What to look for in young sport horses

[Paint it Lucky]

I am currently looking for a young horse to bring on to do both eventing and dressage. I want one that's unbroken as I love to back them and bring them on myself, I do it a lot for other people but then have to give the horses back once they're established, now I want one I can keep! It is quite hard going to look at unbacked youngsters as obviously you can't ride them to know if you like them, so how do you tell? Of those I have seen so far they're all nice enough but none have really excited me so far. Just wondering what other people look at? Obviously conformation is important but this isn't always easy, one place I went I was shown a load of youngsters stood in a muddy field which made it hard to tell much about them. Temperament is important to. I think I need a checklist of things to look at as I always feel like I've forgotten something!

 

[PorkChop]

I think you need to decide which is the important to you, eventing or dressage, because for me they need different atributes.

If I am looking for a youngster that is being aimed at eventing one of the most important things is temperament, they have to have a can-do attitude to life. I personally want a really good walk and a good shoulder.

If the breeding is there for jumping then they should be able to jump, I wouldn't be worried about seeing it loose jump as I don't think it always correlates to its jump under saddle.

I think you should keep looking until you feel excited, I'm a firm believer that they must give you a good feeling when you look at them, as we spend more time looking after them than riding them. Something that you want to look at over the stable door everyday

 

[Cortez]

Athleticism and movement would be key for either discipline, as well as good limbs and a properly set on neck. But the problem is that what is good for dressage is positively wrong for eventing, so you're asking for the impossible. Best advice is to take someone with you who really knows what they're doing, and listen.

 

[HashRouge]

I'd really want to see any youngster out of the field and stood up/ walked/ trotted on an even surface so that you can assess conformation and movement. If you want to jump or event, it should also be possible to see a youngster - certainly if you're looking at 3 year olds - loose jumped. Although be wary of anything that has been loose jumped frequently as I'd worry about the effect on growing limbs. It's not essential to see this, but I do think it can give you a good indication of the sort of scope/ natural style a horse has.

You can also look at what the dam and sire have done, as well as any older half or full siblings. If you're buying from a sports horse breeder this is particularly worth doing as they may well have used the mare before, albeit with a different stallion. For example, my former boss has a filly advertised at the moment whose full sister and half brother he still owns and competes, so any prospective buyers would be able to get a detailed run down of their competition records as well as see them in the flesh/ look at videos of them jumping competitively.

 

[ihatework]

You need to have the horses out of the field, stood up on a decent surface and then loose in an enclosed area, preferably a school.
For a smart all rounder sport horse, which it sounds like you want, I'd look for all the following in no particular order:
Alert and friendly expression
Forward thinking
Loose gaits with a clear walk rhythm and a canter where the hind leg steps under well
Natural balance
Well set neck and strong hind quarters
Good set of feet

Thereafter it's just gut feel. It is nice to have good breeding lines and a strong dam, but I'd be hypocritical to have this mandatory given a couple I have bought with dubious breeding!!

 

[Llee94]

When I was looking at my youngster for eventing I went wanting to see:

Fairly good conformation (this isn't the be all and end all but he couldn't have any major issues)
A big engine behind
A kind eye and willing attitude
Good breeding (he has several close 4* relations and various grade A show jumpers)
Uphill movement - I already have a cob who was a downhill as you could get when I first got her so wanted something that was more naturally balanced.
Nice paces - a big walk, floaty trot and a balanced canter where all high up on the list but I would have settled for any one of the three. Luckily I got all of them!
Fast learner - He went from being completely wild as never handled to being tied up, lead, trotted up and loaded into a trailer in 3 days.
I didn't get to see him jump as the breeder had nowhere to loose school him and I don't think it would have been fair on him anyway. I waited 3 years to see him jump and it resulted in him pinging out over a 5ft fence out of my instructors arena from trot so he has certainly got some scope to burn.

It hasn't been an easy ride as he has been a bit poorly recently and he does have his moments of being a silly twit that makes me question why I bought such a young horse when in theory I could have saved up for the 3 years since buying him as a yearling and got something nice that is broken in and ready to go BUT when he is on form I wouldn't swap him for anything and there is no way I would be able to afford him once he is up and running (in theory anyway!).

Good luck on your search!

 

[GemG]

...good answers already...

I would just add in 'trainability' or 'ride ability', which, granted you can only get a guesstimate at through known breeding. E.g. Our home bred filly has Caprimond in her dam line which I valued highly in terms of trainability (if it filters through), it's all a gamble isn't it. But so far she is a dream on the ground and I don't expect anything different once we get on board.

Obviously 'trainability' is key to me as a busy, working, mum, etc, etc, I don't want something exceptionally talented BUT is wired to the moon/has manic days/and takes a lot to get that 'talent' out, if you get my meaning. Each to their own.

 

[paddi22]

kind eye and intelligent head, friendly attitude.

A neighbour here has a trick when he is looking at young horses in the field, he will take his coat off in a big movement and kind of twirl it round him to the hold in the other arm. he says he does this to see how reactive the horses are, how far they move away and how quickly they come back.

 

[Maesfen]

Goodness me!
With all the wish lists of what you'd like to see it be able to do at that young age when it should only be in a field, not in any kind of work and the situation of where it is, do be careful you don't miss any treasures because the facilities are not what you deem suitable or if the facilities are right, make sure there aren't too many noughts added onto the price to pay for the facilities you require.
If you haven't the eye to see one in the rough then take someone with you that does else you will miss a lot of talented youngsters that have been given time to mature naturally.

 

[Clodagh]

Goodness me!
With all the wish lists of what you'd like to see it be able to do at that young age when it should only be in a field, not in any kind of work and the situation of where it is, do be careful you don't miss any treasures because the facilities are not what you deem suitable or if the facilities are right, make sure there aren't too many noughts added onto the price to pay for the facilities you require.
If you haven't the eye to see one in the rough then take someone with you that does else you will miss a lot of talented youngsters that have been given time to mature naturally.

I do agree with this. You can see how the move in the field, I like a really nice active walk and a spring into transtitions -all can be seen with the horse loose with it's friends. I would like it to be tame enough to run my hands down it's legs and pick it's feet up and see it trotted up by a handler. I wouldn't like to see a baby loose jumped, it will have taken a lot of practice to get the jump good enough to show off for a sale.

 

[paddi22]

its always a lottery. I've had horses that would have looked super in field as a baby - athletic and good movers etc. Yet they were rubbish eventers as the brain wasn't there. I'd only buy a youngster if i knew the temperament of the parents and their level of bravery and work attitude. No point buying a perfect looking floaty baby if its always gonna get your eliminated because it hates water or is too tense to relax and do a good dressage test

 

[Cortez]

its always a lottery. I've had horses that would have looked super in field as a baby - athletic and good movers etc. Yet they were rubbish eventers as the brain wasn't there. I'd only buy a youngster if i knew the temperament of the parents and their level of bravery and work attitude. No point buying a perfect looking floaty baby if its always gonna get your eliminated because it hates water or is too tense to relax and do a good dressage test

That's the lottery of youngsters with "potential", and why unproven horses are often priced ridiculously high. I'd never pay the sort of prices that people do for foals, for instance - completely unknown quantity, and you don't ride the breeding.

 

[paddi22]

yeah my neighbours have a great saying ' a passport never jumped a fence'

 

[ihatework]

Goodness me!
With all the wish lists of what you'd like to see it be able to do at that young age when it should only be in a field, not in any kind of work and the situation of where it is, do be careful you don't miss any treasures because the facilities are not what you deem suitable or if the facilities are right, make sure there aren't too many noughts added onto the price to pay for the facilities you require.
If you haven't the eye to see one in the rough then take someone with you that does else you will miss a lot of talented youngsters that have been given time to mature naturally.

What a bit of concrete so that you can pull a horse away from its mates and evaluate what it's doing on an even and firm bit of ground, plus an enclosed space on some level footing to see it loose without it titting about with its friends?
That really is not an excessive wish list to be evaluating a 3yo sport horse with!

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Thanks for the advice so far everyone. I want a horse that can do grass roots but my real passion is dressage hence I want something that can go further in this. I'd hope something athletic enough to do higher level dressage could cope with lower level eventing. I hope the two don't contradict each-other too much!

There seems to be a fashion in adverts to show 2-3 year olds loose jumping enormous obstacles, personally this puts me off, yes it may look impressive but I don't think it does the horses legs much good. Equally some sellers show videos of them chasing a horse round a school with the horse snorting and doubling back on itself at speed to avoid them, I'm not sure what this achieves other than making the horse wary of people.

 

[HashRouge]

Goodness me!
With all the wish lists of what you'd like to see it be able to do at that young age when it should only be in a field, not in any kind of work and the situation of where it is, do be careful you don't miss any treasures because the facilities are not what you deem suitable or if the facilities are right, make sure there aren't too many noughts added onto the price to pay for the facilities you require.
If you haven't the eye to see one in the rough then take someone with you that does else you will miss a lot of talented youngsters that have been given time to mature naturally.

I don't think anyone here has suggested anything particularly out of the ordinary! You'd expect most places to have a bit of concrete where you could see a youngster stood up, then walked and trotted. And most places nowadays have a school of some sorts where you could see the horse loose jumped if this is something you'd like to see. Obviously no-one is talking about loose jumping foals, but I assumed the OP is after something around the 3 yr old mark and I'd expect most 3 yr olds to be capable of popping over a loose jump. This isn't something that involves practice - I know my previous boss hardly ever even saw his youngsters, they were fed and checked in the field by staff and basically did nothing, but he could still get the rising 3/ 3 yr olds in and pop them over a loose jump if a prospective buyer wanted to see it. Hardly asking for a miracle.

 

[HashRouge]

There seems to be a fashion in adverts to show 2-3 year olds loose jumping enormous obstacles, personally this puts me off, yes it may look impressive but I don't think it does the horses legs much good. Equally some sellers show videos of them chasing a horse round a school with the horse snorting and doubling back on itself at speed to avoid them, I'm not sure what this achieves other than making the horse wary of people.

I'd just like to clarify that when I talk about loose jumping, this is NOT what I mean. Maybe I'm just lucky, but the people I used to work for knew how to do it properly. I just went on their FB page to remind myself, and watched two nice videos of 3 year olds trotting up to small jumps (2 ft ish) and popping over them calmly. It gives a nice impression of their natural athleticism and ability. I've known the two horses since they were yearlings and know for a fact that the videos show probably only the 3rd or 4th time those horses had ever been asked to jump anything by a person.

 

[paddi22]

The majority of horses can cope with low level eventing with basic training. What level of dressage are you aiming at? And how many events would you be aiming at?

From observation (and i'm not expert by any means) my eventer does a nice dressage test and I train with a dressage rider mainly, but i can see his muscles are developed differently from her pure dressage horses, so I'd imagine this would impact down the line at higher movements? I'd be interested to hear peoples opinions on this, as it's a theory i always wondered about.

It depends as well how many events you are aiming to hit as well. If you do a lot then it's a fairly intensive training and fitness schedule for eventing and I can't see how you would fit both if you have advanced dressage levels in mind.

I jump between eventing and pure dressage, but i found time and moneywise you are spread thin getting your levels up to scratch in the three disciplines. So on a personal opinion I think you can do both, but both can suffer. My best balance was to do eventing and focus slightly more on my dressage. But I don't think then you can compete 100% evenly in the ring against people who are just 100% just pure dressage.

 

[muddy_grey]

As other have said really. If you do see them loose jump then it is the attitude I look for. I don't want the horse chased into the fence and if they go around for another go on their own even better.

 

[ihatework]

As other have said really. If you do see them loose jump then it is the attitude I look for. I don't want the horse chased into the fence and if they go around for another go on their own even better.

We bought a gawky just backed Irish horse beginning of last year purely on the basis that when the dealer turned him loose in a large school, he immediately took himself off and popped a little portable xc fence in the middle of the school without being asked!

 

[paddi22]

out of curiosity what would people see as the difference between the temperament of an eventer vs pure dressage?Trying to think of a human equivalent - like would it be the strong, brave personality of a rugby player vs the control and understanding of tiny details of a ballet dancer? I know you can't generalise all horses, but from peoples experiences how do they feel they differ general?

 

[Bernster]

We bought a gawky just backed Irish horse beginning of last year purely on the basis that when the dealer turned him loose in a large school, he immediately took himself off and popped a little portable xc fence in the middle of the school without being asked!

That must have been a nice feeling!

Reminds me when I went to see a slightly ugly looking Irish mare, green in the school and basic paces. They loose schooled her but I don't think she'd ever done that before, so instead she turned round and popped a five bar gate with ease, from trot. Almost wish I'd bought her there and then, went back for a second visit and she'd been sold!