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How To Buy Competition Horses
Posted by Gordon Hamilton at Apr 10th, 2010 in Horses
Starting your look for horses for sale can be hugely daunting because there are so many factors to consider. It requires a lot of research and much knowledge on your part about why you want a horse and what for. There are a few major uses that people focus on when buying. The first is racing and competitions. The second is for breeding. The third is for pure recreation. The fourth is to help with labor.
The life expectancy for horses ranges in between twenty-five and thirty years. Some have been noted to live quite long, the oldest being in its fifties. Between three and fifteen years old are when horses are in the best condition for physical activity. Show horses and race horses tend to have shorter careers. Any smart horse buyer would get a guaranteed age of their horse by documented papers and pedigree and by inspecting the animal in person.
The most commonly known one is teeth. Wear on the teeth is one of the few things an owner cannot disguise to make a horse look younger. Wear on the hooves is the same. Check for cracks or evidence of poor shoe placement. If the horse is dark, look for any gray hairs around the nose, mouth, and ears. This one obviously requires your judgement, as many young horses can have gray hair in places.
Knowing the age also comes in handy when you are trying to compete with it. There are age groups for horses in competitions. You want yours up against horses of similar ages so the animal is not against stronger opponents. Looking for gelding can also determine if you want to buy the horse or not.
Training it, for whatever purpose, goes easier if the animal is younger. This is the same for any animal. You can impose the correct behaviors and skills on it. The one thing you should avoid is trying to train the horse to breed at any age younger than three. If you can wait until it is six years old, everyone will be much better off.
A horse’s skeletal system keeps growing until the age of six, so premature breeding will put a lot of strain on the animal and cause problems with the foal or ruin the grown horse for both physical and breeding purposes. It is also important that nothing take away from this valuable training period. Pregnancy could certainly do that.
If breeding is your goal, you need to make sure you understand everything about horses, including their genetics. It can be a full-time job and a very expensive one that sometimes pays huge returns. The purpose of breeding as an occupation is to accentuate traits and create horses suitable for certain things. When one powerful horse mates with another, they could produce a very strong offspring good for labor. Breeding two horses with long legs could make a foal that will be a star at jumping.
Most people buy horses for their own amusement and to ride in their free time. If you are not entering it in any competitions or races, you can buy just about any horse which suits your fancy. The only thing to make sure you know is the age and temperament of the horse. Not only do you want to have it as long as you can, but you also want to make sure it is not skittish or disobedient. Having its pedigree is not a bad idea, either.
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