How to Buy a Horse - Part 1

Articles In This Section:

· How to Buy a Horse - Part 1

· How to Buy a Horse - Part 2

· How to Buy a Horse - Part 3

· How to Buy a Horse - Part 4

· How to Buy a Horse - Part 5

Buying a horse is actually the simple procedure of exchanging dollars and cents for an animal of your choice. But buying an animal suited to your abilities is a difficult task. Before looking for a horse decide what use and purpose the horse will serve, for pleasure, for breeding, or for showing. Each of these is in a different category and requires a different kind of animal. However, you may be fortunate enough to find a combination of all three attributes. It is true the "outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man." This, however, will not be true if you buy the first horse you see. Also, don't fall so much in love with a horse that you can't sell it to buy a better one. This sounds like a heartless piece of advice, and it is in a way. It is not the money involved in buying a horse that might prove unsound, but in the attachment you form so quickly. To be forced to destroy an unsound animal is like losing part of your family. It doesn't take long for an animal to entwine himself around your heart. Also, every horse becomes old far sooner than the rider. This is why it is so important to buy the right one. Shop around and look at many before you decide. There are two ways to buy a horse—from a private owner and from an auction.

There are many different types of horse auctions. And, like buying from an individual, some are more reputable than others. Perhaps the main drawback in going to the auction is that you don't have the opportunity to inspect the stock thoroughly, or you seldom try it before you buy. If you know the reputation of the auction or the selling individual you stand a better chance of getting a fair deal.

Most reputable sales now publish catalogs giving pictures, pedigrees, and information about the consigned horses. A breeder may have a complete dispersal sale, which means, as the name implies, that he will sell all of his stock. He may be going into another business, retiring, or working on another breed. Sometimes a ranch will have a dispersal sale to dispose of young stock and to place an oversupply of certain bloodlines in different parts of the country. Sometimes older stock, of fine bloodlines, will be sold to make room for younger stock, of equally fine pedigrees. There are invitational sales where top quality stock is offered to a few selected breeders. There are specific breed auctions where only registered stock is sold. These are quality sales where every consigned animal is inspected by a veterinarian and sifting committee. This protects the buyer from unsound animals. Sometimes a two-day auction may be held to sell grades one day and purebreds the next. Sometimes breed associations will sponsor an auction such as the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse to sell yearlings and two-year-olds. Auctions sponsored by a registry association will set up certain standards. If it is a production sale it is used to present the best of a breeder's or association's breeding program or to cull out the bad ones. However, at this type of sale, attention is called to blemishes and unsound horses are usually eliminated.

Then there are the weekly or monthly auctions held locally by a sale barn where everything and anything is sold. Here, whether you pick up a bargain or get stung, depending upon the reputation of the sale yard or your own knowledge of horse flesh, is where the usual pleasure horse is sought.