We are the Adams Horse and Mule Company, sounds like a big name, I know, but we are real simple!  Let’s take it from the top… From the time I was just small and in early grade school, while all my friends wanted to be firefighters, police officers, FBI agents, or even teenage mutant ninja turtles, I always wanted to be a horse trainer and often thought and said that it would be awesome to just ride horses all day everyday (except Sunday because Momma would “skin my hide” if I missed church).  As I grew up never doing hardly any extra curricular activates associated with school, I came home about everyday just to rush though my homework and head straight for the barn.  We always had a couple mares growing up and would raise a couple colts every year, so I always had a project to work and learn with.  As I got older and into high school, I had already begun to buy, train, and sell a few to make a little money.  When college rolled around sitting long hours in a class room with morning and night classes was driving me crazy because I wouldn’t be with my horses.  I some how wiggled through and got a degree that I am proud to say, now have no use for!  But college did teach me one thing and that was how to build a website.  I designed my own and started marketing my horses over the internet.  Business was great and we have been blessed with continued success over the past 7 years, with growth even in a strained economy.  We now have 3 large barns, and a couple smaller ones on 4 different properties where we keep 50-75 horses at all times.  At our main facility we keep 25-35 horses that have either made it to the final stages of training, ready to sell or already sold. 

From a young age I have been taught to be a leader and in being a leader you can be successful doing anything that you want, as long as you try hard enough and of course do it right.  In my eyes you should only do things one way and that is the right way!  When I was involved in the FFA I heard over and over the presidents closing ceremony statements of “…let us be diligent in labor, just in our dealings, courteous to everyone and above all, honest and fair in the game of life.” And this directly applies to any business.  In all that you do honesty is the main thing to always uphold and live by.  The motto of “I might lie to you but never intentionally” is a good example of how the horse business works.  Yes, as I am sure everyone will agree horses are like kids they will make liars out of you and show themselves out, as soon as the public is around to see them, then act like angels once they are out of sight!  Horses just like people, will have bad days too.

I get this question all the time from potential customers “What can you tell me that will make me want to buy this horse?”  Good question!  Oddly enough the answer is NOTHING?  We don’t have a fancy sales pitch.  We are basically just blunt and to the point, skip all the fancy terms and keep it simple.  The best way to answer that question is to just say “Get on and ride.  Then you tell me why you want to buy that horse.”   

Surprisingly enough, we buy horses; people always ask where do they come from?  The largest bulk of our horses come from local people.  A lot of the horses that we buy, we have known, trail ridden with, and heard about for several years.  With the number of horses that we buy and sell, everyone automatically thinks that auctions are our main source for our supply and that could not be farther from the truth!  When you buy at auctions you are asking for a problem horse and that certainly is not what we want!  With the training that we do here we do not buy “F Grade” horses and turn them into “A Grade” horses.  We are more like an ice cream shop, buying the best and finishing it off with the extras.  The time we spend with our horses is as much just getting to know them as it is training and improving.  Unlike other dealers we keep our horses at least 1 month on the aged horses and up to 6 months on the younger ones.  In our training we work to get each horse as close to bombproof as possible and teaching this is as much a style of riding as it is anything.  Horses have a natural tendency to go away from danger and scary objects.  We try to instill in every horse just the opposite, go to it.  Remember nothing is perfectly bombproof and something will spook any horse but when something does alarm them we want our horses to look at the object, think about what it is, then go up to it and then go on by it with out twisting or trying to go away from it.  This mindset comes from being ridden in this fashion and once a horse realizes, that whatever its rider points it towards that that object is not going to hurt it, you then have a bond between horse and rider.  Folks always ask me about what methods that we use?  Honestly I can’t tell you… We do some natural horsemanship, but not a lot.  We do not use round pens as we are training trail horses and trail horses have to be trained on trails or out in real world scenes!  Besides our bombproof training the only other basic thing that we operate by is that we want our horses to be like our kids.  We want them to never fear us but always respect us.

  As I said before we do not work with problem horses although there is a quick fix for most things, the problems come right back when the next person gets on them, so problem horses are a waste of our time.  We do not break horses.  Our horses are already broke when we buy them.  While other dealers just buy and sell, we always put what we see as the finishing touches on our horses.  With some older horses we really don’t make many improvements on those but still spend the normal amount of time just checking them out and making sure that they will fit our clients.  We only buy horses that we think will fit in our program, out of as many as 1000 horses we see in a year, most years we will buy around 300 of them, with some years going as high as 400.  In the average year, out of the 300 we buy, 75 of those will get culled (kicked) out, being deemed unfit for our program, showing no potential for our customers.  A horse can be culled for numerous reasons.  Anytime a horse bucks, rears, kicks, or bites, equals an automatic cull!  Horses that are cold back, cinchy, or ear shy will be culled.  Of course barn sour, stall weavers, and cribbers cull too.  There are hundreds of reasons that we cull horses out of the program.  The bottom line is that we are not looking for what suits us, we are looking for what suits you and if a horse has a problem or significant flaw, chances are you won’t like it, so you sure won’t buy it.   We have a solid wholesale market where we sell another 100 horses to other internet dealers from a cross the U.S., and that leaves us with about 125 that we sell to our retail customers.  Less than 13% of the horses that we see and less than 50% of the horses that we buy will be good enough to make it to the retail market and go on our website for public consideration.   

Are you a customer for us, or are we the place for you to buy your last, next or first horse, is something that you may be thinking right now?  Our average customer is around the age of 55.  Most of our customers are not experienced horse people and a lot have never owned a horse before.  We see lots of people come in that rode horses as kids or young adults but have not ridden in over 30 years.  The bulk of our retail horses are geared toward and suitable for the novice or inexperienced riders.  We want horses that have an attitude that will make them part of your family for years to come.  We do have some people who are top riders looking for more advanced horses to meet their needs.  We try to match everyone up with the proper horse.  When coming here or buying from us you need to evaluate who you are as a rider and be honest with yourself!  Don’t think of who you once were but just who you are now.  Ask some simple questions to yourself… Are you wanting to go slow and easy all the time, get up and go all the time, or a little of both?  Are you balanced in the saddle as a rider?  How often will you be riding and where?  Whether you are a total beginner that’s just starting out, a beginner that has ridden some, a rider who has lost your confidence and needs it restored, or a well experienced rider, we have a horse that will fit your needs and can help you pick out a great fit.

What we want is 100% customer satisfaction and for every horse to be the perfect horse and the dream horse that everyone has always wanted.  Now that is what we try for but life is not a fairy tale, and nothing is 100% but we do our best to get as close to that as possible.  A very low percentage of our customers have problems with the horses that we sell them.  But if any of our horses give you a problem, all you have to do is make one simple phone call and we will work with you to resolve the matter.  We have numerous testimonials on our website that were written to us from customers along with updates that some folks send in too.  The sign of success is repeat business and the best advertisement is by word of mouth.  We have numerous references, some from repeat customers and people from all over the U.S. that have bought horses from us.  We have sold horses that have gone to all of the 48 continental United States, several to Canada and sent a few horses overseas including Germany, France, and Dubai.  We look forward to meeting you and helping you join the long list of satisfied customers who have found their dream horse right here at Adams Horse and Mule Co.com