How to Purchase Your First or 20th Barrel Horse – Part 2

Okay, so we have talked about different options and places to look for your first or even your 20th barrel horse. Now I thought I would share with you how I like to go about it.

Like I have mentioned before, we have a lot of production horse sales to attend in South Dakota. I have a few sales that are my favorites, so it’s not uncommon for me to hit a bunch of the sales looking for that perfect baby.

I like to pick up the catalog first and study it like nobody’s business. I go through the catalog looking at blood lines first (again I have my favorites) then I’ll look at the confirmation of the colt. The color of the colt is not a big deal to me, since color doesn’t make that horse run any faster! A lot of people do love certain colors though, and many times this will make the price jump pretty high. As for me, I have no problem sticking with a good old Bay or Sorrel colt.

You also have people that only look at little stud babies. This is because a lot of people don’t want to deal with a filly since down the road you will have a temperamental mare who is going to come in season, and it almost always seems to happen right when you have a rodeo coming up! Again, for me this is not a major problem. I actually like a mare, because if she is a great barrel horse and winds up getting hurt, you can always breed her down the road.

Now as far as conformation, this can be a little tricky when buying a weanling. The biggest thing is to make sure that he/she has nice straight legs. I like to look at the top and underline of a horse…I personally like a horse with a short top line (from the withers to the start of the butt) and a long underline (under the belly).

The shoulders and the hips are things a person should look at as well. A good, muscled-up baby is a great indication of an athletic horse down the road. These are all things I’ll look at once I get to the sale and have a chance to see these babies up close. I always go early so I have a chance to walk around and look at all the ones I have marked in my catalog.

Once I am at the sale, I look at everything a little bit closer and then I look for any ruptures of the umbilical cord. If it is a bad one I stay away from that colt, because a severe rupture will have you looking at possibly a surgery on this colt, and you don’t want to start putting money into a colt before you even find out if he/she is gonna be that next great barrel horse.

This brings up the next problem–I personally don’t like to sink a pile of money into these babies because this is some what of a crapshoot; you need to keep in mind you’ll have two years before you even start this horse and that’s a long time for him/her to run through a fence and get hurt or even die, and let me tell you I have had it all happen to me. I have lost nice little babies due to them trying to jump over a fence, and I have had many colts with their share of injuries, but this has not stopped me from still purchasing a colt. Not to mention, once he/she is all grown up he may not be put together right, have a bad mind and flat out hate the barrels.

I love the hard work that goes into these little guys because nothing feels better then the accomplishment of starting, finishing and hopefully owning that next great barrel horse!