Power and Paint purchase saga twist

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mtj

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Suspect the article linked above will be subject to legal action/injuction.

Should it dissapear, the gist is that the new owners allegedly have proof pony was lameness history.

More significicantly, allegations are made that the pony was doped with a topical pain killer (untraceable after 6 hrs) at the 2007 European Championships. This was when the infamous rollkur lungeing photos were taken.
 
Blimey!!
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I don't understand how if you're spending 160 000 euros that you don't get your own xrays etc done. I sure as hell wouldn't take someone elses word for it! Hope it all gets sorted.
 
i can't quite believe that someone spending that much didn't know the "get your OWN vet to do the vetting" golden rule...
poor pony, a real shame.
shame on the official who allowed the pony to be given illegal painkillers at a champs etc, if i've read that right...
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Completely agree with everyone above who said it's really odd to buy a pony on someone else's vetting say so! I have have always had my own vettings done, seen the documents and talked to the vet directly and I have never spent anything anywhere near that kind of money!!!

Asking for trouble really...
 
To be honest, I think at that level it's not that uncommon. The pool of trainers is so small and everyone works on trust (although I'm not sure clients always should. . .). Also, people are reluctant to let their horses travel substantial distances to be vetted but at the same time vets in high demand might not want to travel either. It really is a whole different world than someone just buying a horse for their "own" use.

I've certainly been involved in deals in North America where the buyer lived hundreds, even thousands of miles away so no chance of their local vet doing the work. Now, that said, the standard practice would be to get a vet other than the one doing regular work (hopefully through references but even then, not exactly 100% reliable) for the seller and then forward a report, all radiographs, scope results etc to the buyer's vet. But finding a vet with no connection at all to the seller, in that small pool, is probably not likely. And making sure that vet is honest . . . *shrugs*

I think many people operating in that sphere have a level of trust in their trainers and their trainers' connections that's not the norm in other areas of the industry. It's almost like its own little country with everyone more professionally connected to people across the world than down the road. Also, ambition and profit can make people do funny things (on both sides, not just sellers), which they condone through all sorts of mental gymnastics.

Also, not every one who is successful is honest. I think the vast majority ARE but you meet all kinds. And I'm afraid the sort of people who tell people what they want to hear - the people who tend to attract clients with that mentality - are often the most likely to "fudge" the details or outright lie if it suits them. If someone is telling you exactly what you want to hear when other people aren't, they're probably lying.

Not the first time, I'm afraid. I know a GP rider (won a very prestigious International competition so not just someone from the sticks) who bought a horse to jump at GPs through her trainer on the say so of her own vet. In his second season the horse went lame and xrays revealed he had a long standing condition. The trainer and vet had said something along the lines of "he'll be fine" when she bought him and she simply hadn't asked further. I was privy to the yelling on the day it all came out but nothing came of it publicly, perhaps because she did not want to be seen as a fool.

It's a mess and obviously lots of people behaved badly. What's most surprising - rightly or wrongly - is how public it's become. If it makes a few people remember no matter how much top horses are worth they're still animals and that not everyone always has their best interests at heart, it will be a good thing.
 
Thing is, unsoundness issues in top horses seem to be 'common knowledge' in the circles the animals move in. How on earth do you 'cover up' periods of lameness and treatment. The animal surely disappears to rest?

I was asking a groom I know about a horse which was very successful many years ago, the subject of much angst and which subsequently disappeared. I was told quite matter of factly about its knee problems and the trouble they had keeping it sound. No wonder the sale fell through - but Joe Public never got to hear about it.
 
To be fair, there really isn't any "need" for anyone not directly involved to know and, as you say, a great many horses at the top end have "issues" that require regular care or that flare up from time to time and affect performance.

Racing is obviously a bit different because of the betting angle.

I don't also think such information is common knowledge to owners (other than of the horse in question, obviously), especially ones relatively new to the sport. Top horses don't compete all that often, even without soundness issues they pick and chose their venues and competitions and, again, it's hardly unusual for a horse to have time off now and again. I don't think it necessarily comes down to people lying on a day to day basis (obviously vetting is a different matter).
 
Also, it's not uncommon for top horses to be off with something unprovable but neither uncommon nor career-threatening - corns, a virus, tweaked muscle etc etc. All sounds perfectly plausible, but also an excellent way to ensure that time off is not viewed suspiciously by those not in the 'inner circle'...when in fact if you dig a bit deeper a lot of those horses are actually off with something entirely different, and a lot more serious - depending on how you view these things.
 
It's a shame how money plays a big part in the scheme of things today.
Years ago people did dressage eventing and show jumping because they loved doing it. Now it seems it's down to profit, like how much is your horse worth to sell on when they've gained several points.
No longer the pleasure of producing from scratch.
 
In this case I don't think you can blame the vet at all. The vet had stated that there were problems, but the seller claimed the pony had passed and did not send details of the vetting to the buyer.

"Later on, information surfaced that the Kerken veterinarian had written down several clinical and X-ray problems in his report, though this information was not mentioned in the sales contract nor passed on to Fokker."

Assuming that this article is true, it would appear that the seller deliberately lied to the buyer and withheld important information. I would therefore be amazed if the court case did not find in favour of the buyer.
Having said that, I would have expected that the buyer would have insisted that the vets report and x-rays were sent to themselves and/or their vet.
 
[ QUOTE ]
It's a shame how money plays a big part in the scheme of things today.
Years ago people did dressage eventing and show jumping because they loved doing it. Now it seems it's down to profit, like how much is your horse worth to sell on when they've gained several points.
No longer the pleasure of producing from scratch.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I don't know, I've heard some pretty hair raising stories from the "good old days" and if you look at some of the old books, there are practices recounted that would get a seller jailed today. People are people, we just didn't have the internet to tell us all about them.
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