The Rise Of The “Auto-Everything” Horse

There is this dichotomy in selling horses that no one is talking about. On the one hand, we all know why we ride horses, own horses, and spend every waking minute thinking about horses: we love them. Beyond that, we have a bond with our horse. This connection feels like nothing else. We talk about the importance of teaching our kids that this sport, this industry, is not about how high you jump, or how many ribbons you win, its about the sportsmanship and the bond with your horse. These creatures give us a sense of peace and belonging and we will do crazy, stupid things to continue that. On the other hand, as soon as we go to buy a horse, all of that flies out the window. We switch gears and act like we are buying a used car, not a living creature. We want a horse with all the buttons and with the right amount of (show)miles. We want the right make, model, year and color. We want to know the accident record, its safely rating, and its capacity. And it is the difference between those perspectives that is driving me crazy.

And look, I am a realist. Many horses are not just pets; they are performance animals. Heck, I would be out of a job if they were not. I make my living teaching horses how to be relaxed with a rider, how to listen to a rider, how to use their bodies, and yes, how to perform. So, I am not saying that performance shouldn’t play a role in the sale of a horse, but from where I am sitting, trying to sell horses for my clients and scrolling through hundreds of sale ads every day, I think sales have become so heavily focused performance that it’s creating a deeply unrealistic market. I have actually seen sale ads that say their horse has “auto everything”, like that’s even possible on a living, breathing creature. In ISO ads there is rarely a mention of what kind of personality or character they are looking for, it’s always make, model, and color . And as the person selling horses, I can tell you what that focus on a horse’s “stats” creates. Pressure. It creates pressure on me, the trainer, to make sure my horses are hitting these milestones, since that is all people will see as they scroll across my ads. It creates pressure on me to make sure that the owner’s investment of time, money and care into this horse yields some positive return. And as much as I genuinely hate that some of my consideration must be related to money-in verses money-out, that’s the reality of doing this as a job, and the current market is not making it any easier.

So how do we rectify these two perspectives? To be blunt, it’s not going to be easy. It requires buyers to buy differently, and sellers to sell differently. But here is the thing, this is not a chicken-and-the-egg problem. I know which needs to come first: buyers have to change how they buy and what they ask for. And you know who needs to be behind that change? The trainers. The need for such perfect, mechanistic horses comes in part from client demand, but also in part from trainers’ lack of time, willingness, and frankly, ability, to actually put training into horses that are not yet “perfect”. The horse industry is a pretty excellent example of a free market: supply is dictated by what the consumers demand. So if I can have a suggestion, or really at this point, a plea, I would ask for buyers to be realistic when buying horses. Realistic about their own riding ability and goals, realistic about the amount of time and money it takes to get a horse to have an “auto change” or be an adult amateur “packer”, and realistic about the fact that horses are living creatures who will require maintenance and/or go lame at some point, who will have bad days, and can never be 100% bombproof. Part of creating this change is education, part of this is social norm, and part of this is what trainers are willing to work with. I totally understand wanting to buy a “safe” horse, and some horses are “safer” for certain kinds of riders than others, but to my mind, “safe” is matching appropriate horses to appropriate riders, not buying machines. I want everyone to have a horse they love riding, and I want them to achieve their riding goals, but that doesn’t come from having “automatic” horses, it comes from time, training, and patience. If we keep those things in mind during the buying and selling process, not only would that take the pressure off of trainers like me who are producing young horses and it would also change the expectations we place on the horses themselves.