When you bought your horse

[Xctrygirl]

WHAT EXACTLY was the reason you bought it?

I’m actually really curious nowadays what thing is helping/influencing eventers to buy a horse.

I say this because we’re now generationally seeing fewer riders who have had open space experiences and been able to gallop as younger riders, or been able to experience fox hunting at some point. So when considering a sport where a key piece is cantering/galloping in open spaces, I wonder what is tipping the scales for those who are possibly newer to this piece of the puzzle.

There are no wrong answers… Just curious.

Em

[HeartsDesireEventing]

So, I’ll give two answers, that may get at what you’re looking for (?)

We bought my first event horse when I was 10. I had been taking lessons, and my mom tells the story that she asked me what I wanted to do with horses, and I asked her to let me think about it, went away for a couple days, and came back telling her I wanted to event. There was only one eventing trainer listed in the yellow pages in our area, and she did not have lesson horses, so we had to buy a horse in order to take lessons in eventing. So, I suppose the exact reason was supportive parents! Note that I don’t remember what I went and looked at over those few days that made me decide on eventing, but I don’t regret it. As far as why we bought that specific horse, when we went to try him, I said he felt big and my trainer said that was a good sign (he was a 15.2hh Quarter Horse, and he did eventually run Prelim).

My current horse I had already been riding and knew he would go Prelim, just from the feel he gave me as a 5 year old. A friend and I were partnering on him - she was paying to keep him at her place, and I was putting the training on him - and when he did not pass a pre-purchase for one buyer and then went out on a lease-to-own that went sideways and ended with us taking him back, she offered to relinquish her half to me. I ‘bought’ this horse because of the feel he gave me - super adjustable in the canter, great brain, easy to be around - and he has been my Intermediate horse and recently helped me get the final score for my Bronze medal.

I feel like the question you’re really getting at is why people want to event to begin with. Personally, I love the challenge of it, and the variety. There’s so much to work on, you’re never bored, and the feel of flying around a cross country course with a horse you trust is unbeatable.

[Larksmom]

I bought Dr. Pepper from a friend of my trainer. This was in 1978. I paid $1500.00 for her and she was either 5 or 6 years old. I had started taking lessons with my trainer about a year or so earlier, and just rode her school horses. I had never ridden ‘English’ and I learned about posting and jumping. My trainer was basically a h/j trainer as eventing was barely a thing. BUT the World Championships were happening that year and I went. I had no idea what dressage was, and I didn’t know even enough to walk the xc course! I was completely hooked and have loved it since then.
I had gone to my first horse show that year, and while we were probably terrible, the judge walked among the 3 or 4 of us who didn’t pin, and told one she was on the wrong lead, another was on the wrong diagonal, but when he got to me, he said nothing. After the third time, I asked him why, and he replied with a wave of his hand, oh, she isn’t a Thoroughbred. I was livid. She did have a head as big as a Buick, but I didn’t realize how much of a beauty pageant hunter shows were. After I went to Ky, I never looked back to hunters.
I had Dr. Pepper for 29 years, and she was never sick or sorry. She wasn’t a beauty, and not the most reliable, although when I knew what I wanted she got it.

She was reliable enough for my 10 year old niece to ride her for two years in pony club.
good times.

[LCDR]

Daughter was taking lessons, so I finally bought her a horse. Then came Pony Club. I liked the other parents and some of us started taking riding lessons. I bought a horse and we evented for a few years, but when she left for college eventing alone was not as enjoyable so I moved to fox hunting. Thirty years later I got the urge to event again. and bought a new horse for that, but he did not care much for jumping so we were stuck at novice. So now we are learning dressage, which is also not the horse’s forte but he is going all right at third level. This was a quite expensive, trained at her barn and ridden by a well known east coast eventer. Looking back at the listing videos, I should have noted how hard she had to work to get him around a novice cross country course. In a do over I’d fox hunt first and get in my hours of galloping.

[FromTheGalaxy]

I’ve never purchased a horse that has any eventing experience. I did lease a horse for a while that had quite a bit of jumping and a small amount of eventing experience, and I did my first events on him at starter and BN level before he had to be retired.

My 6 yo Appendix mare I bought as a weanling. She was bred by the university I graduated from, and was out of a mare that I really liked. She was more of a sport horse type than the majority of QH mares the program had. I wanted to attempt to raise a young horse from the “ground up” and knew the horses out of this program had lots of handling and typically good brains. I figured she would be athletic enough to do almost any lower level job, so took a chance on getting something young and unproven. So far she has exceeded my expectations athletically, has a great jump and is a pretty cute mover. Jury is still out on if she wants to be an eventer.

My 8 yo OTTB mare was purchased in spring of 2020 as a 5 year old (I call her my COVID Crisis purchase). I bought her sight unseen off video. She’d had roughly 4 months of let down/retraining with a trainer. My main reason for purchasing her was for her brain, she seemed to be very tolerant of amateur level riding. She didn’t have any XC experience, but I took her schooling within the first month of owning her and she was very brave and proved to be as forgiving as she had looked on video. She is currently pregnant and we’re expecting her first foal in a couple of months.

So basically, as a nervous and kind of crap ammy rider, my main reason for purchasing most of my horses has been based on brain/temperament. I don’t expect either of my current horses to reach the upper levels, but look for ones that I hope will be tolerant of mistakes and trainable enough for me to enjoy bopping around a low level xc course.

[Texarkana]

99% of my horse purchases have been “needs a home” type purchases: OTTBs, cheap auction purchases, people giving away horses, etc.

But exactly a year ago I selected one for myself for no other reason than she was what I wanted: older, sensible, reliable, a brain I could trust to pack me around low level events and shows. Sight unseen off video and a glowing recommendation from her trainer.

Turns out she was pregnant (trainer had no idea). Also now has cancer. Lucky me.

I think I need to go back to freebies off the track and auctions.

[trakehners]

I bought my horse as a two-year-old after he was an absolute flop at the whole racehorse thing, and even though it’s been nearly four years since then, I’m still entirely unable to verbalize what it is about him that made him the horse. All I can really boil it down to is a) there was nothing glaringly wrong with him from a conformation perspective from what I could see in his CANTER ad, b) he was within my (minimal) budget (and quite frankly grossly underpriced), and c) I had a gut feeling. I had the world’s most basic vet check done on him, was told that there was nothing the vet could see that would preclude him from doing whatever I might want to do with him, and that was that.

We’re just getting started on the whole grownup thing and we’ve had some physical challenges with him (namely, he has the proportions of a baby giraffe and strengthening something that floppy can be interesting and has involved the occasional setback, lol), but he has the best brain I’ve ever sat on 98% of the time and when he actually elects to use himself properly he makes even my hunter-inclined friends want to take him in the ring. He’s trainer-approved (my trainer is a small-name 5* rider) which is saying a lot because I bought him with absolutely no input from her and was terrified that she’d hate him when I started riding with her again a few years ago.

We’ve only done some casual XC schooling, and nothing huge, but the easiest way to explain my horse’s attitude toward things is that our first experience with a ditch went like this:

1. “Wtf is that??”
2. Quietly walked through the ditch after looking at it for a minute
3. Trotted over the ditch quiet as can be without any stereotypical baby launching
4. Led his best friend who was supposed to be the experienced one over it after best friend wouldn’t go anywhere near it

(Repeat with banks and the water complex, also.)

We haven’t gone beyond Starter at this point in competition because I am a Disaster in the tack right now and my trainer is still fixing that, but he’s been a pleasure to take XC when we have gone, he’s packed me around hunter paces, and except for the one or two days a year when he reminds us that he has fire-breathing dragons in his pedigree, he’s been an absolute saint when it comes to my ammy nonsense. He’ll run forever, he’s honest without being stupid about it, and he’s so responsive when I ask him for things the right way that it’s really easy to figure out when I’m asking wrong.

I was mostly just hoping for sane and not broken when he got off the trailer since I actually bought him sight-unseen, but I got the best horse I could’ve asked for and he’s got everyone from one boarder’s 6yo daughter to my trainer wrapped around his (metaphorical) little finger, and every judge that’s seen him so far has told me he’s going to be lovely once he grows up a bit and progresses in his education, so he’s already far exceeded my expectations.

[NancyM]

I buy a horse when the horse speaks to me, saying “I am the horse you are looking for”.

[punchy]

I get racehorses i know. Some I take when they’re done, some I buy cheap when they’re done, some I claim when they’re still racing. For all, I’ve bought personalities. I like curious horses with a sense of humor.

[Fiesta01]

Aww. She was a pretty girl!

[subk]

I’m probably not the demographic you were hoping to hear from, but the last horse I purchased for myself was Feb of 2020. In all honesty I was not terribly concerned about the gallop. There was a quality walk (which relates nicely to the canter/gallop) and a decent canter in the ring, so I wasn’t terribly concerned. (This was a rising 4 year old so not a lot of training.) But I’m not buying with the focused intent on finding something to run prelim and above. If it happens fine, but those aren’t my goals anymore. I have a hard time believing that a reasonably athletic horse with decent gaits and a good natural balance can’t be taught what they might lack in innate ability to gallop well enough to go 450mpm.

[BayBondGirl]

The horse that turned me into an eventer was a Percheron x WB mare who I originally purchased as a low level equitation ring mount to help bring up my confidence jumping 3’. She was 15 years old and had a history as a Prelim (or maybe Intermediate) eventer, so an absolute schoolmaster. I never had any aspirations to event, as I was/am a weeny.

I found out soon after buying her that we have a local drag hunt club and decided to take her because Downton Abbey dreams. She was foot perfect, so stinking bold and I realized that maybe I could try eventing? Since she was clearly made for that type of thing.

She took me up through to 0.90m without a single XC lesson because she was such a packer. She took my husband from non-rider to 0.80m in the space of about 2 years almost exclusively under my (non-pro) tutelage. I have been entirely ruined by her; she’s worth more than her weight in gold. She’ll be 23 in March and is currently living the quiet life being spoiled and lightly hacked by a leasor.

My second event horse was bought specifically with the goal to event up to 1.00m (maybe lol), but I purchased her as a foal - she’s coming 3 this spring so we have a ways to go! A number of local eventers (some of them good friends of mine) own super ammy-friendly Clydesdale crosses by a local stallion, so I had my eye on the breeder’s page for a while. I didn’t want to buy a baby, but this breeder only has 2-3 foals a year and they are scooped up FAST, and they almost never sell as adults. 1 of them went to 2* level. The stars aligned and I bought my filly who is a Clyde x WB. She’ll be starting lightly under saddle this summer, so time will tell if she’s suitable for the job; but all her siblings have been exceptional at packing around the low levels!

I love draft crosses for their athleticism and ammy-friendly natures, and there’s a good chance I won’t ever own any other breed now.

[fanfayre]

The last horse I bought was 18 years ago. He was 2 weeks old, but I saw his picture when he was 2 days old, and something in his eye in the photo caught my eye and called to me.

He was by an Irish Sport Horse stallion who had been gelded just after my guy’s dam was confirmed in foal (in fact, my guy was the stallion’s final foal and led to me naming him on his IDSHNA papers Final King in gaelic). This now-gelding was sold to California and became a mid- to upper-level eventer (Prelim/Int) there. My colt’s dam was an ex-YR TB eventer, so his eventing roots run deep.

The colt grew up and I started him and began eventing him, taking him to Pre-training (Novice), but when he was 5 I had to sell him for my lack of funds. I had 2 other horses as well- the homebred mare I use as my screen name, and her (also homebred) daughter, the photo I use in the avatar, so C was really the only saleable one. Luckily, a really lovely girl in the neighbouring town bought him, and I have known/competed with her coach for many years previously and since, so I KNEW he would have a good home, and he did.
A few years passed, and the lovely girl grew up, went to university, and was unable to offer C the time he needed/deserved. Again, luckily, her coach was in need of a good horse right then, so C went 2 doors down and became the coach’s eventer. With this coach, C went through Training and into Prelim, even doing the T-3-day @ Rebecca farm a few years ago.
Another lovely young woman bought C from the coach and absolutely doted on him, and then C went to another nice lady who then sadly needed to find him a new home.

Here’s the twist in the story: this most recent home was just around the corner from the coach/previous owner’s home, and when she was told of the need to find C a new home, she facilitated the purchase 5 weeks ago by his original owner (that’s ME!!!), so I finally, after 13 years, have my wonderful boy back again to have a little fun with him for a few years until it’s time to retire him. [I forgot to add, to my original telling, that a 2nd twist is: the coach/previous owner also knew I had just lost my Mum unexpectedly, and needed a bit of cheering up]. He won’t leave my ownership again until it’s his time to cross the rainbow bridge, no matter how much ramen I’m going to have to eat.

[AMWookey]

I didn’t buy my current horse to be an event horse. I bought her because she healed my heart, and everyday I worked with her before I owned her, she made me happy.

The fact that this scrawny 15.1 TB who was miles underweight when a fellow COTH member pulled her out of a field bc we felt bad for her and she looked atrocious, turning into a 16hh jumping machine with terrible dressage is icing on the cake. Is she what I would look for again? I mean, maybe not, see my comments on the MER thread, lol. But it doesn’t matter, because I hope to never have to look for another her. She brings me joy every single day, I can hop on and ride around bareback one day, go for a gallop in the woods another, and then we can go show. She lives at home with me now, and first Canadian winter we haven’t rode much, and it honestly doesn’t matter because she is home with me.

Now, since I’m fortunate to have this horse who gives me wings and makes me feel like a kid again, I would choose our next horse very differently LOL. Something like the schoolmaster Boyd has for sale would do very nicely

[clanter]

@Xctrygirl

I wonder what is tipping the scales for those who are possibly newer to this piece of the puzzle.

When our horses got tired of doing what they were supposed to be doing we just took our show and competitive trail horses into the new to them discipline of Eventing as a refresher, They accepted the challenge with an open point of view, did respectfully

[2DogsFarm]

My Eventing experience is a mere blip on the radar.
My TB was bought as a 6yo to be my Show Hunter.
A job he did admirably until I got bored with the oh-so-predictable arena courses.
I’d always hacked him on trails, jumping any natural obstacles I found, so seguing into Eventing happened naturally when DH & I moved our horses to a barn with 40ac that included a Xcountry course with BN to Training obstacles.
We had a ditch, banks, tables, a keyhole & a water crossing to play with.
Horse was in his early teens then.
I only ever showed him BNH, but we schooled toTraining there.
He was all heart with a spoonful of 'tude
I carried a crop & when I felt him think about a fence, I’d give him a tap.
Resulting in him giving me a highly offended snort & positively attacking the rest of the course.
I had him 20yrs, miss him still.
DH (stage left) & me at our 1st rated Event. No pics of us Xcountry

[Rel6]

I’m predominantly a h/j rider, but I’ve fox hunted a bit and dabbled in eventing. I bought my horse because he was unflappable and kind and had one of the nicest naturally balanced canters I’ve sat on. That canter made me so excited to take him out into a field and gallop him.

[beowulf]

I picked up my last horse because in his jog video (actively still racing) his handler was 3-legged lame and the horse adopted the teeniest, tiniest trot to accommodate him.

As far as your musing about what buyers are looking for these days… I think that I (and maybe many of the responses on this thread) am not the demographic you’re looking for, since I buy cheap/needs-a-home types versus horses aimed for a buyer market.

But… just my experience being on the outside looking in, I think adult amateurs, when buying for their children, are looking for competitive, safe horses. These are very expensive, so they sell fast while the competitive-but-not-safe might go to gritty YRs, and the safe-but-not-competitive are usually snapped up by adult amateurs with their own show aspirations.

What is really moving right now in my circle are young, big, elastic horses. They don’t even need to be very broke.

The buyer demographic has shifted a little bit. I think there are more players in the game that have deeper pockets and big show aspirations, while the fringe and/or on-a-shoestring-budget amateurs have been pushed out to other disciplines. This has changed the market local market since the big buyers tend to look abroad or in other areas (Ocala) first. There’s more demand for made horses for competitive young riders or competitive financially-well-off amateurs than there was even ten years ago.

[endlessclimb]

I bought her because I liked her color, her big hip, and the timing/price was right. I bought her sight unseen with only a free video, I didn’t even see her under saddle.

She hasn’t turned out to be what I hoped so far, but we’re still plinking away at it. She may ultimately want to be a forever First level/2’6" horse. I don’t know that she will ever event, or trail ride reliably alone.

That said, she’s just about to turn 6 so we have some time to work things out. She was approved Hanoverian this past year, so she’s decent quality.

[Live_Wire]

There’s not a tangible explanation. He had all the pieces for the most part, but he looked tired. Not physically tired, he just sort of looked like was starring straight through you. I couldn’t leave him there. I bought him in tandem with another gelding that i originally intended to keep, but as it turned out, he needed me less. I’m happy for it. I’m absolutely smitten by my horse and he’s saved me time and time again.

Generally, if the horse has a nice, open shoulder, quality walk, and clean enough legs - i’ll consider it. From my WS days, I was taught you can always develop the trot, but the walk will tell you a lot about a horse’s genuine quality of gaits.