I constantly hear that people think that the horses today are nervous, untrained, wrongly ridden, etc. It was better before, they think. Then you could find a horse that was kind and well ridden, used to riding out alone, without a lot of mistakes and diseases.
Is it true?
I myself have been involved for over 50 years and have had a lot of insight into what kind of horses have been on the market. I have some thoughts about this, but keep in mind that these are my thoughts, no facts.
I remember when I entered the half-blood world in Sweden…. I am originally from Denmark and when people talked about the Swedish half-blood, they were always told that they were sharp and difficult to handle. I admit that I actually got to experience this more than once and special stallions were feared such as Drabant, Juan, and Jovial just to name a few. I also know that several of the stallions at Flyinge you could not get close to. Now they had the horses in a different way in the past and were not so careful with rest paddocks and so on. Therefore, it is difficult to compare. They still breed on performance and the intention is that those who are to become the best are not meant to be hobby horses. I do not think it is more difficult to find a nice horse today, the only problem is that the demand has become greater.
Today, the horse must undergo various bending tests and X-rays before it is thought that it is good enough to be bought. It is also more expensive to keep a horse, so one who is well ridden and well bred has been in the same place for a long time to be able to show such values and therefore it becomes more expensive to find a nice horse.
Those who are kind, nice and brought up are seldom for sale, because the owners want to keep the one they have spent a lot of time on. Unfortunately, there will be nothing extra on the price because the horse is manageable, but there are other values that increase the price. Good trunk and nice appearance and great gait, is well paid. Even if they demand their rider, it is obvious that the breeders would like to have paid for their horses. It does not pay to breed “average” and I myself have experienced that nice calm hobby horses are not high in price.
I have imported lots of nice kindly bred horses from Hungary to Sweden, but the price you got from riding schools and hobby riders was actually less than these horses were worth.
I think the reason is simply that you do not want to pay the right price for a hobby horse. You have to pick them up abroad and the risk of being “cheated” is great, when you can not see and try the horse in advance.
I also think that people have less time today, and simply do not have the patience to deal with raising the horse themselves and get to know it properly before you start riding.
If you think SWB is too nervous or sharp today, then there are a lot of other breeds to choose from. Have plenty of time when choosing a horse and think carefully about it.
