I don't know how to navigate the horse world.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse

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I was gifted my first horse who was perfect in every way (in my opinion) I had him a long time and achieved everything I wanted and more. He died at a great age. I was extremely sad but he had a great life and I thought I would be able to find another horse and carry on riding.
I was very wrong. Managed to get scammed. Oops! Bank refunded me lesson learned. I found the dodgy dealer pages to check people out. I was recommended a local dealer who had great reviews. She found me what I though was the perfect horse. He went lame shortly after purchase and I ended up having him put down. She had lied about everything and had given me an allegedly fake vet certificate. She then blocked me and I have still been unable to recover my money.

I borrowed the money to buy another horse. I found a fairly local private seller and everything seemed genuine. I took someone with me and had him vetted by my own vet. I tried him multiple times before I brought him.
He really struggled to settle in and his behaviour deteriorated to the point I fell off. Seller didn't want to buy him back even though she said she would if I ever sold him. Full vet work up and came up inconclusive lameness. Given the whole winter off and after 8 months he is crippled if you try and do anything. Vet not optimistic. Now have a field ornament.
It turns out private seller had a second vet that wasn't mentioned.

Has everything always been this bad in the horse world or is it society in general?
 
Im so sorry that this has happened to you. It sounds as if you did everything right the second time. I haven't bought for years so no recent advice but it's certainly always been a minefield.
Im sure someone else will be along with good advice. There are so many stories on here of sensible people who got caught out and sometimes horses just break regardless 🙁
 
Dark Horse said:
I was gifted my first horse who was perfect in every way (in my opinion) I had him a long time and achieved everything I wanted and more. He died at a great age. I was extremely sad but he had a great life and I thought I would be able to find another horse and carry on riding.
I was very wrong. Managed to get scammed. Oops! Bank refunded me lesson learned. I found the dodgy dealer pages to check people out. I was recommended a local dealer who had great reviews. She found me what I though was the perfect horse. He went lame shortly after purchase and I ended up having him put down. She had lied about everything and had given me an allegedly fake vet certificate. She then blocked me and I have still been unable to recover my money.

I borrowed the money to buy another horse. I found a fairly local private seller and everything seemed genuine. I took someone with me and had him vetted by my own vet. I tried him multiple times before I brought him.
He really struggled to settle in and his behaviour deteriorated to the point I fell off. Seller didn't want to buy him back even though she said she would if I ever sold him. Full vet work up and came up inconclusive lameness. Given the whole winter off and after 8 months he is crippled if you try and do anything. Vet not optimistic. Now have a field ornament.
It turns out private seller had a second vet that wasn't mentioned.

Has everything always been this bad in the horse world or is it society in general?
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Very, very disillusioning after your first experiencing of owning.
And bad luck - remember, if you ride horses regularly - chance of falling off increases. Horses have legs of glass and complex biology - stuff can go wrong. Horses often behave differently if taken to new settings and managed by new people. Unscrupulous sellers exist in all businesses. Vets only see ‘on the day’ and do make mistakes. This sort of stuff does happen to plenty of other people, and quite often, unfortunately, you seem to have had a ‘run’ of misfortune.
You might be better sharing a horse, or loaning with an eventual view to buy (assuming everything goes smoothly), so you can get to know the animal far more thoroughly, and get out of the commitment if it doesn’t.
Good luck.
 
Time for Tea said:
I am so sorry to hear this. What a nightmare. The last 3 ponies I have bought have been youngsters, they all turned out well, luckily, though there are no guarantees with that approach either I don’t think. Perhaps statistically a better chance?
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I do the same as I cant afford or justify the price of an established horse.

Loan with a view to buy might be the way forward for OP.
 
Not recent but the last pony I bought was 2020 and she was very undersold, has been better than ever expected and was a very reasonable price! I dream of finding her in 14.2 now!
 
Wow those experiences must be disillusioning.You have done everything usually undertaken to protect yourself but it just might be a limited budget that puts you in front of folk wanting to offload money pits/walking vets bills. Now I’ve never bought from a racehorse rehoming charity but a fellow livery at our yard has rehomed an ex national hunt horse, he s 12. The charity did a little bit of flat work with him, my friend is very experienced. She knows the syndicate which owned him and researched his record. He is the nicest, sweetest horse and if anything happens to her (she’s in her late 60s) the charity will take him back. Might be worth looking into?
 
Things to be aware of:
- Good, sound, adult horses are rarely sold. No one is growing out of them and if their behaviour stays the same they could easily find sharers if financial issues arise. They are sometimes sold - but there aren’t a huge number ever on the market.
- Horses that WERE good but are now in pain in some way so cannot stand up to work (or behaviour has changed) are regularly sold on.
- Young horses are sold, especially in the adolescent years when they are more feisty and just very green and needing an experienced rider. Not all of those will be sound.
- Every horse needs time to settle in a new home; not every yard setup or personality of owner suits every horse.

A good budget might find you the rare unicorn of 8-12yo, safe and sane and easy. But you’re looking at £12k plus and the danger is that plenty of those would have hidden issues which is why they are being sold.

I would share for now. Build up your skills with lessons. Be able to take on something younger next time.
 
I feel your pain, I tried 15+ when I was looking and was very VERY annoyingly picky to all my friends. If it tripped on the trial ride or stood funny or something felt off in my gut it would be a nope!! initially wanted a 10-12 yo been there done that. Ended up with a barely back rising 4 yo from an aquaintance who was impatient on their progress (but i saw the potential and wasnt overly ambitious) Weve since done everything together dressage jumping fun rides etc. But it did take a year of lessons and hacking saddle fitters, mite treatments and a supportive yard to get there.

Keep looking, be extra cautious and trust your gut. lots of sad broken horses out there. Buy with your head not your heart, the best horses are sold by word of mouth often.
 
I would also suggest word of mouth and sharing / loaning in the short term.

I have an average height, no breeding, hairier than most mutt who I've been offered a lot for. He has won small local ODE, won Novice dressage series and helped my 12 learn to ride. Lovely person to have around and really sound.

I couldn't replace him for £20k I don't think! I wouldn't spend that on a horse I didn't know! I couldn't possibly justify the risk of that sort of money. But for a budget of £8k I think you get a donkey (sadly).

I have rarely sold but I did sell a lovely horse to someone who had been his sharer for a long time.
 
In answer to your question - it's not always been this bad but there has always been untrustworthy people around. In the years of Covid the horse market exploded, horse prices shot up and so any horse was now worth more than it had been, even the ones deemed unsellable. Everyone then went back to work and a lot of these horses then found themselves back on the market with the owner wanting their money back from the horse so that has kept prices high and a lot of unsound or badly behaved horses are still being passed around as a result of the boom in the market.

I found my last horse through and friend of a friend, they have a couple in to produce and have found that they find their buyers through wanted ads rather than advertising the horse on the internet. That could be worth a try for you. I am sorry to say that it is a minefield and even the most sound and sane horse can change with different turnout/routine/rider/work load.

The last horse you mention buying, you said that you had it vetted before purchase but then it went lame and the seller had a second vet that they didn't disclose at the time of the sale? I'm not sure what you are trying to say here, you had the horse vetted by your own vet and it was sound on the day of vetting so even if they had told you about the second vet, the horse was still sound on the day of vetting. The seller is not liable for the horse then going lame after this point in time, it sounds like that's just bad luck and it unfortunately happens with horses.

I would look in to a rehoming charity as mentioned above, if you have a local trainer then maybe a genuine youngster would be an option that they could help you with? or a loan.
 
lialls said:
The last horse you mention buying, you said that you had it vetted before purchase but then it went lame and the seller had a second vet that they didn't disclose at the time of the sale? I'm not sure what you are trying to say here, you had the horse vetted by your own vet and it was sound on the day of vetting so even if they had told you about the second vet, the horse was still sound on the day of vetting. The seller is not liable for the horse then going lame after this point in time, it sounds like that's just bad luck and it unfortunately happens with horses.
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The seller has responsibility if you ask them if they've had any previous veterinary issues and if you can have a copy of the veterinary records. They say no issues and provide you with the veterinary records from one of their vets which show horse has only had routine dental and vaccinations. The owner knows the horse has been on / off lame with various issues which have been treated by their other vet but they choose to forget to mention this when you ask them about history of lameness and they decide not to provide you with these records. Not uncommon sadly.

I think the whole thing is a lot worse these days than ever before with the number of dodgy dealers, outright scammers from overseas and sales agents where your legal rights are a bit uncertain.

I've got more than enough of my own stories of misery from recent horse buying experiences.
 
Thank you for the replies everybody. I guess I was hoping that my bad luck would have run out by now but there seems to be a bountiful supply.


maya2008 said:
I would share for now. Build up your skills with lessons. Be able to take on something younger next time.
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I have been very fortunate that my friend has been letting me ride her horse so that has been lovely.
Time for Tea said:
I am so sorry to hear this. What a nightmare. The last 3 ponies I have bought have been youngsters, they all turned out well, luckily, though there are no guarantees with that approach either I don’t think. Perhaps statistically a better chance?
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I think a youngster would be the way to go but I don't have much confidence or experience.
 
nutjob said:
The seller has responsibility if you ask them if they've had any previous veterinary issues and if you can have a copy of the veterinary records. They say no issues and provide you with the veterinary records from one of their vets which show horse has only had routine dental and vaccinations. The owner knows the horse has been on / off lame with various issues which have been treated by their other vet but they choose to forget to mention this when you ask them about history of lameness and they decide not to provide you with these records. Not uncommon sadly.

I think the whole thing is a lot worse these days than ever before with the number of dodgy dealers, outright scammers from overseas and sales agents where your legal rights are a bit uncertain.

I've got more than enough of my own stories of misery from recent horse buying experiences.
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I think this might happen more often than people think. Even provided x-rays can be of a different horse. I'm sorry you have had a similar experience.
 
Regarding dodgy dealer fb page. There is one that people recommend that I know a few things about and wouldn't trust.

When my friend was buying a few years ago she tried quite a few and nearly bought one, luckily the day before the vetting she found out the horse had had 6 months off due to an injury and this was never disclosed even after she had asked. Only found through fb stalking and it had been a serious injury. Buyer said no it had never been lame.
 
maya2008 said:
Things to be aware of:
- Good, sound, adult horses are rarely sold. No one is growing out of them and if their behaviour stays the same they could easily find sharers if financial issues arise. They are sometimes sold - but there aren’t a huge number ever on the market.
- Horses that WERE good but are now in pain in some way so cannot stand up to work (or behaviour has changed) are regularly sold on.
- Young horses are sold, especially in the adolescent years when they are more feisty and just very green and needing an experienced rider. Not all of those will be sound.
- Every horse needs time to settle in a new home; not every yard setup or personality of owner suits every horse.

A good budget might find you the rare unicorn of 8-12yo, safe and sane and easy. But you’re looking at £12k plus and the danger is that plenty of those would have hidden issues which is why they are being sold.

I would share for now. Build up your skills with lessons. Be able to take on something younger next time.
Click to expand...

VERY good post, spot on (sadly)
 
It's soul destroying. I too had a first horse for ever and a day. I got him when i was still in school. I tought my daughter to ride on him. He was the best.

Ever since Its been a string of problems and issues, some copeable with others not. Some from friends/friends of friends still found issues. It's a nighmare. I don't think I'd ever spend ££ on a horse now. I don't have it to chuck away.

I just kept trying and *touch wood* currently things are going ok with a free ex racer. It's not been without problems though, both physically and mentally/emotionally and a few times i have wondered what the hell I'm doing (spinning in circles in gateways etc) but I honestly am starting to let myself really like her, previous few I didnt, I knew they wouldnt last.
So I guess what I'm saying is yes, its cut throat and tough but worth it in the end (I hope!)

Don't loose hope, Maybe if you can get a share you'll get your foot into the yard/world again and find your own that way.
 
Sounds like you're having tough time of it. Hard when you just want to enjoy your hobby. It does seem to happen to novices more, too many dealers always selling the perfect horse that isn't so perfect.

If you do get again, id say look at the wording of ads carefully. The ones where they usually say home more important than price, ads don't look too polished (but horse isn't in the distance), direct from breeder these are the ones you want to go for and word of mouth.

I don't think youngster unspoilt is the best way as many horses will always have issues like all of us. If a horse is sound at 14, then it's likely to stay that way. 8 is often when congenital arthritis starts to show up. And they can be calmer and schoolmaster type. Just got to be again looking at reasons they're for sale.
 
I'm another who would always go for a blank canvas (so you don't have to undo someone else's mistakes) but known good Forest breeding, and really careful due diligence - I either know breeder personally or their reputation is spotless. Doesn't help OP and I'm sorry you have had such bad luck.
 
Just to say there are a few out there. I had issues buying my first horse in 2015 but bought my second in 2024 from a private seller and he is perfect. He has had shockwave on his suspensories but that was a year and a half after owning him so fair play probably not an issue when buying. I had 5 stage vetting and X rays with a great vet *not of their choosing* and the vet offered for me to be there at the vetting which sadly I couldn’t, but they rung me, asked me if there was anything I wanted them to check specifically, sent me all the X rays etc. I did spend fair money on him but he’s brilliant. Dodgy dealer pages good place to look but be aware issues can happen with any horse. I hope you have success in the future!
 
Dark Horse said:
I was gifted my first horse who was perfect in every way (in my opinion) I had him a long time and achieved everything I wanted and more. He died at a great age. I was extremely sad but he had a great life and I thought I would be able to find another horse and carry on riding.
I was very wrong. Managed to get scammed. Oops! Bank refunded me lesson learned. I found the dodgy dealer pages to check people out. I was recommended a local dealer who had great reviews. She found me what I though was the perfect horse. He went lame shortly after purchase and I ended up having him put down. She had lied about everything and had given me an allegedly fake vet certificate. She then blocked me and I have still been unable to recover my money.

I borrowed the money to buy another horse. I found a fairly local private seller and everything seemed genuine. I took someone with me and had him vetted by my own vet. I tried him multiple times before I brought him.
He really struggled to settle in and his behaviour deteriorated to the point I fell off. Seller didn't want to buy him back even though she said she would if I ever sold him. Full vet work up and came up inconclusive lameness. Given the whole winter off and after 8 months he is crippled if you try and do anything. Vet not optimistic. Now have a field ornament.
It turns out private seller had a second vet that wasn't mentioned.

Has everything always been this bad in the horse world or is it society in general?
Click to expand...
I’ve had similar buying experiences. One put PTS another is a field ornament. After 3 upsetting purchases I decided to rehome. I’ve now got the most fantastic large pony from a charity. They are upfront & honest about their equines so you know exactly what you are getting.
 
incognito-25 said:
I tried 15+ when I was looking and was very VERY annoyingly picky to all my friends.
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I wasn't actually able to try a huge amount. People were buying over the phone without even seeing the horse and most were sold before I could get a look in even if I contacted straight away. One I really liked was 15 and was sold immediately to the next viewing, I would have had to agree to buy him before I got off!
I though I was lucky because I was able to try my current horse several times but I guess all my luck got used up on my first horse.
 
When you hear the fashionistas talk about 'cost per wear' to justify a huge expenses on clothing, let 'em try cost per ride on a decent horse purchased in the current market!!
 
Caski said:
When you hear the fashionistas talk about 'cost per wear' to justify a huge expenses on clothing, let 'em try cost per ride on a decent horse purchased in the current market!!
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I have just worked out my little hairy pony is costing me £50 a ride!😣 Running costs only. He was a cheapish discard fortunately as he had a few little problems at the time. A bit shocked at my discovery to be quite honest.

Edited to correct faulty maths!
 
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planete said:
I have just worked out my little hairy pony is costing me £50 a ride!😣 Running costs only. He was a cheapish discard fortunately as he had a few little problems at the time. A bit shocked at my discovery to be quite honest.

Edited to correct faulty maths!
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Yep, as I thought, the Holland Cooper outfit is cheap!
 
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