We think it is important that horsemen and women be aware of the type of horse that seems to be least wanted, least desirable, as if enough people are aware, it may reduce the numbers of horses being bred, sold or let without training.

One can hope, at least. We are about hoping.

  1. Mares end up in rescue more often than geldings, as a rule, nationally, from all we can determine. There are two primary reasons for this, one being mares tend to be a little smaller and mares tend to receive less training, as too many folks think the mare’s main purpose is to make more horses (breeding), in our experience. Though most of our horses come to us very green, mares come to us with less training of any kind than geldings.
  2. Smaller Horses, those under 15hh, come to Heart of Phoenix and many other regional rescues, far more frequently than larger horses. Most inquiries we have for adoptions are people looking for 15hh, or even more often, 16hh horses. This means the market is saturated with horses born smaller than the buyer and adopter base wanted to own or adopt.
  3. Gaited horses are common within Appalachia, but unfortunately, the number of gaited horses that aren’t consistent in how they gait, smooth enough or tall enough means that there are large number of gaited horses that come to Heart of Phoenix and other rescues in this part of the USA.
  4. Chestnut horses are more common and receive far less inquiries, no matter gender, size, breed or movement. People like flair, flash and any color but red when we look at our inquiries. Sadly, people will ask for many other colors, even common bay, but rarely, if ever, inquire about chestnut or look at plain colored chestnuts without any white markings. Now, if they can manage to be Liver, that is another story.

So, what can we do with this information?

Well, if you know people in the horse industry that do breed, this information may help people make better decisions when it comes to reproduction and training once foals are on the ground. Train horse mares and get those gaited horses a solid foundation when young, so they gait consistently.

If you’re considering adoption or buying, mull over whether you might actually be okay with a plain chestnut horse, if you can get a gaited horse going smoothly with good training, whether you really need a large horse based on your size and whether a mare deserves a shot!

All horses matter and have value, and sometimes we just need an extra push to see it.