Buying a 5 year old

[ipredictariot5]

Looking for some advice on a potential purchase. It’s for a share with my adult daughter. We have had horses before but the last one my daughter had was a nervy loan and although she got great flatwork improvement they never clicked jumping.
I am reasonably confident but over past few years have mainly gone on riding holidays which involve beach riding and cross country but aware someone else’s well trained horses are not always representative
We want to do riding club/ hacking / farm rides and she would like to do some low level show jumping
I will have full livery and a trainer but my question is would I be mad to buy a 5 year old ? Seems great temperament and brought on slowly and reputable seller. I have a good budget. Anxious not to be over horsed. Any thoughts welcome

If the horse is nice natured, and you have access to facilities and a trainer for schooling and have the time to do it, I don’t see why not. My first horse as an adult, after some time away from horses, was a 5yo, as was the next horse I bought for myself. You don’t get any of the good stuff someone else has schooled into it, but you don’t get any of the bad habits someone else has allowed to develop either. You do need to be aware of the amount of time and effort that goes into developing a young horse into a well rounded mature horse, and be truthful with yourself that you will have the time and inclination to do the work. But it’s a lovely way to build a relationship with your horse.

I am personally very wary of any seller that says any horse 6 and under is suitable for a nervous or more novice rider. If you’ve only been riding at riding centres you’ll probably at least be a touch rusty.
Very quiet babies can get a bit daft when they realise their size and strength and ive known a good few go through a teenage stage, and most settle down but they can be pretty horrid for a few weeks!
Also my mother always said quiet riders make quiet horses, and she totally meant it in a positive way but I can see it misfire in that horses, even those with angelic temperaments get very used to very competent, confident, quiet, balanced riders and get a bit “oh Christ what the fuck are they wanting” if someone is anything but an absolutely beautiful rider.

Pressed send too soon…
So if they’ve been very correctly produced by one excellent rider they may initially find being ridden by more than one rider and dealing with occasional balance issues etc can unsettle them and lead to amateur dramatics!

Have you ridden it and what do you think? Some are poppets others are stroppy teenagers. If you do go ahead I wouldn't overdo the jumping at first.
I bought a wonderful rising 6 year old, a bit green and spooky due to not having seen much of the world but he soon grew out of that and he's still with me now at 21. He is 14.2 and was bought for a small 10 year old. I saw his lovely kind face when she got in him and just had this gut feeling that he'd look after he and it would be all right. It absolutely has been. Loved by every one. Spurred on by how fab he was, I bought a 5 year old who wasn't a bad lad by any means, he was good as gold for me and I wouldn't describe myself as a fantastic rider but he and my daughter just didn't get on. He went in to do really well in his next home with his new rider who he liked.

So I wouldn't say no, but you need to be really sure he's the right one for you first. At that young age they can also grow a bit more and mature physically so bear that in mind too before you buy a complete wardrobe for him.

Have you taken your trainer with you to look at the horse and have all three of you ridden to see what you think? What breed and size?

Not been yet - I’m trying to anticipate all issues before go and fall in love and lose my head !
He is an ISH and 16 2. I have ridden a lot similar over the years.
I was also wondering about how well he would adapt to being a shared horse although seems to have 2 riders currently
Also any thoughts on price for that age? I was thinking about 10k about right ?

It's difficult for anyone to advise without seeing you ride. I would take your trainer for a second viewing if you like the horse and she what they think. Providing the horse isn't too sharp and you're having regular training then I'd say go for it. But you're a long way off until you've actually sat on this horse.

£10k and up I'd say for a nice quality Irish horse that's safe and sane and is fairly solid in the basics. Most likely won't come with tack and id 5* vet with bloods and maybe even some X-rays. Just remember to let a new horse settle in and not to over feed it whilst you're both adjusting. Really establish ground manners and keep on top of them as much as you would manners under saddle. 5 years can be a bit teenager so important to manintain boundaries 🤣

Mine was fine at 5. At 9 it was a different story 😂

An ISH at 5 years old may well not be fully grown yet. If they take more to the ID side, they can still grow height-wise up to 7-8 years old. Have a look and see if he's still bum high.
He also will likely have quite a bit of filling out to do yet, so if he's on the larger side of what you/DD would want now, bear that in mind.

You will also need to be careful not to do too much jumping/ hard ground/ serious dressage schooling until he's fully matured physically.
You see so many adverts for young horses these days being taken over huge jumps at 4-5 years old. It's terrible for growing joints, and will affect their longevity.

That said, I bought a 4 year old ISH mare last year, and I'm really enjoying bringing her on slowly and carefully, she's a joy to have around.

As others have said, it can work out OK, some 5 year olds are sweet and quiet and stay that way, others however do go through quite bad fits of the kevins and can keep growing (and therefore changing/pushing boundaries) through to 6-7 if they're a bigger/heavier type and being weak/gangly can make them seem quieter than they really are! I guess it depends on if you/your daughter will enjoy the process of bringing a young horse on with all the alarms/frustrations/patience testing that goes with it or if honestly you'd rather just crack on with enjoying your horse from day 1?

I do have to say also that a price point of £10k (while not unreasonable for a nicely bred, nice looking and well brought up ISH per se), even in this post-lockdown period of price inflation to me implies quite a bit more power and potential than you really need if your aim is mainly hacking and low level riding club activities. Not that that's necessarily a problem, the horse won't care if his full potential isn't realised, but it's just that a horse that's been bred and brought up with the aim of being a high-ish level eventer, SJer or whatever, has probably always been ridden by professionals and used to being handled and having the routine of a competition horse, and could be therefore considerably sharper and more sensitive than you're used to.

If £10k's your budget I think you should be able to find a more established older horse, one that had's some success in RC/entry level competition with an amateur rider already, perhaps a school master type who's ready to step down a level. Not saying you need to completely rule this 5yo old, but I would try and go in with a very cynical head on about his suitability (as you say it's going to be hard not to fall in love, really hard if he's a nice horse, I'm a sucker for a pretty face but the pretty ones can be as much of a nightmare as the ugly ones!) and listen to your trainer's honest opinion...

Well pending vetting I now have a beautiful 5 year old

All your advice was so helpful I was objective and asked a lot of questions but my main criteria was temperament and he appears to be an absolute gentleman and keen to please

What a beauty as well.

Five year olds are just about to hit the naughty age. Even the best go through it and if you are not experienced enough you may be cut out for a younger horse.

The picture makes him appear a little weak in the neck. But I’m sure that’s the picture angle.

The weak neck comment was probably representative of a horse underdeveloped at the front because he was lame !
Failed vetting
Back to drawing board
Gutted

Gutting, sorry OP! At least you found out at vetting and not when you'd got him home! Good luck with the rest of the search...

OP - I’ve had 2 well bred 4-5 year olds fail in the last month. Both were lovely young horses. They failed on x-ray findings after passing a 5 stage. With a 5 stage vetting + x-rays costing over £800, I am starting to think I should only look at horses that already have clean x-rays. Horse shopping is not fun.

My vet was great and stopped the vetting pre x rays. Amazing how many people have said to me if you buy young you don’t need to vet them
It’s not fun at all and seems impossible to get anything reasonable older than 4 at present too

The search continues … found something I loved drove 6 hours and then seller pulled out within 24 hours as couldn’t part with him
This is torture !!