Bought a horse

[ppine]

Tentmom,
You don't mention how much training the horse has had, or the experience level of you kids. Somebody has to know what they are doing. Get the horse checked out by someone who knows horses.

[Marshmallow]

My niece got a horse for Christmas. She is only 11, but she has convinced her parents she will take care of it. It's housed at a friend's house with the friend's horse. We'll see how long this lasts. I don't think they're going to take very good care of it, to be honest.

[ppine]

Tentmom,

Make sure you have someone you trust ride the horse and see what his "holes" are. Nearly any horse that is for sale will have some faults. As a parent you need to know what those are and work around them in the interest of safety. It is a lot cheaper to hire a professional to do this for you and maybe do a little foundation training than to hurt someone because they "didn't know the horse was afraid of...." fill in the blank.
Skateboards, goats, cars, minature donkeys, plastic bags, lightning, chickens, gunshots, gophers, llamas, men in black hats, etc. Horses are prey animals and are afraid of everything until you teach them not to be.

How old is this horse? Has he been around kids a lot? What type of training has he had? Does he buck? You get the idea. Best wishes.