How do you assess talent in a young horse? Tell us about yours

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oldie48

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There's often post on here about horses being talented but I wondered how other people assess talent. I think we've always been lucky enough to have "good" horses that were capable of doing the job for which they were bought. When my daughter was eventing the smallest BE course was pre-novice and eveyone got round, not necessarily clear but were certainly capable of getting round clear and usually it was rider error that caused a problem, so I suppose that's my benchmark for a grassroots /RC horse. For a horse to be "talented" i would be looking for something a lot more than that. IMO we've only had one really talented horse, a 14.2 pony bought as a rising 6 yr old and what made him special right from the start was his jumping technique, his willingness and his ability to "sort himself out" if required. As a youngster he did no more than asked of him, never jumped big but was always very neat in front and behind and was a real trier, get him too deep and he'd find his way out, stand off too much and he'd make an extra effort. He came to us with a problem with ditches but once schooled out of it he never stopped at anything cross country or showjumping, he did run past the odd skinny but by this time my daughter was really too big for him and we made the difficult decision to move him on (if only we could have made him grow a couple of hands)I've attached a couple of pics, the first he is five, the second he is eight.
Edited as I had multiple pics will put them in below.
 
My first pony had a huge jump, and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, he could not cope with competitive life at all, became extremely stressed and anxious..no matter how small the show, we tried going to let him look around without competing, we tried going out very often.. nothing seemed to make him relax. So he had a very happy 25 years hacking and jumping logs and ditches out in the woods, and we wouldn't have swopped him for the world
 
Talent is more often defined in relation to discipline. A talented dressage prospect will have different attributes from a talented SJ'r, a race horse etc. For me its a mix of conformation making the job role easier (or at least not harder). Their attitude to work and thier abiilty to "get" what it is they want to do. But that said some of the most talented horses have had unusual conformation, or spent a lot of their young life as complete nut cases. Their backing, upbringing and current rider all play a part.
 
I think someone's definition of 'talented' will be relative to the type of horses they have ridden and the level they compete at. I think a lot of grassroots competitors would think my daughter's older horse is fairly talented - he is pretty much consistently in the top 10 at BE Novice, if not top 5. But our 5yo definitely has more natural talent - even the first time he cantered under saddle she could feel how balanced he was and how nice he would be to ride into a fence. He finds jumping easy, wants to do the job and the harder the questions you pose, the better he jumps. He is certainly the most talented horse she has ever ridden, but I suspect that if a top pro got on board they would probably think him pretty ordinary as they are riding that type of horse all the time.
 
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It depends on what job you are looking formthe horse for .
The last young horse I bought was Harvey .
His jump is exceptional , the technique is near perfect he’s careful but not to the extent of being a scardy cat he’s exceptionally easy to get to a fence and does not mind if he’s too deep or too far off he will save the day and he loves jumping .
He’s easy and sane perhaps just a tad to sane for the top pros but for me he was perfect .
When he started xc it was only about twenty minutes befor he began to adjust his technique for the new discipline.
His natural jump was there but his flat work was very poor you can train the flat but its very diffcult to produce a jump .
He’s the ultimate allrounder .

In a hunter I look for boldness but not stupidly bold and a air of calmness I need a straight mover but not an extravagant one and a horse who I feel can learn to think for its self .
They need a safe technique but not the extravagance that say Harvey has .

All the top level dressage horses I have known have been forward to the point of stupidity when young and of course they need great natural uplift in all the paces .
 
I've often wondered this? There are so many stories of apparently ordinary ponies who turn out to be superstars. How early can people tell if that is going to be the case? There is a foal currently for sale near me for 10K. How do they know he has the talent for that kind of price tag?

People tell me Amber is talented because of her huge scope - which was evident from the very first time she jumped. But plenty of horses could over-jump if they wanted to. I don't think she is especially balanced, though she is athletic and powerful. And she does have a lovely temperament: bold but calm(ish). Maybe people just mean talented compared to the rider. Or compared to expectations. So Amber has more ability than I will ever need and was a fairly cheap horse so gets called talented. Whereas if she belonged to someone much better than me or cost a lot more then perhaps she'd seem more ordinary?
 
Goldenstar said:
AE ,a good horse with that extra something is a good horse the price is not relevant .
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I guess I meant that people might say a non talented horse IS talented when what they really mean is 'pretty good considering....' but I have no idea really. I am useless at assessing a horse's potential!
 
I tend to know what I have underneath me when they do their first few jumps- it's an ease and an athleticism that it hard to describe. I've ridden a few decent horses over fences and they just have easy power.
My best little mare wouldn't have looked talented to most, but she found jumping very easy and I always had plenty of horse underneath me at BE Intermediate. She had no talent on the flat though!
 
In jumpers there’s a focus that you feel when a horse is a jumper, as if when the jump is in front them nothing else in the world exists .
Horses can have that without huge scope .
We get to tied up with talent meaning ,say it is a horse that a top level show jumper would like but a horse can be talented and clever and jump a metre and give it’s owner loads and loads of safe fun we under value the talents horses like that .
Often I think people use talented as a euphemism for as mad as a box of frogs but it jumps .
When you meet real talent special talent you can’t miss it , it oozes out of them they have an aura honestly ,they do ,I am not going hippy on you all .
 
Talented is so subjective though. I have a very sensible ploddy little cob that shuffles round on a buckle end. You'd have no idea that if you pick up the reins and click, she transforms into a little dressage power house who feels incredible and can make you feel like you're CDJ! If you kick whilst she's in plod mode, she ignores you. If you breathe the right way when she's in dressage mode, you can do all kinds of moves.
 
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