This message is from: "Jean Gayle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Whoa there Ruthie and Karen. I think you are both taking non existent sides due to variables. Horses can be adaptable, sensible and gentle from birth. This makes it easy for the "beginner" to have a "well trained" horse. Horses may also take on the characteristics of owners, training or not. Another variable. Horses can innately be cruel or unmanageable due to physical or mental quirks that no one can work out. So, bad owner, trainer or horse?
Do the very best you can as owner, breeder, trainer but let the buyer beware. The horse must be observed in many different situations or by the trained eye. With the very best of training, talent and personality a horse can still do damage. When I was younger I wanted the hot blooded horse with style and presence. By searching and observing I found the perfect match and knew nothing of his early beginnings. He was a crowd pleaser and the most reliable horse ever, despite his animation. Then I bred and raised two horses out of the same dam. One has the presence and animation but is impish and the other is totally reliable, quiet and willing. My impish one would try anything to pester and get his way and has only in his twentieth year become totally (almost) tractable. It was suggested I use a two by four instead of the crop when he was young. Yet he was brilliant in dressage. My other one has never required a crop, has never offered resistance on the ground. She is different under saddle, slow and pokey unless she likes you. This could be changed by training but I no longer ride. So many variables. So if one chose only young home raised etc horses it is still a toss up as is the older well trained horse. Observation and trying the horse in all situations possible is the only way I know to understand what you are buying. Plus the words of your known trainer or expert. Jean Jean Walters Gayle [Authoress of "The Colonel's Daughter" Occupied Germany 1946 To 1949 ] http://users.techline.com/jgayle Send $20 Three Horses Press PO Box 104 Montesano, WA 98563
