When looking to buy a horse, one of the first decisions is whether to get one which is untrained, partly trained, or fully trained. Most people, especially if it is there first horse, will be better off getting a horse which is already trained for whatever they intend to use if for. For example, if one intends to use the horse for basic riding it should already be trained for riding, whereas if you are using it for show jumping, it should already be trained in show jumping.

Buying an untrained horse or partly trained horse is less expensive (at least, at first) than a fully trained horse. It also offers you the opportunity to participate in its training, with the trainer of your choice. However, there are a few important risks with this approach:

- Cost of Training. The cost of training depends on individual circumstances and is hard to estimate, but it is under-estimated far more often than over-estimated. Aside from the direct trainer costs, unless the trainer comes to you, there are the additional costs of either stabling the horse with the trainer, or transporting the horse to the trainer for each lesson. Many people find that by the time the horse is fully trained to the level they require, it would have been cheaper to have bought an already trained horse.

- Accidents. Accidents can easily occur during training, even with a good trainer. These may result in vet costs or worse.

- Inadequate Training. Not all trainers are consistently good. In particular, trainers often rush training or use aggressive training techniques, in order to be able to quote an acceptable training fee. At best, this can result in an incompletely trained horse and at worse a mis-trained horse with undesirable behaviors.

- Riding Feel. Horses are individual living creatures, with their own characteristics. Two horses, with identical training, will behave and feel different to a rider. Consequently, one cannot predict precisely what an untrained horse will feel like after it has been trained, so buying a trained horse which you’ve already ridden is more predictable.

- Health Examination. A trained horse is easier to evaluate for injuries or other defects as one can ride it and one can watch it carefully while being ridden in each gait. Although one can examine an untrained horse, the examination by necessity is less complete.

Consequently, buying an already trained horse can be less risky and less expensive than buying an untrained (or partly trained) horse and then training it up.

Unless you are a professional trainer (or working under the close supervision of one), you should not train a horse yourself. Otherwise there is the risk that the horse will acquire bad behaviors or habits, which can be difficult and expensive to correct.

Also be careful of buying a partly trained horse based on the seller’s promise to complete the training. After the sale is made, it is too tempting for the seller to rush the training, in order to reduce costs and get payments as quickly as possible. Make the final commitment to buy only after the horse competes its training and you have ridden it to confirm that you are completely happy.

This article was written by Doug Stewart, based on his experience in Horse Sales and as a breeder.

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Tags: Horses