Please help - horse buying dilemmas, advice needed!

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IsabelleJ

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Hello everyone!

Well, the time has come, sort of. I have been back riding about 2 and a half months, and when I get back from my holiday next month, I am going to start looking properly for a horse to buy. I am tying myself up in knots about what to get though, as I am totally confused. Here are my problems:

1. I would really like to do dressage, but also jump as well. I would like to compete in both, and my dream is to affiliate BSJA and BD and bring my horse up through the levels. Do you think that this is realistic with one horse? I don't necessarily want to go to the top, but would definitely like to see what I can do. Dressage would be my main priority, so if I had to then I could just showjump unaffiliated. Does it sound reasonable to compete in two disciplines with one horse?

2. At the moment, I am getting my riding skills back. I can usually ride in an outline, and have recently learnt to leg yield, but will have to learn anything other than that from scratch. I've not jumped in a long time, but I imagine that with a couple of months work I would be ready to jump around courses again. I would like to get a horse that is already experienced in dressage and SJ so that I can learn a bit from them, and would like to compete it. Do you think that I would be better off getting a 'normal' horse to learn on, or one that I can compete on in the future? In an ideal world, I would like to get a horse I can compete on with some experience, as I don't think I'd be at all good at training a horse for dressage when I'm learning myself! I also have a high enough budget that I can afford a competition horse, but would I teach it bad habits while I'm learning? I'm not sure I would want to buy a regular everyday horse and then sell it in a couple of years when I wanted something to compete on. Any thoughts?

3. Last dilemma, I promise! I loan a gorgeous horse at the riding school. Working in dressage at advanced level, but quite hard work to ride. I can get him going in an outline sometimes, but struggle to keep it for more than a few strides. I adore this horse, but have been told that he doesn't like jumping, and that 2 foot 3 was about his limit, and he wasn't enjoying doing it. There is a possibility of buying him, and if I could get myself speaking his language, he would be a fab dressage schoolmaster. I think I would be OK doing the occasional clear round, or popping the odd jump, but not sure if even that would be too much for him. Should I buy him, learn from him, and then look for something to compete at dressage and SJ in a few years' time? To be honest, I could probably use a few years to brush up on my SJ, but that would be a problem if I had to ride another horse to do that!

HELP! I am totally confused by all my options. Bear in mind that I am a competent, not wonderful, rider, do any of you have any advice for me?

Thanks for reading this far
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Isabelle
 
well I cant promise good advice, but I will try.

Personally I wouldnt go for too experienced a horse, as the very highly trained ones know how to do everything right, but also know how to do everything wrong!

sometimes rather than being aschool master you can actually find they are harder work, because uness you are pressing the exact right buttons, sometimes you get nothing.

Lance is a prime example of this, if he has his way he will plod round with his neck like a giraffe tripping over his own feet, but he he is trained Elementary level in dressage and knows his stuff!
If the rdier knows what they are doing he wil do anything for them, but its hard work, he will only put as much effort in as he has to. Perhaps this is the case with the horse you loan?


Yes of course you can find a horse good enough to do multidisciplines, although Lance was a dressage horse hehas done lots of eventing, was always clear sj and xc, if i were you I would go for a good allrounder.
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If you dont want to be flying at top level round hickstead then i dont understand the distinction you have made between "regular everyday horse" and one you can compete???

I had a "regular everyday horse" who i evented (unaffiliated) and showjumped and did dressage on (quite well actually by the end).... so dont think a "normal" horse cant compete, of course they can!
If you want to jump then NO i wouldnt buy the horse you are loaning!
 
Thanks, guys.

I think my distinction between regular everyday horse and a competing one has more to do with having a proven record than anything. Obviously, that will cost a bit more money, haha! But, to be honest, in that respect I am thinking more of the dressage side of things - I would like something that has competed a little at dressage, not too fussed if it has only really jumped at home.

Of course, the problem with the loan horse is that I already adore him, and having heard some people's stories of horse hunting, the fact that I already know him does have some appeal! He does very much only put in as much effort as he wants to - I think that I will see how far I've progressed on him in a month's time. It would be silly to even consider buying him if I'm never quite good enough to make him do what I want him to do!

Isabelle
 
Depending on quite how much cash you've got you could consider something brought on by a professional tht isn't quite good enough for say, advanced eventing. For example, my trainer breeds competition horses and is trying to breed another homebred four star horse. She sells on anything that isn't going to make the grade at that level and has at the moment a lovely 16.2 gelding. real easy horse to ride in all ways, done a few intros and a PN (and placed) and does a great dressage test but it isn't ever going to set the world alight as an advanced eventer.

Realistically, if you're learning to ride an advanced horse and still developing your ability then perhaps something established at the lower levels would do you.

Something realistically of this type could cost anything between 8 and 15 thousand depending on the 'fame' or otherwise of the trainer but if you are serious about moving through the ranks it's what I'd do.
 
Horses can do 2 jobs quite happily - and eventers do 3!!

I competed my last horse BD & BSJA. He was confident at 1 m 15 & we were about to move up to elementary BD when he unfortunately developed an illness. With my new horse, I do 2 sj & 2 dr lessons a month, & alternate between BD & BSJA competing at the w'ends.

Why don't you try jumping the schoolmaster if you're interested in him, or get someone who's more experienced to jump him for you (not being unkind - I just mean that you're still getting back into riding)? Then you could see how he feels/looks.

(If he doesn't look happy jumping, I'd be doubly inclined to get a 5 stage vetting just in case it's something physical.)
 
Thanks for the replies!

I realised after posting that asking if a horse could do both jobs was kind of silly, but I'm just being daft and thinking of all sorts of problems!

The more I think about buying the schoolmaster, the more I want to! Part of the issue is that I'm quite heavy (although losing weight all the time with riding and stable chores!) and I know that he can take my weight, finding a suitable horse that can take my weight, does what I want it to, with the right price, in the right location may be quite hard.

I like the idea of getting someone else to jump him. To be honest, I'd be happy to do the odd clear round - apparently the previous owner said that his limit was about 2 foot 3 and that he didn't enjoy it. BUT, I am not very experienced jumping full courses anyway, so I could quite easily spend the next couple of years having jumping lessons on another horse and improving my technique, with the thought of maybe getting a horse to jump competitively in a few years time.

You have all been very helpful, thank you so much!

Isabelle
 
OK, I just have to confuse the issue a bit more. I had a talk with other half about buying the loan horse - he asked what would be different from loaning him. I wasn't able to come up with much, other than 'he would be mine!' and 'I could compete him.'

For the time being I think I will look at other horses, and continue riding the loan horse. Will see if I can maybe try jumping him in the meantime, and if I manage to have a breakthrough in getting through to him what I want him to do, who knows! This should hopefully give me some time to figure out what it is that I really want out of a horse, and how much I am prepared to compromise when it comes to loan horse.

Thank you so much for the kind advice - I'm sure I will have many more questions to ask in the coming months!

Isabelle
 
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