Truth about “Dead” Broke Horses

On many ads nowadays, you’ll see the words “dead broke” or “bomb proof”. What these owners mean, is they believe their horse is absolutely desensitized to everything and there is not a thing that will make them jump so absolutely anyone can ride them. Well,  hate to break it to them, but they’re wrong. They may have a really well trained horse, and a beginner may be able to ride that horse on that person’s property just fine, but I promise there will be something that that horse hasn’t seen before. If that horse has never left that person’s property, then I guarantee you, once you bring him home to a new environment with new animals and a new rider, you will have yourself a new horse. Maybe that horse has never seen a falcon… or a tractor… or a butterfly! No matter WHAT it is, I promise you that horse hasn’t seen EVERYTHING. Even if that horse has been away from it’s farm, it still hasn’t seen everything! Horses are big animals with minds of their own and the muscle to do what they want. There will never be a horse completely broke horse, and there will never be a 100% chance that you will be completely safe riding one. That’s just how our sport works! That’s why we have to do the best we can to desensitize our animals to everything we can, and wear our helmets, because at the end of the day, all you can do is hope for the best and hope that you trained your horse well enough to not get you (or someone else) hurt.