Viewing a horse: what to do on the day

Most viewings are arranged so that you see the horse at its most convenient: caught, groomed, warmed up and waiting in the school. That is not sinister — it is what a seller does to be helpful. But it removes the half hour that tells you what the horse is actually like to own, and it is the half hour you should be asking for.

What should I arrange before I go?

• Ask them not to have it ready. Say it plainly when you book: "Please don't catch or tack up before I arrive — I'd like to see the whole routine." A seller who agrees easily has told you something before you have left home.
• Ask who will ride it first. You want the seller or its usual rider on it before you get on.
• Ask what it will have done that day, and the day before. A horse lunged for forty minutes before you arrive is a different horse from the one you will own.
• Take someone. An instructor if you can, an experienced friend if not. Two people see twice as much and only one of them is falling in love.
• Confirm you can ride it, and that you can come back a second time.

What order should I ask for things in?

The sequence matters, because each step is harder to stage than the last and because a tired horse is a quieter horse. Front-load the parts that show you temperament.

1. See it in the field or the stable, undisturbed, before anyone touches it.
2. Watch it caught and led in. Does it come to the gate or does it walk away? Does it lead politely past other horses?
3. Watch it tied up, groomed and have all four feet picked out. Feet are where a lot of horses tell the truth about being handled.
4. Watch it trotted up in hand on the hardest flat surface on the yard — straight away from you and straight back, twice.
5. Watch it tacked up. Girthing is where back pain and ulcers show as ear pinning, nipping or moving away.
6. Watch the seller ride: walk, trot, canter both reins, transitions, and a halt.
7. Ride it yourself.
8. Ask to see it untacked, put away, and — if you have any doubt — turned back out.

What am I watching while the seller rides?

You are not judging the quality of the schooling. You are looking for the things the rider is working around without saying so.

• Which rein they use more, and whether they avoid one direction.
• Whether the horse is asked to halt and stand, and for how long. Standing still is a skill and its absence is deliberate.
• Downward transitions. Forward is easy. Coming back shows whether the brakes are real.
• The first two minutes after mounting, before the horse has settled. That is what your Tuesday evening looks like.
• Whether the rider talks continuously to the horse, and what they are managing when they do.
• What happens near the gate, near other horses, and when something makes a noise.

What should I check on the ground?

None of this replaces a vet, and you should not pretend to yourself that it does. It is for deciding whether to spend money on a vetting at all.

• Run a hand down each leg. You are feeling for heat, swelling and obvious lumps — and mostly for whether the horse objects to being touched.
• Look at all four feet. Are they a matched pair in front? When were they last shod or trimmed? Uneven feet can mean uneven loading.
• Look at the horse from behind and from in front. Obvious asymmetry in the muscling over the hindquarters is worth asking about.
• Look at the teeth and the age the seller states. If those disagree, everything else in the advert is worth re-reading.
• Look at the stable: chew marks on the door, a worn patch by the door, bedding pushed into a bank. Those are signs of a stereotypy the advert may not mention.
• Look at the field: how many horses, what condition, whether there is water and shelter.

What should I do when I ride it?

Ride the horse you would actually own on a normal day, not the best twenty minutes anyone could get out of it. Ask for the things you would do on a Wednesday.

• Mount from a block and let it stand. A horse that will not stand to be mounted is a daily problem.
• Walk on a long rein for five minutes before doing anything. You learn a lot about a horse's brain in the boring part.
• Halt from walk, from trot, and from canter. Twice each.
• Ride away from the other horses and away from the gate, and see what changes.
• If you will hack, ask to hack — even ten minutes up the lane. A horse that is different outside the school is very common and rarely advertised.
• Stop while it is still going well. You are not there to school it.

What questions only work in person?

• "Can you show me how it loads?" — asked at the end, when the lorry or trailer is right there.
• "What does it do when it's worried?" — open, unanswerable with a yes, and very hard to dodge while standing next to the horse.
• "What would you tell me if I were your sister?" — the question that most often produces the real answer.
• "What has it not done?" — better than asking what it has done, because the gaps are the part the advert omits.
• "Who else has ridden it in the last month?" — establishes whether anyone but the seller can.

Should I decide on the day?

No. Go home. Nothing about a genuine sale requires a decision in the yard, and every technique for pressuring a buyer depends on one being made there. If the horse sells to someone else in the two days you take to think, you have lost a horse; if you commit on the spot to the wrong one, you have bought a five-year problem.

Go back a second time before the vetting, ideally at a different time of day and without warning about which day. Almost everything that a single viewing hides shows up on the second one.

What to take with you

• Hat, boots, gloves and a back protector — sellers are not obliged to provide any of them.
• Your instructor or an experienced friend.
• A written list of your questions, so you do not lose them to nerves.
• Your phone, to film the trot up and the seller riding, with permission.
• Your walk-away number and your list of non-negotiables, written down before you left.