Choosing your horse
Breed does not decide everything, but it decides enough. What each one was bred to do, how big it gets, and what it costs to keep.
A breed is a starting point, not a personality test — every yard has a placid Thoroughbred and a sharp cob. What a breed does tell you is what the horse was built for, roughly how much of it there’ll be to feed, and what you’re likely to meet in the ring.
What to read first
- What is a Thoroughbred?
- Thoroughbred
- Irish Sport Horse
- Hunter
- Cob
- Warmblood
- Hanoverian
- KWPN Dutch Warmblood
- Andalusian
- Arabian
- Friesian
- Cleveland Bay
- Shire
- Haflinger
- Appaloosa
- Paint Horse
- Quarter Horse
- Connemara Pony
- New Forest Pony
- Welsh Pony
- Shetland Pony
- Black horses
- What is a bay horse?
- Dun or buckskin?
- Naming your horse
- What is a coloured horse?
- Piebald or skewbald?
- What is a blagdon horse?
- What is a wall-eyed horse?
- Why do some horses have blue eyes?
Further on
When you have got this far, what comes next is the daily round: Feeding, rugs, mucking out, hoof care: the unglamorous work that makes a stable a life.