Training or Re-training a Newly Bought Horse

Charlie wrote to ask a couple questions on buying a horse. " If I buy a horse that has been trained by a different owner, should I ask how they handle the horse, or should I retrain it to my qwerks? Or can the horse even be reconditioned to a new rider?"

The short answer is no, I would not ask them how they handle the horse. I’d probably ask the seller what the horse is like and why they are selling him. I won’t take what the seller tells me or doesn’t tell me as gospel. I’ll have to see for myself.

Just imagine if you asked the seller how he handles the horse and he said "well,.....I have to beat on him to get him to move and some times he wants to run me over, and when I'm riding him I have to pull real hard to turn his head.  And the biggest aggravation is that he's hard to catch in his pen to get a halter on him!"   You are not going to say "Okay, show where and how hard to beat him."......at least I hope you're not.  I would think that you would be planning on handling that horse in as quiet and gentle way as possible.  That doesn't mean that you're not going to get his attention from time to time.  It just means that you are going to give the horse the benefit of the doubt.  

The horse will tell you what he knows or doesn’t know, or how he has been handled. Your question Charlie, would be the same if someone was bringing me a horse to help them with, and again that's  seeing what the horse knows or doesn't know which is always a reflection on the owner. In many cases the horse could be a product of many different owners. I think most horses have an ability to act and work, or re-learn to act and work, at the level of the rider. It may take time, more time in some cases, but with a good foundation of ground training and fundamentals under saddle, most horses can overcome problems created by their previous owners.  

When looking at the horse for a potential purchase you'll usually see the owner handle the horse first and this will give you a good idea about the horse. …about the owner as well. When the owner puts a halter on the horse and brings him out of the pen, you’ll be seeing how that horse leads up and if the horse is focused on his handler or not. If the horse is distracted and not respectful then this will be your first indication of other issues in practically anything else you are going to do with this horse.

Likewise when the owner rides him. It's a good idea to have the owner ride him, then you can get in the saddle and see for yourself. A few months back we were looking at a horse for a client overseas. Although we wanted to purchase a 6 or 10 year old Gelding if possible, and something that was not going to run off with a novice to intermediate rider, we did look at a 3 year old Mare that was being used for barrel racing. I had the owner, a young lady in her early twenties ride the horse, then I got on to see what the horse was like. As you can expect with a 3 year old, especially one that was being used for barrel racing and not much else, this mare was bracey on the bit, didn’t have any idea about lateral flexion or moving her front end or back end independent of each other. She didn’t respond to leg pressure to transition from the walk to a trot, or trot to a canter. The seller was telling me “you really got to bang on her and then she’ll go!” While I don’t want a horse like that, this is something that can be retrained.

I am off the mind that it is usually a good thing to start over with a horse, like you would with a green 2 or 3 year old. You can progress as fast as the horse lets you and you'll catch and correct issues, both big and small.