PrintOur columnist explains how he goes about the process of picking out the next international show jumping champion.
Selecting a young horse as a prospective international jumper is a topic that I never tire of talking about, learning about or doing.
I think it’s necessary to predicate this column by saying everything I’m going to say doesn’t matter, as there are always exceptions. Additionally, I don’t presume to think that I’m always correct. Picking out young horses is high risk at best, and people don’t hire me to choose their horses because I don’t make mistakes; they choose me to pick out horses hoping I make fewer mistakes than some others. The fear of making mistakes will certainly preclude one from finding a diamond in the rough.
The whole process should be fun. If it’s not fun, one may put undue pressure on a horse trying to force it to be something that it’s not. Never forget horses don’t know how much we paid for them. If we overpay, it’s our fault, not theirs. If they aren’t what we dreamed of, the dream is our fault, not theirs. If we don’t look at each horse through the eyes of maximizing their potential and expecting nothing more, that’s our fault, not theirs.
Buying horses must be looked at as an exciting adventure into unknown depths of despair and unimaginable heights of elation. The pride of developing a young horse to its maximum potential will be far more meaningful to the true horseman than any monetary gains.
Attitude And Appearance
Now down to the nitty-gritty: the details of horse selection. When my wife Beezie and I are looking for young prospects, probably the most important characteristic that we try to measure is aptitude: a horse’s ability to be trained, his ability to learn, his ability to respond to the rider and his temperament while doing so.
Accepting training and learning are two different things. Some horses will acquiesce to training rather quickly but not retain that training, so while being tractable, they have no retention. Horses that aren’t good learners have been my second most disappointing forays into young horse development. The only risk bigger than a non-learning horse is a lame one.
During the trial it’s very important not to overface a horse but to mildly challenge its rideability, scope, carefulness, character and soundness in a limited enough manner that a realistic assessment can be made as to how much improvement the horse makes over the normal two-day trial.
Day 1 consists of 15-20 minutes of flatwork and a moderate amount of jumping. In the flatwork, we will examine soundness through multiple changes of direction and multiple circles in each direction of varying diameters at the walk, trot and canter. If possible, it’s also valuable to ride the horse and see it move on varied surfaces (grass, all weather and a hard surface). While it’s ultimately the veterinarian’s responsibility to determine the soundness of the horse, you can add valuable insight and make his job more complete by being objective about the horse’s soundness through the trial.
