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When looking to buy a horse, one of the first decisions is whether to get one which is untrained, partly trained, or fully trained. Most people, especially if it is there first horse, will be better off getting a horse which is already trained for whatever they intend to use if for. For example, if one intends to use the horse for basic riding it should already be trained for riding, whereas if you are using it for show jumping, it should already be trained in show jumping.

Of course, one can purchase an untrained horse or a partly trained horse. Such a horse will be less expensive to buy. Also, you can instruct a trainer on exactly how you want the horse trained, and you can have the experience and pleasure of participating in this. However, against these advantages, there are a number of disadvantages:

- Training Expenses. With an untrained horse, training is an additional cost which one has to factor in. Aside from the direct costs of the trainer, unless the trainer comes to you there is the additional cost of transporting the horse to the trainer for each lesson, or stabling the horse with the trainer. The exact costs of training depend on individual circumstances, but they are under-estimated far more often than over-estimated. Frequently, once one factors in the final total training costs, it would have been cheaper to have purchased a horse that was already trained.

- Accidents. Even with good trainers, there is always the possibility of the horse being injured by an accident during training. This can result in vet costs, or worse.

- Inadequate Training. Not all trainers are consistently good. In particular, trainers often rush training or use aggressive training techniques, in order to be able to quote an acceptable training fee. At best, this can result in an incompletely trained horse and at worse a mis-trained horse with undesirable behaviors.

- Feel. Two horses, trained in exactly the same way, will provide a different riding experience due to individual differences. Horses differ due to breed, build, training and individual genetics. Consequently, how comfortable you will be riding a horse is more predictable with an already trained horse than with an untrained one.

- Health Evaluation. Part of the pre-purchase health checks is to ride the horse and to watch it carefully as it is being ridden in each gait. These particular checks cannot be done with an untrained horse.

Consequently, buying an already trained horse can be less risky and less expensive than buying an untrained (or partly trained) horse and then training it up.

You should not try to train a horse yourself, unless you are a professional horse trainer or working under the complete supervision of a professional horse trainer. When non-professionals train horses, the horse will almost certainly pick up bad habits and behaviors (which are very time consuming and expensive to correct), as well as the risk of accidental injury to the novice trainer.

Be wary of purchasing an incompletely trained horse on the basis that the seller will complete the training. Far too often in these circumstances the remaining training is rushed and not done to the highest standards. Insist on the horse being trained up first and pay no more than a holding deposit until this is done and you’ve ridden the horse to make sure that you are fully happy with the result.

Doug Stewart is the owner of Horses for Sale and a professional horse breeder.

categories: trained horse,untrained horse,train horse,horse training,horse,horses,equine,pets

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