Is it just me>?

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FarthingwoodFox

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Or does anyone else laugh at people who advertise their 12YO as 'with potential'?

Potential to do what? Die? Jesus if it hasnt done anything by 12 its bloody unlikely to do a great deal after!!

So many horses with 'potential' and so many above £6k lol its laughable!!!
 
lol

my 22 year old has potential.....to be a grumpy old git
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Ah that lovely word 'potential'...
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I have a 5 yr old mare with fantastic potential. Unfortunately she is an absolute b!tch to ride and if I ever get her over a discovery class I will be amazed. She looks pretty though. £9,500 anyone?
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But why should 12 make it a right off (to play devils advocate
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)...I had a 22yo who was still in medium work 7 days a week and competing perfectly well...12 is hardly over the hill
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I think there is many a horse whose "potential" has never been fulfilled because they may be with an owner that never realises that potential - there is many a top class show jumper who didnt make the bigtime until their teenage years!!
 
lol, i was just about to say about showjumpers. Although their still at a reasonably high level by 12 but get to international 13+. Welham won the hixstead derby at 20! I know what you mean tho, if its not already at an itermediate level by 12 its hardly gona go to 2012
 
yeah I know what you mean was just playing devils advocate....although on the other hand I'd rather not see babies rushed too....is a balance I guess.

I'm a wuss so I doubt anything I buy when I finish uni (12 months and counting
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) will go further than RC teams despite it's potential
 
In all fairness there are plenty of examples of horses who get picked up later in life and go on to do high level competing.
my 14.2 was eleven when we bought him, and we bought him solely as he had scope - all he'd ever done was hunt twice a year and get as fat as was physically possible. We went to the europeans together 2 years later, and he still has "potential" at 14. Or so i like to think lol
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Although I do agree in general. An 18hh shirextbxrottweiler with great potential at 13 is somewhat suspect and quite common nowadays :P
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No I don't laugh at that. It depends what they mean.

I sold my 12yr old mare as a SJ schoolmistress, with potential to affiliate eventing. She hadn't done it with me as I couldn't afford it, and her previous owner had no interest in dressage. I was scoffed at on here for putting that in her advert, however now she is affiliated BE and eventing successfully at Novice level.

Obviously it is stupid for people to try and sell their 12 year old thats done nothing as a potential grand prix showjumper, however just because a horse is slightly older, doesn't mean its gone to the limits of what it is capable of, or that its never going to do anything other than what its already done.
 
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We didn't say it would be a write off - we just wondered why, at 12, it's potential hadn't yet been discovered!

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Lots of reasons. The owner not having the confidence or ability, perhaps not the ambition, perhaps not having the money to affiliate and take the horse up the grades.
 
I personally get pissed off with people who dont appreciate a horse over 12 as they feel it's too old to reach any potential it may have.
I know of an 11 yr old horse who has been kept as a pet since he was born. I know for a fact he has a massive jump, beautiful paces and generally could do alot and do it well, but his owner has no ambition, she bred him, and he is happy as she is to live out his days as a pretty field ornament.
There's a reason as to why an older (not in my view however) horse may not have reached his potential.
 
Oh yes of course - there are reasons for everything - but are you telling me that that same horse you describe Boodle could go out now and jump BSJA. Its not just about his jumping its is attitude, how much he has learnt over his .
formulative years about how to jump fences etc

In my mind ANY horse CAN jump - but thats not what makes a top jumper, its years of hard work and effort and who at 12+ would WANT to put that in? Youd just go and get a younger horse on which you could have ages on.
 
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