You want a horse. Where to get one? I like to make analogies, it’s how I express myself. So let's liken buying a horse to a car. It’s always a good idea to know what you want. Do you want a four-wheel-drive, a NASCAR? Do you want a sports car or a dump truck? Maybe you think all that is a waste of money and you’re the type of person who likes to recycle. So you feel that the most conscious thing you could do would be to buy from the junkyard, invest a lot of money, and maybe someday you’ll be able to drive it. Or the ideal scenario..find a person who has a car they want to sell, and it’s just the kind that you want. You should probably bring a mechanic with you. Still risky. The thing I like about buying from a manufacturer is the warranty. Do you follow? Know what you want, and buy a new one that isn’t tarnished. If it's a lemon you trade it in for another.

It's like that with horses. They are worth a lot of money, and they can be somewhat delicate. It’s all checks and balances. It gets me when I hear people say “horses in the wild —- “ fill in the blank. We are not riding horses in the wild or confining them. Those horses are a product of natural selection. Your horse is a product, hopefully, of careful breeding aimed at a specific result.

If you want a performance horse, a show horse, you go to a show barn and you lease a horse that can take you where you want to go in the show world. And if you want a pet that you can love and squeeze you might adopt one from a reputable sanctuary. ( if you live near one, usually within an hour’s travel because they like to check on them) Do not buy a horse online, especially from a horse auction. You will be setting yourself and your family up for a lot of grief. Because when that horse steps off the trailer you have no idea what you’re dealing with. It could be fierce, or have a chronic disease that is all but untreatable. That horse belongs at a professional rescue. If you want to rescue a horse like that send a ton of money to the rescue and have supervised visits. Don’t do it on your own.

All that being said, perhaps you want to do what I do, which is pleasure ride, out in nature, trail riding. For this, you will need a pleasure horse.  Some breeds lend themselves to this activity better than others, and even within the breeds themselves, there can be drastic differences. For instance, with draft horses like Belgians, Clydesdales, and Shires we have Hitchy horses and Workhorses. A “Hitchy” draft horse is a draft horse that has been bred with showing in mind, think Budweiser Clydesdales. The thing is that they’re going to go into the show ring very high-stepping and be of a certain type that the judge is looking for. More spirited. That is not helpful on the trail. It’s better to look for a horse that has the prefix work in front of it, like a working Morgan or a working ranch horse. Work implies that the horse is capable of taking care of you while you take care of what you have to do. That means it’s not inclined to damage you and itself while you’re out there. Leaving you to do what you have to do, in this case, relax, have Zen moments, take in the beauty of nature, or contemplate life‘s great mysteries. I happen to like Foundation Morgans. I was given one, A 10-year-old, in 2006 and kept him for the rest of his life. Amazing horse. The Foundation Morgan, as well as Shires and many other Heritage Breeds, are critically endangered. Breeders need your support. I feel it is a noble thing to rescue a breed for future generations.