The Novice Horseman

I talked about the mature horse and their many good attributes for a novice owner in my last post.  Let’s talk about the next choice to be made.  This choice is a personal preference.  This choice is gender, whether to get a mare, gelding or stallion.

The first on my list for a novice of what not to buy would be a stallion.  Yes I know, they are so majestic and powerful.  You may be like me and grew up on Walter Farley’s "The Black Stallion" books.  I actually thought as a young girl that a stallion was my ultimate horse.  Well, I grew up and found out that stallions are hormones on 4 legs!  During breeding season, any mare in heat that comes within 500 ft of them is fair game.  Breeding season is as long as there are mares in heat.  In today’s world, that is all year long.  With breeders trying to get the 1st foal of the year as close to Jan 1 as possible, mares are artificially stimulated with lights in the barns starting as early as November.  Stallions are actively breeding from Februray through June or July.  When you throw in August & some of September, this is almost the entire year!  If you are a kind soul and have trouble with discpline, if you are hot headed, or if you are just a bit scared of horses in general, a stallion could be a dangerous animal.  I know I will hear from stallion owners that say they have the best mannered stallion in the world.  I will agree that I have come across some very outstanding stallions.  I still say a stallion is not a good candidate for a novice.

The actual 1st choice for most would be the gelding.  Geldings are castrated male horses.  They are, for the most part, even tempered.  Yes they have personalities and even they can have a bad day, but what creature doesn’t.  You will also run into some that are unruly and bad tempered, but that is true of even the mare or stallion.  Most geldings aren’t bothered by the mare’s heat cycle.  My experience with the geldings that I’ve owned is that they are looking for a playmate.  They don’t care if the buddy is a mare, stallion or gelding.  They are all about playing.  Life is good for them.

My personal preference is the mare.  My mares have all been sweet natured.  They learn fast and are always wanting to please.  They seem to handle each individual that rides them better.  (Remember in my About Me page, I told you my horses are school horses.)  They do have a down side.  They have a heat cycle every 28 or so days from spring to autumn.  Some, one of mine included, cycles all year long.  Some mares will tease anything in the pasture or stall next to them.  Some mares can get very witchy at this time, but then again so do some women.  You don’t have to breed your mare.  They are more than just a baby vessel.   

Like I said above, the gender question is purely a personal preference.  In my book, you can’t go wrong with either a mare or gelding.  The stallion, on the the other hand, is best left to the more experienced and the professional.

Have you done your homework?  Have you figured out your budget?  I truly hope you didn’t skip that assignment.  You are finding out that even if you have your own place, owning a horse is NOT CHEAP!  It’s better to find out the cost of horse ownership on the front end of this process.  You don’t want to find out in a couple of months that you have to sell your dream horse because you under estimated the cost of upkeep.  It is far more important for you to make your mortgage payment and feed your family. 

If you’ve found that your finances are in order and you can afford the maintenance of a horse, you are going to ask what horse is best for me?  For a novice owner, there are sooo many choices.  There are also some that you should steer away from for now.  I’m going to break this down into several posts.  This way I don’t have to try to condense the information too much.

In my Jan 9 2008 post, I suggested a mature horse.  By this I mean a horse that is an 8-15 year old, I would even go as far as a 20 year old for the right horse.  Why?  Because these guys have been around a bit.  They probably have years of training/riding and unless they are the nervous type, they are well out of that fidgety young horse mentality.  Beside this, there are a few other manners that they probably have learned with age.  They should have good ground manners, they have probably learned not to lean on the farrier, and they shouldn’t try to hurt the vet at shot time.  If the horse has been shown or was a ranch horse, it will probably load in a trailer easily.  I absolutely can’t emphasize enough just how much that is worth.

You want to find a horse that has a kind soft eye, not one that only shows the whites and has that wild scared look all of time.  You want a horse that stands quietly no matter if it is tied to a fence, on crossties or tied to your trailer.  You want a horse that respects you, your space and your authority.  You don’t need a horse that strikes at you, tries to walk over you, or challenges your leadership.  You want a horse that is reasonably trained.  While it doesn’t have to be a "push button" horse, it should be a well broke horse.  You want a horse that is healthy in both body & mind.  You and the horse should have mutual trust for each.  Without trust, you will never develop a rewarding relationship, you will never become a team.

Where do you find a horse like this?  Like in the post mentioned above, your riding instructor may know of a prospect.  Try your horse friends.  They may know a youth or amateur who has outgrown their current horse and is looking for more of a challenge.  Horse shows, especially the big breed shows, always have horses for sale.  Use caution here though.  You may find a good prospect.  But if the owner is from out of town, they may want to sell while at the show.  This could make it more difficult to test ride the horse a couple of times.  It would also make it very hard to get a pre-purchase exam (I’ll discuss this more later).  Working ranches will also have dispersal sales.  This would be a good place to pick a nice ranch horse.  This is also an instance where you need to be careful and taking a knowledgeable horse person with you would be best.  They could help steer you away from a horse that may not be right for you.  There are the classified ads in both the paper and on the internet.  And finally, there are the bulletin boards at feed stores, tack stores and livestock sales.

Remember what I said about being in too much of a hurry.  You don’t want your dream horse to turn out to be your worst nightmare.