Bad Horse Purchase dont do this to yourself!!

Flibble

Flibble

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A while ago about the time I bought the lovely boy a very nice girl who has lessons at the yard bought herself a horse. I posted at the time that I was worried it could be a disaster.

She is not the most proficient of riders - nothing wrong with that we have to learn dont we

She bought a 4 year old Trakehener from someone near Rugby. The present owner had tried to break it and lost confidence so she saw it under saddle but unridden. It was a bargain because if you buy this quality from the breeder it would cost a fotune (her words).

She brought it to the School to be 'schooled' but it needed rebreaking and several experienced people felt it needed starting again as it had severe problems. They gave up.

She took it to a local horseman who uis very good with horses breaks and schools his own youngsters etc and does a very good job.

His advice was get rid of it as it is very paranoid and when it is backed it will always be sharp and definitly not suitable for a novice.

Last I heard he had given up .

So why am I telling you this? Just as an example of DONT BUY a HORSE that has a problem if you are a novice it is not a bargain.

I havent seen her since to find out what she proposes to do with it but I think it needs to have its back examined and she would be better off giving it away rather than throw good money after bad. Its reaction must be pain I suspect a bad case of KS.
 
I was thinking your new lad was being naughty again by the title
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unfortunately what you're describing is a common problem. just have to venture on project horses to see a small fraction of it.
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What is really sad about this is that if that horse is going to be given away, then there are likely to be a huge number of people wanting it because it is free. One of them will have it, try again, probably fail, then it will go onto the next person and so on and so forth until the horse ends up being labelled a misfit (if it hasn't been labelled thus already). From the horse's point of view, if it is in pain and is passed from home to home with no continuity or understanding of its circumstances, it will not only be confused but no doubt develop coping mechanisms, probably sharp/aggressive ones, to remove itself from painful situations. If it's not in pain, then it needs someone very experienced that has masses of time and patience to spend on it to get past whatever has created these problems originally.

Long-winded I know, but my sympathies lie mainly with the horse. Anyone buying a horse should be realistic about their abilities and take advice from someone who knows them and their level of competence. It is too easy to have money burning a hole in your pocket and lose all perspective and common sense when a "bargain" comes along.
 
What a sad thread and I agree that any horse that is in pain is going to have to try to tell you by being difficult to ride.
I bought one once, it was beautiful and cost alot of money but started to be difficult within a week and my daughter is not a novice. The seller came to see him and said we were over feeding and not firm enough with him. We stuggled on and he broke my daughter's leg one day when she mounted. We sent him to an equine vet hospital and spent a fortune on his back. He came home and she took him to an eventer who she was working for while doing her A levels. He said ' get rid' and arranged for a friend of his to part exchange him. The horse was turned away but started to lose weight it was discovered he had liver problems and he was pts.
So sometimes no one can sort out problems as they are often physical.
 
Even with all the experience and facilities, I will now only ever buy pretty much unhandled youngsters. Its much quicker and easier to train them properly once rather than try to 'fix' what other people have done.

Sadly the horse you are talking about may well end up in a tin through no fault of its own.
 
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Even with all the experience and facilities, I will now only ever buy pretty much unhandled youngsters. Its much quicker and easier to train them properly once rather than try to 'fix' what other people have done.

Sadly the horse you are talking about may well end up in a tin through no fault of its own.

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Same here. However we have bought older horses for my OH as hunters but have had to pay a premium for those that are truly unspoilt and have been well-started. To my mind that is money well spent and just reward for the person that produced that horse correctly to be able to command a better price.
 
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Even with all the experience and facilities, I will now only ever buy pretty much unhandled youngsters. Its much quicker and easier to train them properly once rather than try to 'fix' what other people have done.

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Having taken a chance with an older horse and been burnt, I totally agree with this!!! Even if you're not a novice, taking a chance on a problem horse can be heartbreaking and soul destroying - I'll certainly never do it again.
 
As someone who has been 'outside looking in' for many years and only recently joined in, I see the same thing over and over and it is the poor horses that suffer every time.

Novices, who won't admit that they really don't have the knowledge, experience and time to take on a young horse, but who do it anyway, because the horse is cheap.

It is a fact of life that anything cheap is cheap for a reason, and especially in the world of horses there are very few true bargains.

This sort of thing will go on for as long as people continue sell unsuitable animals to unsuitable owners. It will always be wrong and will always make me bl**dy cross.
 
When I bought my first youngster he was very sharp (hence cheap) and I fell into the trap........ my story is different in the fact that the person that sold him to me said I had to have a certain person train me (who she trains) and to report back monthly for the first year.
This way she could keep tabs on the progress and also look after her name!
NeilM im with you about the "This sort of thing will go on for as long as people continue sell unsuitable animals to unsuitable owners."
I have had my youngster for 5years and don’t think he will ever have another home!
 
Small65, you and I are / were in a different position to most. I too took on a youngster as a novice. In your case you had an instructor, in my case my OH has over 30 years riding / owning / handling experience, and has first hand knowledge of successfully rehabilitating a problem horse. Unfortunately this is very rarely the case.

I have seen cases locally, where riders either talk their own abilities up to bolster themselves, or genuinely have an ego problem. The best that can come out of this situation from the horses point of view is that it ends up bored and under used.

I could give real examples, as I'm sure we all could, but I don't want to end up in court
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I find this so hard to understand - why do people feel the need to exaggerate their own abilities?? Surely they are aware it is unfair on the horse and can be dangerous for both horse and rider?

I've been riding for over 15 years but am in no way 'experienced' and would never take on a problem horse as I know I don't have the skills to deal with it even if it was the bargain of the century.

Horses being passed from home to home really upsets me, the problem isn't analysed etc and horse becomes mislabelled and ends up the the knackers. Gah! Now I'm angry. Some people obviously have too much money and not enough sense.
 
I have kept my horse at a number of different yards over the years and there is no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of horse owners are terrified of their horses. The reason being that they over-horse themselves by buying pretty looking horses which are quite unsuitable in temprement to their riding and horse management abilities.

I also believe that horses today do not get enough basic experiences because they are schooled in a menage and hardly ever hacked out. This does not make a well balanced horse.
 
Can I please put the other side of the argument? I have purchased not one but two unsuitable horses in my life. I am not by any stretch of the imagination a show-off and I know that my riding skills are inferior to the majority of other riders' so I have never "talked myself up" to anyone.

As a novice, I ended up buying a big WB from my (then) instructor. With hindsight, she saw me coming and I naively trusted her when she told me that he was suitable for a novice. After 9 months I gave up and sold him because he was simply too much for me.

The second mistake was when I bought a horse for my OH and we were completely honest with the dealer, telling her that I was a novice and OH was a beginner. The horse was quiet when we tried him but once we got him home it became clear that he was very sharp, very nervous and he bucked me off onto the road the first time I hacked him out. I persevered but eventually I had him reschooled twice. Unfortunately none of the professionals could do anything with him either.

I finally bought my wonderful Highland girl, Nelly, sight unseen from a lady in Scotland. I've had her 14 months now and we have done everything from hacking to schooling, sponsored rides to our first dressage comp this weekend.

What I am trying to say is that it can be very difficult as a novice to buy a suitable horse. It's not necessarily the case that every novice rider thinks they are the bees knees and knows all there is to know about riding, just finding the right horse is the problem.
 
Good point. The other thing that I think is a problem is that many novice riders do not necessarily know how to feed their horses properly, due to lack of eductaion (and this is NOT necesarily the rider's fault) The scenario being horse bought in good faith to be quiet hack or riding horse because it seems quiet at the time. New owner takes it home & pumps it full of commercial feedstuff that said horse most certainly doesn't need. Equals disaster IMO.
 
Sorry FinellaGlen if this post appeared to be slating ALL novice riders, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you naively trusted your instructor with your first purchase (I would have expected that instructor to be there to help you with the horse you bought, not disappear over the horizon with your cash in hand!), and then bought from a dealer and ended up with another unsuitable horse (reputable dealers would have had the horse back and found you another more suitable one).

Finding a horse is a major endeavour, and it heartens me to hear that you have at last found the right horse for you. Other people planning to buy should exercise caution and never be in a hurry - good things come to those who wait!
 
Thanks Baydale. I wasn't at all offended but I just thought I'd put a different point of view across so that people realise not all of us novices deliberately overhorse ourselves!
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I have since found out that this instructor is well known for selling unsuitable horses
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I wish I'd known that before I bought mine from her!
 
My mare was given to me as a problem horse.She was bought for a 14yr old girl who did not have a clue, kept on DIY livery where she spent 6mths in the stable slowly being starved!She was unbrocken, hungry and scared and they wondered why she tried to kick her way out of her stable!
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She was bought by another livery to SAVE her from the meat man, this woman was wonderful and bought her back to health physically but could not cope with her aggression and could not ride a newly backed 5yr old.I was told by several friends "Not to touch her with a barge pole" there was something wrong with her.All she needed was firm consistant handling by someone who new what they were doing.She is now the most laid back sweet natured horse,is bold and will do anything i ask of her.Unfortunatly there are so many more horses out there in the same situation.I see it all the time.
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I do feel sorry for horses that have been passed around. I purchased a horse for my husband. At the time of trying he was calm and relaxed (almost asleep!) and the lady selling he was suitable for novice etc etc. We get him home and he was a basic nightmare. Luckily for the horse I am very experienced and we have turned him around. He can still be naughty to handle but he has improved massively. His passport shows he has had 4 owners in 2 years before us so I can imagine he had been too much for people before. The sad thing was, if it had been just my husband buying, no doubt he would have been sold on again.
 
What really bothers me about this story and all the others is not that novice people buy "problem" or unsuitable horses - that can happen for a lot of reasons - but it's that all these so-called "experienced" and "professional" people who are called in to help then fail, or give up, without ever trying to get to the bottom of WHY the horse is being a problem.
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I spend a lot of time dealing with problem horses, and while quite often the problem is actually the owner and not the horse, the number of really obvious physical problems that the horses have which have been totally ignored by a whole raft of instructors, vets, physios and goodness knows how many other assorted people is unreal.
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I've come to the conclusion that a lot of instructors and so on don't want to tell people what the problem is in case they lose business.

And one of my biggest bugbears is people who say to me "If only my horse could talk!" - to which I reply, "He is SCREAMING at you, if only you would listen!"
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Sorry for the rant, but it is very rarely the horse that is to blame in these situations.
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Rowreach - I understand what you're saying and I completely agree that the WB which I bought would have made a nice horse for someone else, but I simply wasn't talented enough to do him justice. That's why I sold him to someone much more capable than me.

The second horse which we bought for OH was unrideable by anyone, not just us pair of numpties! We had two vets out, an equine physio, saddler and dentist as well as sending him away for reschooling twice. I still think that there may have been a physical reason for his behaviour but despite our best efforts we couldn't find out what it was and we couldn't afford to keep a horse that we couldn't ride on full livery.

Since I sold him I have bought a lovely pony and, once again, she could do better in comps with someone more talented but she has a nice enough life with me and OH because we take her out and about and do all sorts of low level competitions/hacks etc with her.
 
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