How do you know if a young horse has "potential"

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Hovis_and_SidsMum

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A question for all of you that have bought youngsters who have gone on to do BSJA etc.
When they have only just been broken and are as green as grass how do you assess what they will be capable of in 2 years time (for example)?
What makes you say "yep in a years time this beastie could bsja" when it barely knows what a pole is?
What do you look for? Is it attitude? Breeding?
 
TBH most horses will jump at the lower end of BSJA.Newcomers etc.How far do you want to go? Also a young horse, however talented, has to be schooled, masses of flat work and taught and given confidence by a rider who can stick on and stay in balance with a horse that makes mistakes i.e puts in a sudden large jump.You have to get distances correct or you will scare the horse, it will not be able to sort itself out a bit, the way a schoolmaster can.Ask the army man and take him with you.I was lucky and had a decent instructor to come with me when I made my last purchase.It made all the difference.
 
Oh its not for me. Just curious really as I'm seeing so many 5 year old unproven horse on sale for 9k!
That said hubby did see a lovely 5 year old the other day. i lurved him............but not as much as my chunky monkey!
 
Agree with Boogles above.

Pirani makes a very good point to. If you aim only for the lower end of BSJA then I would look for a young horse with a personality you really like, to make sure that you would be able to get it there & enjoy the process.
 
Yes, but people tend to ask more for their neds if they have a nicely pulled mane and have pretty white bandages on for the advert photos
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I would go for a trainable attitude, or if it was something totally wild, what it looked like trotting round and over a fence. Going over a one small fence riderless as a 2-3 year old shoulnd't do much harm imho - they do much worse when they're turned out!
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Oh thought it was for your husband
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I think £9 is an odd price TBH although I am not good at pricing.Its a bit much for a horse, even the magical 16hh plus, that will only realistically do say up to grade C BSJA but probably not nearly enough for a really talented horse that will take you to even say grade A and the county circuit.If you want to go further than that the sky really is the limit.LOTS IMHO of moderately talented and very nice horses around but not so many exceptionally talented.Of course a certain amount does depend on the skill and knowledge of the rider.Tim Stockdale for instance, would get a moderately talented horse a lot further up the ladder than a less knowledgeable rider would get a much more talented horse.What was the one your husband saw like? Just nosey.
 
Ha, I guess I would look for whether they went over it or not, and how spooky they were etc. When I bought mine (broken, but very green) he really didn't make much of an effort over a fence - not like some of the over jumping you see in some ads. But he always tucks his toes up and will take a long one if needed, and makes a very good bascule - although this wasn't really evident when we tried him!

I don't have much experience with bringing on youngsters tbh, I just bought mine because he had a sweet temperament, a cute face and was an (alledged) Lusitano x TB
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Really interesting post! I bought our now rising 4 year old, and we did see him loose jumped (in a field!) and tbh I would only ever aim at the 'lower' end of BSJA so the fact that he was not worried by the fence at all, he tapped it the first time and then she popped a filler under it and he picked up his feet much better and made a nice shape. And wasn't bothered by the filler at all. His mum and dad both BSJA and he moves well so that was all I could ask for (especially with my limited budget!) My main thing was that he needed a nice sunny easy-to-train attitude which he does.
But really interesting to hear what people look at in a young horse to go to higher levels!
 
He was 5 years old. Beautifully put together, good weight carrier, v short backed and compact, jumped well but very babyishly (i.e. gave everything 2 ft clearance)
Really nice "person"

PS We weren't looking at spending 9k!! Just loads for sale on H&H that were tres expensive.
 
This:-

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Attitude to work, the shape they makes over a fence, the elasticisty of the horses paces, how quickly the horse learns new things,good bloodlines can help and the general willing ness of a horse to work

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You can just tell usually by the horses attitude. Pretty much every horse has the ability to do a British Novice or an Intro event if they have a good attitude and are trained properly.

To get to the higher levels I think you need a horse thats a fighter (in a good way) as well as having all the talent and the willingness to please you and work.

For me I dont want to do 4* ect so i'm less concerned about amazing paces and fab looks ect BUT it must be athletic and willing to try for me and not be 'silly' about things.
 
Beware VERY compact as this can limit scope over a fence.Depends on how much that matters to you.As anything over 6" is way too much for me that is not something that would bother me personally
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I don't know too much about spotting real potential but had a trainer once who did.He went for the sort that were willing, brave and made a nice shape i.e bascule over a fence.Unless you have a very good eye though, its difficult and even the real experts make mistakes.They tend to buy several, bring them on, sell for a profit any that are decent but not quite of the grade for them and hope that every now and again they find a star.He also used to say that many horses will come down to one big fence for you, its the ones that will come down to a trackful that are the really good ones.You can't try that out with young horses though.I think some people are very hopeful when they go to sell horses.
 
Pirani, what would you say is very compact? For example ours
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(pic last summer with OH, he's turned slightly toward camera but closest thing I have to a confo pic!)

I think is quite compact and short backed but that suits me as I am only 5'5 and he is 16.2 so hopefully will make it slightly easier to collect him up than if he were longer. He's only in a 6'3 rug but got a lot of filling out to do!
Would you say he is short backed to the extent it would limit his scope (PS I'm not too worried as anything over about 1m scares me silly so if he'll jump disco/pre-novice that will more than do me!!
 
No I wouldn't call yours VERY as in unusually compact.Looks very nice to me.I only commented because Hovis mum said VERY compact as oposed to compact.Her husband wants to jump I believe.I went to try a horse for myself a couple or more years ago.He was VERY compact.He didn't suit me actually and not because of that reason but the very knowledgeable seller, who popped him over a couple of small fences for me, which he managed fine said that because he was so compact he would never have a lot of scope jumping.I could see that as well for myself as she was jumping, that wasn't what bothered me at all as he was quite capable of jumping anything I was ever likely to want to jump.
 
I think temperament and attitude are very important, as well as decent conformation and paces. When I watched my potential new girl (vetting on thurs
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) pop over a filler I though yep, she can jump alright!! She moves nicely and seems to have a lovely outlook on things, so I would say that she has potential
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