Finding The Right Horse
Horses have personalities just like people do. And just like people, some personalities mesh really well and others don’t. We can make the mistake when buying a horse in thinking that how the horse acts under saddle and in the arena is an indicator of his personality. If you’re going to form a long-lasting riding and companion bond with a horse you need to get along with it in all kinds of situations, especially the ones outside the arena. You need to consider your horse’s personality the same way in which you would a good friend. A good friend is someone you trust, you respect, you feel comfortable with, you want to be with, you share good and bad times with, you have similar likes and dislikes with and your personalities “blend” well together. Essentially this is the relationship you want with your horse so you enjoy keeping and riding him.
I read over and over again in various horse forums the struggles people have with some horse they just bought, rescued or were given. Some of these struggles are normal in the scope of training and working with a horse. Others are indicative of dangerous behaviors that if not corrected by a competent horse person can result in a rider getting seriously injured. And when reading some of these posts, I can often tell that the particular horse the person is talking about just isn’t a good fit for them. Take for example a post written by a seemingly novice horse person who was having trouble with an unbroke, young horse. This young horse was rearing and striking out at her whenever she tried to lead it or work with it and she was becoming afraid and didn’t know what to do so was asking for help via the forums. The best advice I would give this person would be to get rid of that horse and get one better matched to her personality and level of ability. From the way her post was written, you got the sense this person was more on the timid or less-confident side and certainly not real experienced with horses. Which brings up an extremely important point – an inexperienced person should not get/have/work with a young, unbroke horse unless they have help and assistance from a professional horse trainer! Untrained and young horses are unpredictable and need proper handling and training so they don’t end up as dangerous horses or you end up in the hospital!
When a young horse gets to the level of misbehavior that involves rearing and striking, it takes a very competent (and confident) horseperson to correct the behavior! If the young horse’s misbehavior happened to be, say, stubborn refusal to move – then this would perhaps be something the novice horse person could actually work through with the horse, with some sound handling advice from more experienced horse people. But more importantly, misbehavior like ‘stubborn refusal’ in a young horse is indicative of a very different personality than the young horse that refuses to do work by rearing and striking at its handler.
In the first case (stubborn refusal) this youngster is probably a more willing, low energy horse with a less reactive nature. There is probably a greater level of respect towards people and the misbehavior is more of the passive-resistance kind – just testing out the waters to see what can be gotten away with. With this horse, some mild motivation, use of a crop or the end of the lead line and some uncomfortable pressure then release when it does the ‘right’ thing, would clear up this misbehavior in no time. And this type of misbehavior isn’t necessarily dangerous to the handler. Granted this behavior can become an annoying and frustrating problem down the road if not corrected but the handler isn’t going to be put in any ‘life-threatening’ situation when this horse refuses to move!
With the other type of youngster (the rearing and striking one), its misbehavior indicates a completely different type of personality than the stubborn-refuser. This youngster probably has a very reactive nature, is aggressive and challenging, has less respect for people and might possibly have fear issues stemming from some prior abuse or mishandling. This type of horse is very dangerous for a novice to handle. Aside from the fact the behavior is dangerous and ‘life-threatening’ to the handler, doing the wrong thing with this type of horse (in an attempt to correct the behavior) might actually aggravate the situation and make the horse worse. This is the type of horse that needs to be handled by a horse trainer so this behavior can be assessed (is it fear based or is it aggression with lack of respect) and a behavior modification program initiated. This type of behavior also isn’t corrected in a short amount of time but rather requires some corrective handling for a length of time. Even with good training and the behavior corrected, this could possibly be the type of horse that is higher energy, more challenging, more combative and will always require an experienced rider/handler to work with.
There are some things that can be done to assess a horse’s personality in order to match it to the buyer/rider. If you put the prospective horse in the round pen (no halter, lead or attachment to it) and do some things (caution: best done by an experienced horseperson) such as stumbling toward the horse, walking up to it fast, hopping around its head and other seemingly silly antics you’re going to test the horse for its tolerance level and personality type. How does he react to these motions? What does he do when he gets frustrated with excessive motion around him? Then you should determine some other things as well that don’t involve riding him. Such as: How does he lead? What is his behavior when you’re holding food? What’s he like when you walk into his stall? How is he around children? Loud noises? Will he stand quietly beside someone while they’re visiting with a friend or does he start getting antsy? Setting up a variety of situations that the prospective buyer of the horse could see themselves in with this horse would be good to determine personality fit. Even though a horse may be well trained and fit with a person’s riding ability while in the arena, it may not be the same on the trail or it may be that you don’t match with the horse “personality-wise” unless you’re on its back riding in the arena. This is not a good thing because we spend a great deal of time around our horses in non-riding situations!
I used to have an old mare that was an awesome riding horse. Beautifully broke, eager on the trail, good natured attitude and nice work ethic – anyone could ride her and they would have tons of fun on the ride. However, she was a witch to handle on the ground. She didn’t like to be brushed, fought you when picking up her feet, walked really fast while leading, had a pinned-ear attitude when you were around her (ears would go happily forward the minute you were on her back) and just generally didn’t like any cuddling. She was a ‘get down to business’ type of horse. This horse would not have been a good personality mix for a beginner rider even though she was a great riding horse for a beginner! So besides training, it’s important to consider personality matching. I also once had a horse that was a younger, green-broke mare. She had bratty and stubborn moments but all in all she was a good horse for a beginner rider because even though she was green-broke, she was relatively tolerant, her resistive moments weren’t high-energy or excessively combative, she gave in pretty quickly and the motivator of spur or crop worked quick wonders on her. She was fun to ride too but there was one thing I didn’t assess with this horse when I got her and that was how she was around kids. And, unfortunately, as it turned out, she hated kids. I tried to work with her on this but to no avail. She never hurt a kid in the year I owned her but her aggression and posturing toward a kid was disconcerting to say the least. I finally sold her as an adult-only horse because I wasn’t willing to take the risk of a child getting hurt.
Also, an extremely well trained horse may not always be the best solution for a beginner horse person either unless that person is very dedicated to taking regular riding lessons and truly learning how to be a ‘good’ rider. The reason for this is a well-trained horse can become frustrated with an inexperienced horse person and this frustration can lead to misbehaviors that will crop up over time. I’ve seen good, well-trained horses turn into dangerous or misbehaving ones in a short amount of time.
In essence, matching a horse and rider requires consideration of several factors in order that a good personality- and ability-fit occurs. There are the considerations of horse’s age, horse’s level of training, horse’s personality, rider’s ability, rider’s personality, what kind of riding a person intends on doing and rider’s motivation for continued learning – to name some of the more important ones.
Whenever I hear of a novice horseperson planning on getting a horse, I advise them to take along a trainer or experienced horseperson to help assess whether a horse will be a good match for them. As a novice it’s easy to get swayed by a pretty horse or a pretty color or how well the horse performs WITH an advanced rider on them. What is overlooked is the personality match, especially in non-riding situations. Take your time and handle a prospective horse in a variety of situations – ones you’re typically going to be in with this new horse. If you really like the horse see if you can take it for a week or two-week trial period. And if you find the horse has personality traits that don’t blend all that well with yours or you find misbehaviors that seem beyond your capability of solving – don’t kid yourself that you’ll change this horse to suit you over time. Hiring a good trainer can help with misbehavior but no trainer can truly alter the horse’s personality. And with so many horses out there for sale at reasonable costs, why not find one you really blend well with! The savings in hospital bills alone would be worth the extra effort!
Popularity: 21%