There are two cases in which you may be looking for Paint horses for sale:
Number one: you just love horses and have developed a particular crush on the Paint Horse breed. You don’t have any horses, but you would like to. And you would like to take care of your equine friend, and train your horse, and then maybe even take it for a ride, or teach it some neat horse jumping tricks. If you’re not that experienced and don’t really have an idea of what your Paint horse should look like, then this is the perfect place for you.
Number two: you’re a real cowboy. You have a big ranch with a lot of stalls for pretty horses, but you don’t really have that many horses to fill them with. Undoubtedly you have decided on Paint horses to be the main attractions of your team, so you are now searching online for advice on purchasing. One thing’s for certain: you’ve made the right choice. Paint horses really are some of the most beautiful equine breeds out there.
A beautiful brown Frame Overo Paint Horse quietly sunbathing in the field.
No matter which of these two motives, your search for Paint Horses for sale has brought you here. Now, you may think that buying a paint horse is fairly easy. Do not be deceived by the bright and colorful manes of the mares. It’s not easy at all. Especially if you want to have a nice and purebred paint horse.
Whether you want a stallion, an untrained horse, or a foal, you still have to look thoroughly. No matter if you like tobianos, overos, or toveros, or even solid paint Paint horses, there are several points that you should pay distinct attention to. Here’s what these are:
Browsing Paint Horses for Sale
Even before actually starting to look for horses, there are a few things that come as prerequisites to your search for the perfect horse for you.
The first and most important thing to ask yourself when buying a Paint Horse is this: what kind of pattern do I want? Presuming you have already decided to purchase this particular breed of equines, you have to know from the get go the exact type of pattern that you want. Paint horses come in three different patterns: tobiano, overo (with three sub-patterns), and tovero. While the latter, tovero, remains the most obscure, the most common is the tobiano. However, the most sought-after Paint horse pattern is the overo. If you will look at our paint horse pictures collection, you’ll probably understand why.
Now, after you’ve made up your mind on what specific look you want your horse to have, you should look for specific traits that you want the horse to have. First: do you want a male or a female? Or would you rather buy a foal? Where are you from? Can you make it to the ranch to inspect the horse? Look for a location near you. Most horse sale websites let you enter your ZIP code.
Provided you can skip the breed category (you want a Paint Horse, don’t you?), the next thing you should look at is the secondary breed. This is extremely important, as horses that are not Paint Horse primary and a combination of either American Quarter Horse and Paint, or of Thoroughbred and Paint. Of course the Paint – Paint combination is the ideal one, but the main aim of your search should be for your horse to either already have APHA membership, or to be eligible to be registered as an official American Paint Horse.
Two women ridding their Paint horses.
Next up, get an estimate of what age you want your horse to be and what height. Older horses are usually more reliable riders, but often end up costing more in the long run since they tend to develop conditions associated with old age. Select your horse’s bloodline and come up with an estimate on how much money you have available for a horse.
If you’re a rancher, or even a minor horse-lover, keep in mind what exactly you want to do with the horse after you’ve bought it. Choose its discipline: there are a lot. If you’re a true cowboy, you may want your horse to be good at herding cows. If you’re a professional rider, you shouldn’t necessarily pick a show jumping horse. Likewise if the situation is reversed. Maybe you want a horse for polo, or for hunting – make up your mind as most horses are trained to do one job and that’s what they will perform best in.
If you would prefer an untrained horse, remember that the price for one is lower, but the cost of training could really make you tighten your belt. If you’re looking for champions, you can browse horses that have won championships or medals. Lastly, don’t forget to take into account the temperament rating of the horse.
Buying the Paint Horse
Now that we’ve got all these things straight, it’s time to go online. Search for your horse as thoroughly as possible. Select a few options and then call the owners to arrange meetings. This should be a mandatory step in buying the horse. Some shady owners may try to trick you into shipping the horse before you see it. Don’t be lazy and don’t fall in this trap.
When you actually meet the equine, be sure to ask a lot of questions. Questions along the lines of: why are you selling it? Does it have any medical problems? Has it had all its medical checks? What kind of equipment do you use? How does the horse behave?
After you’ve cleared all your possible questions out of the way, ask the owner to have the horse ridden – you need to see how the horsy behaves under pressure. If all goes well, try to ride it yourself – use your own style of riding, see how it adapts – but be careful.
Still, after all these issues have been overpassed, schedule a second meeting in which you should bring a vet in to check the horse thoroughly.
A superb brown American Paint Horse, with both Tobiano and Sabino Overo traits.
Places to Find Paint Horses for Sale
Look out for all sorts of equine news. Look over magazines and check the web. Speak to your equine loving friends and ask them if they know any good offers. Sing up for newsletters and access horse-related club sites daily.
After you’ve made sure that you’re up to date with all the horse-related news, here are the main horse selling/buying websites available for the US:
Equine.com
Equine.com has about 388 ads available for paint horses alone. With a huge collections of horses to look through and an incredible array of advanced search options, you’re bound to see some interesting options.
Horsecliks.com
Horseclicks.com offers an even bigger library of horse selling ads – 1646 ads just for Paint Horses. If you want a more advanced search, Horseclicks.com can customize its search with Gender, Color, Age, Height, Region, and many other attributes.
Equinenow.com
Equinenow.com has by far the largest collection of horse selling ads available anywhere on the web. You may just finish your quest for the perfect horse by looking on this website. It has a total of 9,774 Paint horses. You can sort the horses by just about any attribute imaginable – so go ahead!