Did you go against the advice of others when purchasing your horse?

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shadowboy

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Well as you are probably all aware little orange one is on trial- I am slowly but surely falling for her..... Her flatwork can be amazing and she has a decent pop in her. She also hacks out very sanely, she is snaffle mouthed and easy to handle. But my new instructor said she is not worth persevering with because her walk hasnt got much over track. Although did say she was easy on the eye and very well put together and had a decent and straight trot. She thinks she is too much work and quite sharp- I was aware of this as she was a completely unschooled full TB! So did any of you go against the advice of another to find it all worked out. Stories please!
 
I think there are far better reasons not to buy a horse apart from it's walk. What do you want her for, and do you like her?
 
i echo bossanova, i go on my own gut instinct.
i know one thing though, having a trainer who likes your horse is half the battle at least...
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QUOTE - I am slowly but surely falling for her..... Her flatwork can be amazing and she has a decent pop in her. She also hacks out very sanely, she is snaffle mouthed and easy to handle.

What more do you want ? Sod what your instructor thinks
 
I do ask for lots of people's opinions, and take their advice on board when I'm considering buying a horse,because different perspectives are always usefull, but at the end of the day the final decision is my decision, and my own gut feeling is a large part of it.
Asking my trainers advice is difficult- because I really dont like any of her horses at all! So I guess we just like completly different types.
 
I want to affiliate her BD and take her up to Elementary and also dod some showing and some clear rounds at local shows!
I dod like her but shes quirky and is literally as green as grass!
 
Ummm yep
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Well to start with D had a few health problems and a friend told me that are so many horses out there without health probs so why buy him. Also I had him on loan to start with and I had fallen in love with him even though he had done a few things that terrified me but I would'nt be without him now, he has taught me so much!
As for Monty, my old instructor was horrified to find out that I did'nt see anyone ride him, I bought him without cantering him and I did'nt take him in any traffic. An old horsey friend of mine still does not agree with me buying him, for a start he has quite a few scars (she was into showing), he was a babyish 6yo and he's a part bred arab (she hates them
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, she loves her chunky cobs) But I'm going to prove her wrong, I will make her eat her words
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Yes. I bought my first horse against quite a lot of people's opinions! He had a roach back, he clicked his hind feet on the ground when trotting sometimes and he was underweight. However, I wanted a safe and sane hack which he was. I had him for 10 happy years before he was pts in April this year after a severe colic attack.
It really depends what you want him for. If you are looking for an advanced dressage horse, he won't make it if he can't track up properly in walk but if everything else is ok I'd go with my own instinct.
Good luck
 
Is she an ex race? the lack of overtrack may just be weakness. FYI, I once bought a horse that had no overtrack at all in the walk, then 8 months later with correct shoeing and strengthening up, it was then overtracking in its walk by miles.
 
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i know one thing though, having a trainer who likes your horse is half the battle at least...
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I agree with that one!
My last instructor hated D and was'nt too impressed when I bought Monty so towards the end I found it hard when she would say negative things about D.
New instructor loves Monty and we are both improving all the time and she gives us ways of working through the negative points rather than just pointing them out.
 
She was bred to race- but never made it to the race track- they couldn't back her! I however dont have any problems riding her. Rode her tonight and she was great. She does over track in walk but only only only just... I am hoping it will improve. Oh shes also a mild cribber.... Instructor just said for a coulpe more grand I could get myslef something to take me all the way up... As long as she can get to Elementary I'm happy!
 
We'd been to see several horses with a guy from the yard to help. I felt that he was showing us horses that he liked! Anyhow, looked around for ages and couldn't see anything.

Then one morning, I woke and said to my sis, I'd like an Irish Draught. We ran rang the ID society and they said they only had a chestnut for sale for £6,000 irish pounds. He was well over or budget - our budget being no more than £2,000 punts! Then the society said to ring Suma Stud as they always have horses for sale. We rang them and they said they had a rising 5 year old mare, called Super C D, only broken 6 months and hadn't jumped with a rider, but had loose jumped 4' 6" and she was £3000. That evening we went to see this mare. We arrived early and they had just draged the mare in - she was hairy, mucky and totally shabby - not the prettiest horse in the world. They brought her out and let her loose in the school. We fell in love with her - she had a kind eye! We arranged for the vet to vet her and she passed with flying colours (The vet said Suma wouldn't do you wrong and knew the horse would pass!) We arranged to pick her up the next day! Total time from waking up and wanting an ID to bringing her home - 4 days!!

The guy from the yard who was helping us, couldn't believe what we had done - bought a horse without him, bought the first horse we saw, paid over our budget, bought a horse that had done nothing - only lightly backed, hadn't even jumped with a rider. Bought a horse without trying it out - vet rode her for us! Bought a shabby, hairy, ugly and mucky beasty. TBH I can see why he was upset! We broke every rule in the 'buying a horse' rule book!

Yes, I can safely say we went against the advice of an expierenced guy when buying our horse and you know what - I'm glad because he wouldn't have let us buy her
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I bought a horse from Scotland totally unseen. The owner was very nice over the phone and I just sort of trusted her. I had the mare vetted by a Scottish vet who said that the owner seemed very honest and the mare was very nice. It has been my best, most successful purchase ever and yes, I was told that I was acting stupidly. I'm so glad that I didn't listen.
 
I usually take my first impression into consideration as a deciding factor when buying a horse, if im not in love with it on first sight i never will be. If your confident about this horse and its got no health or confimation problems your not actually doing anything wrong wanting to buy it.
Its always good to take on board other opinions but no-one else has to ride it, look after it or pay for it.
 
After a lot of bad luck buying horses with Navic, Ringbone and one that was erm well just mad, I decided that although I didnt have a lot to spend (£2000 ish) I was going to get the next one vetted, so after looking for months and my budget ever expanding, now looking at £4.5k horses! I fell for a black 4 yr old gelding that had just been backed. I was looking for something about 8 yr old really and something that was good on the roads etc. He hadnt seen traffic and was £2150 but much better than any of the other horses I'd viewed, was at a dealers yard and wasnt ready for sale. Got him vetted and he failed on a flexion test but failed badly. We walked away, kept looking but I just couldnt get him out of my head so I bought him
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. That was 4 yrs ago, touching wood he has (whisper) not had a problem with the left fore he failed on although weve had plenty of tears. Hes fractured his leg, had a GA for tooth removal and plenty of field related injurys but I dont regret buying him. The vet advised me not to buy as did my friend but my gut instinct said buy.
 
I never listen to anyone else! Its you who's spending the money so do what you like, a few people didnt want me to buy Buddie 6 yrs ago when i was still in school but i did and have never regreted it!!!

Good Luck BTW

Sophie xxx
 
I have to say we've been done while buying a horse. We thought we were buying from people we could trust. But the horse turned out to be a nightmare. He was so bad, we only had him 6 months and we ended up having him PTS because we couldn't sell him on - and we couldn't ride him. Then we found out that the vet who treated the horse had advice the previous owner to have the horse PTS, but instead they sold it on to us. My sister hasn't ridden since and even though Super is the complete opposite to that horse my sister has lost all confidence and is too scared to ride a horse again. We didn't have the horse vetted - we thought we did but what actually happened was the vet came out and did the horses teeth and gave it its injections. We thought that's was a vetting - now we know we were wrong
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Even if I look for a horse alone - I'll still get the vet out!
 
Yes. Pretty much everybody I know told me not to buy my horse. She's 17, has done long distance trekking since she was 6, has a stifle injury that makes going up and down hills a bit tricky sometimes and uses her strength against you. If you ask her to do something she doesn't want to, she sets her neck and trots off. If you manage to stop her and turn her round to make her go back, she rears and has a general tantrum. She wouldn't hack out alone, schooling has been an up hill struggle as she's just gone in a straight line for so long.

I had her on loan for the summer, and her behaviour has improved a lot. I had to ride her in a pelham for a while in order to stop the trotting off, and had to have a huge fight with her just to show her that it was not acceptable. I also did groundwork training and all that, and have managed to address many of the reasons she was doing it. She respects me most of the time now, hacks out alone and almost can do a circle. It's only taken 4 months!

Part of my reason for keeping her is that her old owner will always take her back. I'm just doing my final year of uni, have no idea what's going to hapen come May, so this offer gives me a much needed safety net incase my situation changes ajd I can't keep her. Most importantly though, I love her to bits.

Occasionally I think I could have got a much better horse that I could do a lot more with, but I don't really care. One thing I would say is don't let people pressure you into a decision. It's you that has to ride and look after the horse, not them.
 
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Akelly- thats awful, i didnt mean no vet, just friends/associates opinions.

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I know, but sometimes when it comes to buying horses you really can't trust everyone - even people you know!

After that, we looked into sharing a TB in the hope to buy. We liked him, but he failed the vetting for suspected navicular. Owner couldn't believe it and on the advice of our vet we declined to go ahead with the sale (same vet that vetted Super) Found out a 2 or 3 years later the horse developed navicular and was lame.

I suppose the moral of the story is get it vetted - no matter what way you go about buying a horse - with advice, no advice, alone, through contacts etc - just get it vetted by a good vet who you can trust (and not the sellers vet! won't fall for that again!!)
 
I couldn't even put a headcoller on when I got my mare..who was, at the time, a 5yr old broodmare who was 'un rideable' due to being a rearer & that's why they had stopped backing her and bred from her instead! First time I sat on her she had reared up and bolted... =\
Pity took over, and I decided that Id buy said hat rack. For nearly two years I had everyone saying I shouldnt of got her, she's dangerous blah blah. Not ONE person encouraged me to stick it out. Now they eat their own words as she's fab and we've won lots =p

Same happened when I got her baby, and one person, whom hate's me, decided she'd tell the whole world I'd ruin said horse and that I couldn't do.

We're all laughing.

Neither where vetted, I'll keep both of them no matter what comes our way. I love them too much!
 
Rock failed the vetting on 4 different things - the vet told me he wouldn't touch the horse with a barge pole and every single person i spoke to told me i'd be mad to buy him - 3 years down the line its the best thing i've ever done and they're all eating their words
 
I bought a chestmut mare off my instructor once....much to the horror of some of the other liveries......"chestnut mare" they shreiked......."rather you than me".......even my ex-husband became cautious about the whole thing....she turned out to be a star and imagine my smugness when she used to have to lead the hacks to get past burtn out cars etc..... You have to buy for what you want to do with her, if she is unlikely in your instructors opinion, to get to the level you want, then I would be incllined to go with her view, if you're happy to make that compromise, then don't let it put you off.......decisions, decisions....good luck!
 
If the only issue your instructor can find with this horse is the lack of over track in the walk i would say you've found a pretty good one!!! I've had horses over the years whose walks have been poor but only because they've never been corrected,you can improve it.
 
If it's only the walk thats the problem that can be worked on and improved by schooling exercises - there's a good book by Carl Hester I think which has loads of fab exercises in it.
 
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