Jericho
Well-Known Member
I would be grateful of some advice please.... The bare facts are that my daughter has been offered a loan horse who is an experienced Novice eventer at the end of the season when his owner goes off to uni. Since the beginning of the year she has been riding the horse about once a month to get used to him and make sure it was a good match and he is a nice talented horse and will teach her lots but he is quirky and has some issues of trust and has a history of ulcers which we were confident that we could manage him for. His owner is absolutely a lovely girl and has been terrific with my daughter and clearly loves her boy (and will never sell him though tbh I think he would be tricky to sell) and wanted to find him a home whilst she was away studying. I was happy to cope with the quirks and issues as he is a super horse to jump. However there has been the odd lameness issue over the last few months, just little accidents, days off etc and then recently he did something in the field and has been to the vets to be scanned and full lameness work up and it was inconclusive - clean legs but something gone on in his hips BUT vets according to his owner hopeful all can be sorted. I am now at the point where I am feeling a little worried about taking on this horse - as much as my daughter likes him because I feel he is going to be a walking vets bill and a difficult chap as well. He will be my daughters only horse, she loves competing and hoping to do well so has high hopes for the combination and we probably couldn't afford to buy a horse of his calibre so it did seem amazingly lucky that my daughter was offered the ride, however with all his quirks (besides the lameness) I would not buy him if I had the money. We are lucky enough to keep our horses at home so usually any horse we have has to be friendly and trustworthy and easy to handle (he isn't but again talented and that was the sacrifice...). We do not have an endless supply of money nor the time to keep lots of horses. Help what do I do?