After seeing yet another horse this weekend, I’m starting to feel a little mentally exhausted by the sheer volume of horses I’ve considered. Not that I don’t recognize how privileged I am to be able to even consider buying a horse, because I know there are plenty of pony-princesses like myself out there who cannot yet realize that dream. But even acknowledging how fortunate I am, it still gets a little overwhelming from time to time.

Horses come from everywhere it seems. I have one auction that I absolutely love, and considered going to, but it didn’t work out this year. The majority of the horses I have seen I found (or someone pointed/tagged me to) on facebook. I also search warmblood-sales.com like a fiend, as well as dreamhorse.com – my two personal favorite databases for horse sales. And two horses so far have come about through friends/acquaintances in the local horse world.

I’ve so far looked at 11 horses. That’s if I remember them all correctly. [Note: After publishing this I did remember at least one more, but I’m too lazy to update the infographics, so there]

Breakdown by gender

It’s no surprise that since I’m a gelding kind of gal that the majority of the horses I’ve looked at fit that category, But I have branched out a few times otherwise.

Age, I’m less picky about, though I’m fairly determined to stick within my 3-10 age range. The mode for this set of horses would be 3 year olds, likely because a nice 3 yr old is more apt to be in budget than a nice 6 or 7 year old.

Breed also tends to vary a little bit. I’ve now seen two Thoroughbreds, 3 Warmblood crosses (mostly part TB), and 3 “pure” Warmbloods, which I’m considering as either a registered warmblood, such as a branded Oldenburg, or a cross of two registered warmbloods, such as a Holsteiner X Trakehner, with little or no TB/other breed influence. The “other” category gets pretty interesting- this including the Teke, a Connemara cross, and a Dutch Harness horse cross gelding.

Obviously I haven’t yet found my match, but the quality of horses I’m seeing is on the up and up. Maybe because new horses are hitting the market? Maybe because I’m so sick of driving that only the really strong candidates will make me strap myself into my car for more than a 45 min drive? Who knows.

They keep coming, and I’ll keep looking until I find the one. He’s (or she’s) out there though, I’m sure.