I'm working with a number of novice owners at the moment - not necessarily novice in terms of the number of years that they have owner horses but novice as owners of young, inexperienced horses. When I get the initial telephone call or email I can hear a definite oh-oh buzzer in my head, rather like the one that goes off in Family Fortunes if you can bear to watch it. If the horse is a really recent purchase and is already exhibiting difficult behaviour then part of my advice is always to put the last owner on notice that they are having problems. It's not necessarily that I think that the horse should go back but to make sure that the owner still has their options open. Quite often the horse has come from somewhere that they couldn't contemplate the horse going back to or they have fallen totally in love with the horse already. It may be that they have no cause for complaint anyway but people who are trying to get shut of a horse will often lie about whether their horse is really suitable for a novice.
These days there are significant barriers to people get all round experience with horses. The days when teenagers spent all day at the riding school bringing ponies in, turning them out, grooming them and moving them around in return for rides are long gone. College courses may offer a very limited band width of experience too. I meet very few people who have real experience of young horses, traumatised horses or remedial horses. Even experienced people have gaps and all too often experienced horses have gaps. Both can be short on mileage too.
For novice owners the gap needs to be filled by a quest for knowledge, practical and theoretical and of good quality. Time and patience are one thing but they also need good techniques. Love and luck may breach the gap in some cases but success can be the enemy of excellence. The most vulnerable time for owners and horses is when there is a gap - both run the risk of injury and accidents and loss of confidence. For the horse they may be wrecked for life.
The bigger the experience gap, the more time, patience and money you will need to spend to bridge that gap. I wouldn't deny anyone their dreams for their horse but this is a simple truth.
 |
| Click on the diagram to see a clearer version |
Ultimately my advice would be choose your horse carefully and to have strict criteria written down. Try not to fall in love with the first horse you see and stand back and really think about whether a given horse is really suitable for a novice. Take an experienced friend with you. Make sure you see the horse ridden in a school and out and about and then ride the horse yourself. Choosing the wrong horse can be expensive and heartbreaking.
I accept that there are exceptions to every rule (and I would be inundated with good examples of this) but typically young horses are not suitable for novices nor are breeds such as the Welsh Cob, Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds and Arabs; any horse with a quirky problem or remedial problems; or any horse that needs to learn something that you won't be able to teach him.
