Do different horse breeds have different temperments?

[Promiselandfarm]

Please don't tell my kids that Arabs can rodeo...I don't want to have to get new horses. I agree with everyone here that every horse is different with different temperments and personalities just like people. Some horses will let you get all over them and others have a different way about them. Some people like slow older dumb horses and some like hot heads... again just a matter of likes and dislikes. The best advise I can give you is go to a boarding barn and offer your help for free and clean out stalls, feed and water. Please please be very very careful on getting a trainer to train you to ride. There are TONS of want-a-bes out there who think they know it all and know dittle squat. Hook up with your 4-H program if you have one and see if there is an avenue for you to learn more about them. They are NOT CHEAP to KEEP even the free horse has a vet bill and a feed bill. Try a horse out before you buy it and if does not click walk away and if the owner tells you how wonderful wonderful the horse is and has no vices RUN! every horse I have ever known or owned had some type of what I call a vice something they don't like any thing to a certain feed to riding gear on them. Had a wonderful well train horse who did not like it if you did not put her gear on in a certain order. Was not mean but let you know she was unhappy with either a side step or ears back.

This is our creek behind our home our horses love the water

 

[luvarabhorses]

I guess that was the point I was trying to make with the bottle and pebbles- that I was unable to release the pressure I had applied as she zipped crazily around the round pen at lightening speed. When you apply pressure, you must be able to release it and that is why the accident happened.
I'm not sure why your kids would want to switch from their tried and true horse to an Arab for rodeo

, I just don't think anyone should x them off the list of potential fun activities.
I've been fooling around with my chickens and new pens so much this winter all this talk is making me anxious to ride again.
happy trails, Lisa

 

[Promiselandfarm]

Their horses are tried and true ARabs not QHs and were doing the rodeo stuff....that is why I said don't tell them or they'll want new horses

 

[HorseFeathers]

I know Arabians tend to be a little high strung... at least the ones I have met.

 

[luvarabhorses]

Oh. Ok get the rodeo comment

It is wierd how they are all the same and yet all different. My first one I purchased for $800 as a discard from a divorce. She loved to trail ride and insisted on passing every horse (at a brisk walk) until she was the first horse. I laughed about it, one day she passed almost 300 horses. You'd be talking to someone and then whoosh you were in front of them.
My favorite moment with her was when we were on a judged trail ride and about 30 horses were gathered around something, no one willing to cross it, Krissy- being Krissy- butted her way in and was like "MOVE, Move" until she came up on it- a blue tarp the wind had gotten under and was blowing around- all the sudden I felt her body go "Aaaaah" she was not expecting that, she stood rock still but tense and then put one dainty 00 hoof after another on it until we crossed it- she had so much pride- and she was so ridiculous at the same time. We got 3rd out of 57 horses! She was annoying but fun and very game.
I've never had a hard time getting one to move, and anybody that trains horses will tell you that is the key to training- getting them to move then controlling their movement.
Sugar is a big deal with them, I feed as little molasses as possible, and I leave mine out with run ins 24/7. They are desert horses. I've had disappointments but not enough to make me give up on them. I wish I had done a better job with some of the young ones I sold but I sold a few fantastic stars- like My Favorite Marsian- out of Emily and my stallion- he was and is someone's very best friend and that feels great. Lisa

 

[Cara]

This has been said a hundred times already, but it really is true. Pick a horse not a breed, and pick a horse YOU feel comfortable with. Who cares what colour it is, a pretty horse is just an expense if you don't enjoy it.

I learnt this the hard way. We live on a ranch with 90+ horses, but there was only one that was suitable for my confidence level and he's in my FIL's string, so often being used. They mostly vary between halter broke, green broke, barn sour, broncs, and just too quick/athletic. All are foundation QH's. They're good at their jobs, but don't want anything to do with pleasure riding. Haul them in a trailer and work cattle all day and they're fine, but trying to go trail riding away from the house is pretty much impossible

That's just not in their mindset, they want to work or be left alone, they don't want to be pets.

So we went horse shopping. Horse #1 was a 7yr old Quarter Horse. We arrive after driving 200 miles to see him, and are told he is petrified of men and they think he was beaten. That might have been useful to know before we made the drive. The seller was riding him when we arrived, and he was already sweaty! I won't know to this day why I got on him. He had no brakes or steering, and would not back up. I rode him back to the seller and she offered to show me how she had taught him. Suddenly something spooked him, and her father made a grab for the reins. (Does that bother anyone else btw? Nothing freaks me out more than someone messing with the reins when i'm on the horse!). Being petrified of men he ran backwards and ran off. The fence at the other end of the pasture stopped him. I got off right there, and was done. If he acted like that at home, who knows what he'd have done when we got him back here. It took a good 2 hours for me to stop shaking!

Horse #2 was a 7 yr old Thoroughbred mare. She was a dork, but not mean. She had been a racehorse, but came last in the two races she had entered. She was described as 16hh. She was actually 17.1hh. I am 5'1. She came running behind the truck when we arrived, and other than the fidgety TB behaviour she was a nice horse. Being afraid of horses, the fidgety stuff got to me, but they convinced us to take her home for a 2 week trial. When we collected her, they had us sign a contract stating that if anything happened to her we would buy her. We weren't 5 minutes from their house when she broke the halter and we felt her pacing the trailer. (They forgot to tell us not to tie her in a trailer. It's amazing how forgetful horse sellers can be) That was the longest 2 hour drive of my life, knowing if she was injured we would have to buy her regardless of what she was like. She spent a two week vacation in our pens, as they had also forgotten to mention that she hadn't been worked in three years, and if she came up lame... you guessed it! We'd have to buy her.

Horse #3 was a 4yr old Quarter Horse, described as 'suitable for anyone'. I now know I should have kept looking, when I saw 'mare' and '4yr old' in the same sentence. I had my husband ride her first because by this point I wasn't going to trust anyone's horse. He liked her, but couldn't do a whole lot as the pen was very muddy and it was an extremely windy day. We led her to our trailer to swap out saddles, and she stepped on a rein and reared. That pretty much put me off. My husband didn't think it was a big deal, but my kind of horse would probably not notice or fall asleep. I got on her, and didn't like her. She kept trying to buffalo me, and my confidence isn't at a level to deal with that. I told my husband, but somehow he talked me into her because he thought she would be more challenging and teach me more than a push button horse. So we paid for her, it took four of us to load her in the trailer. Halfway home we had a flat. It was an omen! The first day my husband rode her, she colicked. She got over that, and a few days later I decided to ride her out from the house. She would not move unless I turned her in a circle back home then kept her going for a step or two. After 15 minutes we were about 100' from the house. She saw some calves and perked up, so I decided to trot after them. Soon after she started bucking. I rode it, but I wasn't going to push my luck with a strange horse and nobody else around, so we went back home. Probably not the best plan, but my self preservation instinct took over. I decided i'd stick to lunging her until my husband had ridden her a few more times. Problem is, she'll run at you bucking, or just refuse to move away and rear. She sidesteps when being saddled, dumping your saddle on the ground unless you push her up against a fence. She's hard to catch. She beats the crap out of the other horses at feeding time, even if they're the other side of the fence. Some days she won't turn left, and runs backwards instead flinging her head. Some days she can be perfect, but you never know what you're going to get. She's good looking and well-bred, but that's about all she has going for her.

A couple of months after we bought her, my FIL brought an old horse home for me. He's ugly, old, and wind-broke. The whites of his pig eyes always show, and his tail is broken and crooked. His coat is wooly and curly, and he has feet like saucepan lids. He's also trustworthy, honest, and kind. He knows when I am afraid, he takes the lead and doesn't take advantage. He'll work his great big butt off chasing cattle, but if I feel afraid I can pull him up and he will not move an inch. Finding a horse like him is like striking gold, and I don't care what he looks like. If only I had kept looking for something similar, instead of the mare. The mare is an expensive pasture ornament that my husband doesn't want me riding until he's put in a few months with her.

Beauty is as beauty does with any horse. Temperament is far more important than looks, kind of like driving a fancy looking car that always breaks down vs something rusty and reliable. The mare and gelding are both QH's, but couldn't be more different.

ETA Something else I found out from this whole experience is that it is important to ask what exactly a horse has been used for and what it is used to. Not all trail horses, roping horses etc are created equal. A ranch horse might make a horrible arena roping horse, we have several that get mad being ridden in an arena but are fine in the pasture. We sold one that was a horrible ranch horse, but he loves team roping. A trail horse that's used to being ridden daily may be a handful if only ridden on weekends. Some aren't suited to being ridden once a week. Some have to be turned out or they are rotten, and these are often the same ones that need riding frequently!

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Quote:

Ditto.

 

[wvsheila]

I have arabs, saddlebreds, arab saddlebred cross, 3 QHs, 1 arab QH, and an appy and most are what others would call throwaways. and I have 1 blind grade cremello, (the yard ornament as my hubbie calls her) and the appy has night blindness. I have people that want horses, come and offer to buy a horse because they see my daughter taking it over jumps and think there 10 year old daughter would love that, What I tell them is get a good trainer (one that makes you groom, clean stalls, carry water, feed, handle and ride, if they last a year and love every part of it get a horse. if not forget it!! they are 90% work and 10% fun to most. (to me cleaning stalls great) also when I let my daughter get her first horse it was the grade and we went and looked at a dozen different horses and being an old qh gal I didn't like the fact she was cremello with blue eyes, but that horse picked her and on the 5th visit I bought her because my daughter could do anything she wanted with that horse and it would follow her around, the other horses came to get there treat and she would wait until they would leave and come back to be loved and be hung on and rode bareback, the horse was the best investment in a horse I ever made. Now I take care fo her like she did my daughter. Don,t get preset Ideas on what you want to get based on breed, looks, or color go by the horse and your own level of skill. sheila

 

[luvarabhorses]

It is wonderful that Cara and the last poster found their dream horses.
A lot of time it is a mutual rescue situation between a horse and rider.
I just wish I could split myself up into fragments to pay more attention to the wonderful horses in my field.
I need to start my trail riding business back up but the Federal Government wants Guided Trail Riding businesses to carry 1 million dollars worth of insurance to ride on gov. property, even though you can not sue the federal gov.
My florange is a lawyer and I thought he would have written some letters or something for me by now. I am silently irked at him. Maybe I should start a new thread in case some one has managed to get around this on BYC.
Poor in the beautiful Ozarks,Lisa
Ps Cara if you are ever in the market for another horse, let me know- I know of some good ones.

 

[CindyS]

When I was a girl in 4-H we showed Arabs and we did all our own training, clipping and were generally hands on with all our horses, they were our friends and our pets. I remember the other kids in our club and other clubs it was the same, with the Arab owners. The kids with Quarter horses, well, that was a whole different scene. The horses were professionally trained, handled, clipped. and the kids were stuck on this professionally trained zombie of a horse that just knew how to go around in a circle and that was it. The kids cried when they didnt win and jumped off the horse as soon as they left the ring and the parents took over again. I guess what I am trying to say is the kids that had Arabs were having fun with their horses and the kids with the QH were not. enough said.