Buying a horse - would you expect ...

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maybedaisy

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If you went to see a horse with a view to buy would you expect it to be able to lunge at canter on a circle without falling over, going disunited or bunny hopping ( using both back legs together )

These are adult, broken horses not babies.

Am I being too picky.

To me its a warning sign of lameness but am I wrong. ( I have a horse with PSD so I am obsessed with hind leg lameness )
 
you would but then i drove 3 hours to see a horse that was hoping lame on arrival an the owners hadnt noticed and proceeded to try and tack it up for me (with mouldy tack!) :eek:

I was NOT impressed so I know how you feel
 
Not necessarily. I had a horse who was a persistent bunny hopper when loose but who is now scoring very well at Medium and doesn't do it ridden. Someone turned him down because of it when I sold him on the same grounds as you and she lost out on a complete bargain. The person who eventually bought him paid another £1500 more than I was offering him to her for.

I would see how they feel ridden. Maybe they just aren't used to cantering on a lunge.
 
I wouldn't expect any horse to fall over while being lunged - unless they were lungeing on a slope in a field or something and the horse was being a prat and just slipped. Disunited, well that can happen if again, the horse is just being a bit daft but I would expect that, once they'd settled they'd be ok. As for bunny-hopping, never seen a horse do that on the lunge.

In my experience, even my horse who knows how to lunge (although I can't say i do it), If I decide to lunge him he's quite likely to have a hoon about for a couple of circles, have a buck and a fart before he decides he'll do as he's asked! My sister's will do the same and she has lunged him a bit but he likes to have a bit of a hoon and a buck before he gets on with it!
 
Been there, done that. Went to see one boxing day and was out of the car less than 5 minutes. It looked lame in the stable and was dog lame when led out. Its so frustrating.
 
These weren't having a hoon they just couldn't canter. Bunny hopping is a sign that they wont take weight evenly. My mare does it in between going disunited. It was the first sign of the proximal suspensory desmitis. When ridden initially you couldn't tell.

Its also a sign of sacro joint problems.
 
I cannot say that I have ever seen a horse lunged when trying it, I watch it ridden then ride myself if it looks ok, there are plenty that are not sound but if it was wrong when ridden I would walk away not bother with lungeing it.

I rarely lunge my horses, only for exercise if there is a reason to not ride.
 
It depends. If it is a big, hefty horse then I wouldn't be worried if it struggled to canter on the lunge, especially if it isn't fully fit. Plus if the person's technique is a bit rubbish that can have a bearing (eg mine). But if you have any doubts, don't buy, there are plenty of good horses about and people are struggling to sell them at the moment :(
 
My horse who has always been good to canter on the lunge started going disunited a couple of months ago and has recently been diagnosed with arthritis in her hock (she's rising 9) so I would walk away. Unless of course you're prepared to have X-rays done.
 
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