The horse I tried in Danmark was super sweet, well educated, healthy, the price and the results were good.
But still, he was not what I need for the moment. Even if everything is good on paper, the feeling must be there! And you must fit together!
When I try a horse I always remember that the horse is a individual, and should not be used for play. After just a couple of jumps I felt it was not the horse for me, so I jumped off him. Even though he jumped super with his normal rider I was not going to keep testing and using the horse for my own pleasure when I felt he was not the one!
Here you can see a video of us, I did not try a lot, that is why the video is short!
This brings me to another situation that accrued to me and Ice Tea a couple of weeks ago.
Somebody came to try Duc, but I quickly saw it was not a good match and I would NEVER sell any of my friends to somebody if I am not 100% sure it will be a super combination. Anyway, I saw that Ice Tea could fit, so I told them about Ice, I showed them films from competitions with me and Ice Tea! I told them EVERYTHING I knew about Ice Tea, good and bad things. Also his results
And I told them the price! They barged 10 000 of the price without even trying him, and I said okey, and we somehow agreed. I at least told them I was not going to sell him for less than what we talked about before trying.
He try’s Ice, and Ice does such a good job! He jumps super, and the guy is happy! They like each other!
He jumps a lot and a lot high with him also. I did not think I should stop it, we had agreed on a price and they even said before doing a even higher round that they wanted to test him somewhere else the week after and if he behaved well and did not spook they would buy him! (He also needed to do a vet check, that’s normal) So I was like, yeah.. okey one more round higher. And again Ice was THE ICE MACHINE!! Look how he fights!!!
Clearing the double
The tryouts went super, you can see it! The horse was amazing!
But even after all this jumping and Ice Tea being a good boy, they suddenly wanted to discuss the price, and made me several bad propositions.
We ended up with saying no to it all. I am not saying anything bad about the people, nut I wish this situation would have played out differently.
And it brings me to the next thing, why try horses if you have no serious intention to buy them?
A Norwegian girl Karianne Christoffersen wrote a blog post about it that I liked, on her blog: blogg.skyhorses.no
The horse who has a loving owner prefers to be ridden by the owner and the groom, not just tried for fun like a car. And a horse on a sales stable is living there to find the perfect home, not just to be ridden around for fun by random people who want to test their own and the horse’s skills.
Also, be real and have compassion, a horse can be destroyed if it has to many different people trying it. If you for example jump high with a horse you are trying, you don’t know the horse and the horse does not know you. If you then make an error in judgement, or make a mistake, or you and the horse misunderstand each other, you can end up hurting the horse and yourself, not only physically but also mentally. A lot of people who are looking to buy a horse want to test the maximum the horse can jump, and then they want to test the same on the next horse and the next horse. When do they make a choice?
If you liked the first horse you tried, and he jumped good with you, you both were confident and you jumped high, why did you not buy him? Was he difficult to shoe? In that case, you already knew the horse was difficult to shoe, and that you don’t want to buy a horse that is difficult to shoe, so what was the point to try the horse? And jump high with it?
Also lets say a seller want 20 000 euro for her horse, you have 15 000 euro, so you don’t say anything that you have 5000 to little and you try the horse anyway. You like the horse and make a offer for 15 000 euro. But the seller is disappointed, you knew the price before you tried, the tryouts went super and you offer 5000 to little. On what grounds? That the horse did something wrong? NO, it was your economy. This is not right, so please if you are in a situation like this, say to the seller first, I like your horse, can I please try it for 15 000 euro. Then you are being fair. You can also say if you decide to sell your horse cheaper I would love to try him
If you are a beginner that is looking to buy your first horse, I strongly suggest that you take help from a qualified person who wish you the best. Also think, you are not going to try to find flaws with the horse, you need to find a horse you can learn on. If the horse is doing something wrong, it is most likely that you are giving confusing signals. Or just the fact that the horse is not the horse for you, he is not educated enough to understand, or has a temperament that is not good for the job you need him to do.
The more I learn, the more I understand how little I know!
Just be humble for the horse and the owner, for many people it can be hard for them to sell a horse. I even know jockeys on big sales stable who gets attached to the sales horses, and they off course becomes sad if you treat the horse bad or speak bad about it during the tryouts.
I am sure none of you who reads this would think it was fun if I showed up at your barn and tried your horses a lot just for fun, and because I wanted to train myself on your horse.
These are my thoughts about buying and trying. What are your thoughts?
evaursinleiser 