Buying a Horse

Lesson 1: The Initial Considerations

Assessing His Body Language, Part One

When you assess a horse for purchase, it's helpful to examine how he responds to those handling him and of course yourself. Is he calm and accepting? Or does he seem nervous and anxious when people are around him? I had a friend who purchased a QH mare without assessing her body language and when she got her home, she realized her mistake.

If you put a halter on the mare then she was calm and accepted the saddle, but try to approach her and pet her in the pasture and that was a big no-no. I'm not sure what happened to make this mare so "disdainful" of people, but her attitude told everyone that tried that she didn't want to be your friend, let alone a true partner. Needless to say, the mare ended up being sold, after my friend decided that she couldn't trust a horse that truly didn't like her or want to be with her.

There are key postures and facial expressions that a horse uses to let you know how he feels. Learning the equine body language will also set you in good stead for when you bring your new horse home. You'll find this invaluable when looking to build a bond or handling your horse. If you can assess his mood ahead of time you'll know whether he's feeling a touch anxious that day and if so, then riding him might be best left for another day. Some of the body language is evident and some are a little subtler, so let's have a look at them so that you know what to look for.

Ears

His ears can be the first signal in telling you what is going on. If both ears are alert and locked onto something, then that something has his attention. When a trainer works with a horse they look for one ear to be locked onto them at all times. This tells the trainer that he has the horse's attention. His ears are quite independent; he can have one ear locked on you and his other ear locked on something else entirely. If a horse moves his ears back and forth then he's uncertain about something, so you might want to take a moment to reassure the horse that all is well by talking to him and petting him.

If his ears are pinned back then the horse is either scared or angry. Nervous horses will typically pin their ears back when being handled or when approached. When a horse is angry, the ears are flatly pinned back and it's not difficult to discern the difference between anger and nervousness. To see the difference watch two horses at feed time who both feed out of the same feeder. The dominant horse will no doubt flatly pin back his ears and swish his tail to let the submissive horse know that he's the boss and thus he gets first pickings.

The Tail

Horses don't just use their tails for swishing flies. The tail can be another good indicator of mood. If your horse swishes his tail then he's irritated plain and simple. Often when a horse is excited you'll see him running around with his tail up and out, this is called high-tailing. If it's tucked between his legs then something has him scared and if there's a kink in the tail then that horse is probably about to buck. When I say kink, this is an obvious kink, the horse will literally have the tail held out to the side.

Let's now have a look at his facial expressions and how you can assess stance, ears and tail to get an overall picture of how your horse feels.

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