When buying a horse, consult the help of a professional who is experienced in horse behavior, as safety is the first priority when picking out the right animal. Understand prices, behaviors and breeds when purchasing a horse with advice from a riding instructor in this video on equestrian living.
It always seems easy when you think I'm going to go out and buy a horse. It's not quite the same as choosing a dog type and finding a puppy. We have to think safety first. There's always a concern when a first time horse buyer marches out on their own and tries to buy that horse out of the newspaper. As a horse professional, particularly with novice and children riding, I know the first thing I want to ensure is safety. Above all more important than color, breed and everything else. We always say you should choose and get the help of a professional, someone that you're trusting and working with. It's much better to have an agent, somebody you may pay a little bit of money to to ensure that you are getting the horse that's going to meet your needs for the discipline that you choose as well as all those other things, safety, size and others. Last but not least you want to think about color and how pretty. Another piece that's very difficult for first time horse buyers is to study the confirmation, understanding that structure leads to performance so we have to have a good eye for all those things that come by studying many horses, many books and looking at the various things that are most important. It all sounds easy but it becomes quite a science and one that you want to certainly employ the help of someone who has done this many times, a professional who understands the discipline or the type of riding that you plan to do. You want to take into account the age, the previous training, a very important piece. If this is an ex-show horse that's packed children around for most of it's life, you're probably going to have quite a nice animal. The price of the horse is usually reflective of the amount of training that the horse has. The training of a horse is the most expensive piece that goes into account when you go to purchase that horse. You want to be sure that you've taken consideration of all of these things as you embark on that first purchase. Remember too, it's always better to sell a horse that isn't suitable than to think you've got to hang on to it forever when there are many good horses out there that you can reconsider if that first one doesn't work out.
