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Photo of Ivory Pal by Cheri Prill Tennessee Walking Horse Issue August 2010
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To learn about JP’s Training methods, subscribe to his educational website, www.Equus-Academy.com where you can see hundreds of his lessons during clinics with all levels of riders and various breeds of horses, visit his studfarm @ www.BaroqueFarmsUSA.com to see his Lusitano and Luso-Spanish stallions and Horses for Sale. You can contact him @: tmundi@bellsouth.net
It is very interesting to hear which characteristics owners or would-be owners choose to describe their horses. It provides good insight into which dimension they relate to them, or how they assume the other person they are speaking to relates to the horse being described. It is also a very educating exercise to practice when we plan to buy a horse. Will our choice of words define him/her as: a Bay horse or a Pinto; a ‘cheapie’ or a $100,000 horse; a great moving horse or a flat-footer, an Arabian x Saddlebred by The Great One or a Pfalz-Rhinelander by Duckelsteinbarrenberger the Third: an endurance prospect or a future Olympian; Is He the white flying stallion/big ‘Alpha’ mare of your dreams or the one so ugly that only his/her mother (you?) can love? Finally, is this the one horse whose generous soul will help yours in creating that little bit of artistry we all deserve in our lives. The dimension we limit our horse in will create the limits of our relationship. So, let’s review how this ‘dimensional evaluation’ works!
1st, The Graphic Dimension: We look up an ad on the web and we can see color and read/believe the height indicated, see the proportions of the body. However, buying a horse on those indications would be like getting a wife (or husband) from a picture and assume that s/he can cook, be a great parent, etc. Sorry, doesn’t work!! I once bought a pinto stallion for a client over the phone, from a picture he saw in a magazine. It was of a breed I am not very familiar with. My client thought the horse looked good enough and did not warrant a plane trip for us to go check out this young stallion in person (for him, being a well-marked champion show horse was good enough). Result: the horse was bought and delivered and was everything I expected, except for the 2 qualities NO photo can indicate: he was very much left wanting in soundness and good disposition. Out of the 80 stallions I bought for this gentleman over the years (from many different breeds) this one was the least sound of all. He also nearly killed me with a double barrel kick to the chest when I was long-lining him and his character left a lot to be desired. What this taught me was: don’t assume anything about a horse from just his looks or medals won!
2nd, The money dimension: We often hear people discussing horses by the price they command, sometimes as if they were a refrigerator. However, prices are no sure sign of horse quality. Price also depends very much on who is the buyer, meaning that a good rider can buy a horse that is cheap because nobody else has the ‘key’ to his/her problem. Vice-versa, a horse that can tolerate a really bad rider, better yet, win while packing him/her, is worth a fortune to that person! A trainer I know told me the following story: his customer/student was a doctor determined to become a successful amateur-owner jumping competitor, in spite of his late start in the sport and a very busy schedule un-conducive to training. The combination of those handicaps made it quite difficult to find the man a horse. Eventually, the trainer discovered a handsome ‘packer’ that was tolerant of the man’s uncontrollable hands and just jumped courses without losing his form or his steady rhythm. The man agreed to pay $100,000 for the horse and went home happy. After a few successful shows, he asked his trainer/horse dealer how much could he get for his 100K horse on the open market? The trainer answered: “about 10K, because he is not THAT pretty as far as open competition goes”. The client answered that, to him, the horse was worth a million anyway and would never be sold because it was the first horse he ever rode that didn’t scare him silly in the show ring. Horse Prices means nothing because their value to the owner is relative to their appreciation of the horse.
3rd, the Plastique dimension: Movement is the next level of reference for riders who know a little bit more. Everybody tries to find or breed, the perfect straight knee QH, high-kneed Hackney, springy, suspended dressage horse, floating hunter, etc. At 20some, I decided to buy a really great moving dressage prospect. Some astute broker told me she knew of an exceptional one. Off we went to see this marvel. This big guy could float across the arena. I immediately borrowed all the money my family would let me have and got him. A bigger sucker than myself offered me to double my money a week later, but I was already seeing Olympic rings in our future, so I turned the offer down. 4 years later, the horse, as a dressage horse, proved incapable to ever do a decent flying change in spite of his fabulous trot (I understood later that dressage ability has little to do with beautiful trots), jumped once over a 7 foot deer gate out hunting, but couldn’t jump a 4 foot course clean under the saddle of one of the best riders in the world. He looked like a million $$ across country, but did not have the guts to go the distance around a 3 day course. Eventually I sold him as a very good-looking hunter to a lady (with whom he jumped the deer gate!), for the money I had bought him for. Movement is not everything, character is!
4th, The Genetic Dimension. If you are trying to breed a good horse, the study of pedigrees in relation to performance should be your bedroom, bathroom and airplane reading material. Yet, when you are buying a riding horse, parentage does not matter a bit. I know a breeder of Andalusians (rightly reputed as the sweetest of horses) whose wife is an older lady quite terrified of riding. Because she loves her husband of 45 years, she wants to share with him what he loves most. In spite of trying, she could not get along with any of the great horses they bred and ended up trusting only ONE horse: a National Show Horse that was not only pretty but incredibly kind and calm. Goes to show, that you should buy the horse that’s right, whatever his color or his breed!
