers and I’ve had 10 movers. Of course I am naturally drawn to a more aesthetic, flowing movement that would be compatible in the dressage ring, but want I want more is soundness. Rarely do we get to see a track listing canter, but if you can watch their race replays it’s a good way to get a gauge for the gallop. I prefer an effortless, easy gallop that is open and not too flat or downhill.
In the mileage department, I tend to look at horses that have more than 10 starts. I want a horse with no obvious gaps in his workouts and races. I’ve found whether or not you get an unstarted horse or a horse with 60 starts, you’re going to have physical track baggage to work through/over, so I have not found that the # of starts correlates directly with the amount of baggage. Some horses come off 70 starts with their legs clean as a whistle, others are unraced because they couldn’t hold up to a basic work schedule. I find that “unstarted” does not always = clean slate in terms of body jewelry, and that it’s important to assess the horse in front of you for any potential soundness issues. TBs are bred to race so IMHO, barring freak accidents or the rare case of a horse who is just too big or too slow, I really think it’s a red flag when a TB can’t even make it to one race on their record. Conversely, I have found that the horses with 30+ starts in their career tend to be quite stoic but sound, if they can make it past 30 starts without major breakdown I think they stand a very good chance to be a solid sport-horse in a second career.
Lastly, the pedigree – there are certain lines I am drawn to time and time again and Private Account, AP Indy & sons (Old Trieste and Golden Missile especially) In Reality and horses with lots of Bold Ruler & Nasrullah in their pedigree tend to catch my eye the fastest. I really like the sport horses I am seeing come from Blackminnaloushe as of late, as well as Saddler’s Wells (Galileo, Perfect Soul). Consistently I am finding that Stonesider horses are big and gorgeous, but I am not convinced of their soundness post-track which is a shame because IMHO they are absolutely incredible movers. I’ve liked Say Florida Sandy’s kids so much that we’ve ended up with two and IMHo they are incredible horses. Both of ours (one is owned by my younger adult sister who got back into riding last year) have fantastic temperaments: they are trainable and workmanlike and while they are not difficult they are a little sensitive but sensible – just the type of horse I like.
There are very few lines, pedigree-wise, that I won’t touch but in general In Excess and his son Indian Charlie are one of them. I am very enamored with In Excess’ damline and wish there were more stallions with Sing Sing up close as IMHO he was a major contributor to soundness and jump ability but that’s probably a subject for another thread. I have also really loved the Dixie Union and DLB sons I’ve had or sat on but more than one have died unexpectedly including my own, so I give his line a wide berth despite dearly loving the gelding DLB gave me.
