Dehydrating horses

mollichop

mollichop

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Went to view a horse with a client last night. Arrived seperatly a few mins after her and her daughter.

Horse was bigger than the 16.1 advertised. 4 yo, very sweet and quiet in the box. Yard girl rode him in spurs and used paddle whip a fair bit to get him going forwards :o Walk, trot, canter and popped a couple of fences.

I got on, he was VERY hard work. Did not want to go forward but not in a nappy way. I get off and ask client if they want to ride him having seen him go for me. She did and couldn't get him to go forward either.

This will be her transition horse from ponies. She is 17 and very slight so he really was a lot of horse for her. Seller told her to put spurs on (she has never used spurs before) and swap paddle for schooling whip.

We decide between us that horse is not the one for her. She puts him back in box where a large, bright pink water tub has appeared (was not there before) and he proceeded to empty it :eek:

I looked at the seller and said "blimey, he's a thirsty chap isn't he?" to which she shrugged and walked off.

I'm sure he was deprived prior to us coming :(

Wish we could have seen him in his true state - sadly i've heard of a few people that do this. Pointless really but shame on them.
 
Hate people for doing this......didn't work out for her though did it, she still didn't get a sale as he was so tired and dead.

It's cruel, people like that have no feelings for horse or the potential new owner who waters him and then ends up in hospital as the horse has issues when in full health.
 
Sammii819 said:
Hate people for doing this......didn't work out for her though did it, she still didn't get a sale as he was so tired and dead.

It's cruel, people like that have no feelings for horse or the potential new owner who waters him and then ends up in hospital as the horse has issues when in full health.
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Exactly! he was a lovely boy too. Just can't take that gamble on how he would be normally and seller isn't about to admit to what she did for a retry!
 
Lippyx said:
Can I ask a stupid question? Why would they purposely dehydrate him before being ridden?
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It saps their energy. If the horse was intentionally deprived of water, it means that the sellers were trying to mask something. Perhaps the horse is quite sharp??? I didn't think this practise went on anymore.
 
I you have a horse that is a bit on the naughty side then dehydrating them, calms them down as they don't have the energy to do anything.....same as if you hadn't had something to drink for 24 hours the body needs water to work to it's full.

Dealers do this to sell tricky horses, you get them home feed and water normally and you end up with a monster.
 
Yes, my friend was a groom for a 'named' show rider, qual HOYS this year on a horse that is too much for her.

He routinely had his water removed at shows. She was advised to let horse go to someone else and buy something better suited to her but continued to do this to take the edge off of him :mad:
 
Steorra said:
And (if you are an unscrupulous seller) it is a way of calming a horse without using drugs that would show up on a blood test :(
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I'm currently looking to buy at the moment. I'll be checking water levels now in the stable before I get on!
Lucky I read this thread, I didn't think it still went on and I would have forgotten to check or ask.
 
Nearly a year ago today I bought a lovely 5 year old who was advertised as suitable for nervous novice or could go further with a more experience rider. We were looking for something that was suitable for my novice other half to ride and for me to compete.

We tried him out on 5 separate occasions, had my instructor try him and had him 5 stage vetted. On arrival he was lovely but within a couple of days his personality had changed - which I put down to the move to a new home. He changed from a calm quiet boy who did not react to anything to a complete spooky stress monster. It transpired that I had bought him from a dealer with a known reputation for this sort of trick – it was only after buying him and the subsequent problems that I had that I discovered the dealers reputation and found out about this little trick for doping horses. Some people have no conscience or morals, I dread to think what would have happened if he had gone to a nervous novice.
 
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