advice on purchase of horse

HI, I am looking at three Western pleasure paint horses to buy... tried two of them out and the third might go see soon....just wanted to know based off of the vids which of the three horses you guys thinks has the best movement for possibly the world show? Please don't go by looks or gender of the horse.
Thanks!!


Horse number 1.
Horse number 2.
Horse number 3

I greatly dislike the first one.
The second one looks almost sore a few times. Although her jog was forward and I liked her neck placement, she was just too heavy for my liking. Her halts and downward transitions were quite abrupt and her lope needed a lot of work IMO.

I do wish they would show them through all their paces without schooling them a few laps around the arena. All the jerking on the reins to get them to drop their necks is distracting and makes me wonder how they go without it.

From the three, I like the second best. Once the rider quit trying to set his head, he looked forward and pleasant with the type of movement I prefer on a WP horse.

I agree - I don't think any of the above would be competitive at the world show this year without a lot of work, and it is hard to tell in the videos because of the excessive fixing happening. The second horse had a good two beat jog but was heavy as Dove noted... but hard to get the overall picture because he didn't go around one circle without "excessive checking and fixing" that will kill a score.

My daughters were on the 2007 APHA World Champion 4H Horse Judging Team, and I was surprised to learn exactly how high the penalties are for checking and fixing your horse. If a judge sees a horse that moves in a correct manner, requiring no checking or fixing - that horse will always place over a horse being corrected. MY girls would see someone fix their horse, and that horse would get knocked down in the placings - for every offense. When I was showing circuit, they would critique me and announce HANDS!! Everytime I messed with my gelding.

I would insist on a video of a horse being left alone in all three gaits to see their base talent - you can then decide how far past that you can get your eventual purchase before worlds with training.

I liked the second one the best of the options.

ETA - I really like the look of the third, but looks more a hunter horse to me, when asked to lope he doesn't look clean - more like a trope with a quite significant head bob. Also just has a longer stride - would be difficult to get this horse slow in a natural manner.

The second is my favorite... I do have to say this horse has been out of work for several months so, that he needs a tune up...so you might want to keep that is mind with the checking you were talking about.

Number 2 if you take the trainer off of him. He had the most pleasant way of going and looked the most pleasant to ride. All that jerking and banging on his face had me done in less than one minute, then all the trouble to get the horse into the lope had me really done less than a minute after that. I wouldn't buy any of the 3 based on what I saw in the videos. Or.....would not pay anywhere near what I'm sure they are asking, just based on all the face banging I saw going on. That's a pet peeve of mine.

Here is a horse my trainer likes... not alot of face banging, deep hock and forward... heres the video to the horse my trainer likes...

YouTube - ‪cooper‬‏

I still like the second guy best. The last horse is carrying his head too low for my liking and doesn't quite have the momentum the second horse has. The lope on the second horse was far superior to the rest, IMO.

The first one had a good walk , fair trot and poor canter, looked half lame.
The second one seemed the less lame of the three, but the third one cantered like a very lame horse. It moved as if its' front feet were tender.

They all looked a bit lame to me, but the second seemed the best..

I only watched about 30 secs of the video of the horse your trainer likes, but he looks really off, He is dragging his right rear foot.

The video from horse #1 looks distorted and I can't tell what's going on. I wish everyone would stop checking the horses constantly. Horse 2 didn't look like he needed all those corrections. Horse 3 looked sore to me & distracts easily. The one your trainer likes seemed to be strained at the lope, not nice to watch, all the others had a better lope. I liked horse 2, he was the most consistent.