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Date Posted: 22:23:34 06/25/06 Sun
Author: Muriel
Subject: Green Horse
In reply to: Dark Lore 's message, "Unexpectedly green horse" on 18:57:38 06/25/06 Sun

California, I am wondering how old your horse is? I know it is a common problem that sellers over-represent the horses' training. This is my experience with a greenish horse. I purchased my horse Liu from BSF a little more than 1 month ago. He was represented as training level dressage, used in dressage lessons. Granted, he turned 3 a few days before I became his new owner, so what is a 2 y.o. Friesian doing with so much training anyhow? I rode him three times before buying him, and although I fell off one time, it was entirely a loss of stirrup/balance on my part. What I got out of the rides were that 1. he was very comfortable at all three gaits 2. he was very responsive, forward, and easy to ride (especially for such a young horse).

As an aside, I bought my horse from BSF because I live nearby and I could go and meet and ride many different ones (they may all be black but they can feel so different from one another), and since I was in no hurry to buy, I could wait until I found a horse I really liked. I rode quite a few of their horses, and put my deposit then took it off several horses (after riding them). I think I drove Janna crazy because I switched my deposit many times. But I can't imagine how I would feel if I had purchased the first or second horse that I had a deposit on there, even though they were more expensive and more trained than the one I bought. I think I would have felt ripped-off, because one was sooo uncomfortable and the other woudn't move.

So my experience with Liu is not huge, since I have only had him one month... but my feeling is that since I really love his character and what he will be, the $ I saved on his purchase price is going into training. I was actually relieved that he had had so little training, because it means they didn't ruin him. It did take me by surprise how untrained he is... but I love the work we are doing together. I am working with a great trainer and we are doing work in hand right now. As soon as he gets new shoes we will start light lungeing sessions. Until I actually started working with him, I never realized how much of a baby he was! His attention span right now is not really long, but he tries so hard to be good, and he is really a love.

After the keuring in September, I would like to begin the riding work, but again, I am going to let the circumstances dictate what happens. He will not even be 3.5 years old yet! So as long as we continue meaningful in-hand and lungeing work, and I plan on doing quite a bit of bombproofing as well, I will wait until we are both ready. The way I see it, when the journey is so great, why get to the destination too fast?

Maybe in the rush to prepare your horse for sale, they skipped some essential basics and you need to go back for a while. For me it has been a great way to establish myself with my horse. I hope that this helped you.. the key for me was to find a good trainer. Muriel

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