Selling a horse with a current injury

[curiousclover]

I have been considering selling my horse for a little while and she has now just injured herself in the field.
Potential soft tissues damage or pedal bone fracture.

It has got to the point that I was considering selling and now is costing me more in vet bills. Is there a market for injured horses? She has promise and works nicely when sound but on going costs and vet bills are getting to much.

Am I being too heartless?

 

[TPO]

Ethics aside you'd need a firm diagnosis not just "potential x or y"

 

[Muddy unicorn]

Am I being too heartless?

Yes ..

 

[9tails]

There's a lot of difference between soft tissue damage and a pedal bone fracture. There is no market for an injured horse, get her looked at properly by your vet including xrays, or if you can't afford that PTS.

 

[Lady Tinseltime]

Meat man should give you a few bob

 

[I'm Dun]

There is a market and if you price her low enough she will sell. The moral aspect is a bit more dubious.

 

[Equi]

The bin end dealers will happily snap her up and bute her then sell her on to someone else who will then need to pay the vet bills.

Personally I would just pts

 

[AmyMay]

There is a market and if you price her low enough she will sell. The moral aspect is a bit more dubious.

This all day long. If you don’t want to diagnose and treat, have her shot.

 

[nagblagger]

Is this a wind-up? Why would anyone ask, on this forum, about selling an injured horse with no diagnosis. I can't get my head around it. ..poor animal.
(that's probably why i have so many field ornaments because i took them on, but i did not pay for them!)

How much would you be expecting to get for her?

 

[Birker2020]

Get the vet out. If you can't get this sorted then you will have to pts.
Or you could reduce her with a carefully worded advert saying she has been rehabbed from whatever she has hence the low price of ***.
But like others have said, she stands the chance of being passed from pillar to post.
If you don't want to have her pts you could send her to a retirement place or a rehab yard and get her rehabbed and hopefully better to be able to do hacking or low level stuff and then maybe sold at a reduced cost with this in mind.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

How do you know it could be soft tissue or pedal bone fracture both very different?

Unfortunately horses injure themselves and then require treatment and that costs money were you not aware of that before you bought a horse?

 

[paddi22]

I've taken horses that are injured, and I've taken them on the off-chance of them coming sound, and an awareness if a year in the field doesn't fix it then it's PTS. but I've never paid a penny for any. I can't imagine anyone would pay for an injured horse with no definite idea of what the injury is.

 

[nutjob]

How can it be costing you so much in vet bills and you don't know what is wrong with the horse. Xrays are not so expensive and I would have thought would have been advised by your vet if a fracture is suspected. I have had a horse with a pedal bone fracture and a couple of hundred pounds worth of xrays diagnosed it. 6 months rest fixed it and a repeat xray confirmed it had healed. What has your vet done so far that has cost so much but has not yet identified the problem?

 

[Shysmum]

I can't believe you are even considering selling ?

 

[MuffettMischief]

There would probably be someone that would take the horse for free but I can’t imagine you’ll be able to get any money without it being diagnosed! Maybe someone that has lots of land and can afford to just turn the horse away for a year and hope for the best. Having just rehabbed one for 18 months with pedal bone fracture AND soft tissue injury, not seen on X-ray, only able to be diagnosed by MRI - Not a chance I would actually pay for a horse with these potential injuries but if I had space (which I don’t!) I might take a chance if free on the understanding horse is PTS if doesn’t come right. Even then it would have to be a very nice horse to start with.

 

[Michen]

Plenty of people sell or gift horses with injuries. and on this forum and don’t get a load of crap for it. The only issue here is that the injury is unknown.

Not all pedal bone fractures can be seen on x ray it’s perfectly possible the vet is saying MRI is the only way to diagnose which is indeed expensive- not everyone has thousands available to Chuck at diagnostics. Perhaps they already have x rayed- it sounds like the vet has indeed been out.

This forum really does bring out the worst in people, shame on those of you jumping down the OPs throat with such limited info. We have no idea of their personal circumstances. Whatever happened to being kind.

Op assuming the horse has had some diagnostics but still not diagnosable, I would personally PTS. The only other thing I’d consider is gifting the horse to someone known who was willing to take a punt sticking the horse in a field for a year if she’s nice enough to be worth it.

 

[[59668]]

To be fair to the OP I maxed out my insurance trying to find out why my 8yo mare was lame, MRI, xrays, workup....and never did get an answer.

 

[nagblagger]

If the OP had asked what to do, or offer to donate the horse to someone for rehab with total disclosure, my reply would have been different. I think the word 'sell' touched a nerve.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Plenty of people sell or gift horses with injuries. and on this forum and don’t get a load of crap for it. The only issue here is that the injury is unknown.

Not all pedal bone fractures can be seen on x ray it’s perfectly possible the vet is saying MRI is the only way to diagnose which is indeed expensive- not everyone has thousands available to Chuck at diagnostics. Perhaps they already have x rayed- it sounds like the vet has indeed been out.

This forum really does bring out the worst in people, shame on those of you jumping down the OPs throat with such limited info. We have no idea of their personal circumstances. Whatever happened to being kind.

Op assuming the horse has had some diagnostics but still not diagnosable, I would personally PTS. The only other thing I’d consider is gifting the horse to someone known who was willing to take a punt sticking the horse in a field for a year if she’s nice enough to be worth it.

The thing that stood out to me is a lack of real care in the post just oh well she is costing me money lets get rid withouteven a firm diagnosis, had it been worded differently it may have come over a bit better the thing is on a forum you do have a limited knowledge of what is really going on.

 

[nutjob]

This forum really does bring out the worst in people, shame on those of you jumping down the OPs throat with such limited info. We have no idea of their personal circumstances. Whatever happened to being kind.

The context of the post is that the OP is apparently trying to obtain money from this sadly lame horse. We don't know what vet investigations have been done as the OP is just complaining about how much money has been spent not what info has been obtained or what has been looked at already. I have seen so many of this type of horse in dealers recently and then on the dodgy dealer facebook pages where unsuspecting purchasers are stuck with a lame horse which is undiagnosed and they don't have the benefit of knowing what has already been carried out by prior owner. The pandemic, high horse prices and buying unseen has caused a lot of this but dodgy dealers get hold of well bred, nice looking, lame horses to bute up and sell on from somewhere. Often from private owners who just want to get a few quid back from their undiagnosed lame horse that they don't want to look after any more. I had a nasty fall off one such horse when I was looking. OP has asked if they are being heartless and folks have given their honest opinion. Have a look at the coloured cob on dodgy dealers right now - I feel very sorry for the horse not the prior owner who passed it on in the first place for WHATEVER reason.

 

[ycbm]

I think it's an extremely difficult situation when you have mentally signed off from a horse and decided to sell it, and before you can do that the horse is injured, or it fails the sales vetting.

It's a completely different situation than deciding to get rid of a horse because it's gone lame and needs money spent on it.
.

 

[Red-1]

I would say yes, you may. You won't get much money, obviously.

I bought Rigs with many issues, he was just finishing box rest for lami. I paid for him. The previous owner cared very much what happened to him, I was given a full adoption interview. They turned other people down who would, most likely, have paid more.

I would advertise and screen replies very carefully.

Rigs was lucky that I was looking for a companion with benefits. It wouldn't have mattered if he had only been field sound. He has worked out but yes, there have been vets bills.

 

[Michen]

When the Op says selling she may simply mean a token to make it a legal exchange if ownership.

We don’t know. She hasn’t come on and said “what’s she worth”

 

[Melody Grey]

I think providing there’s a full disclosure and reasonable chance of recovery based on what is known, the horse could be sold though for a low fee. It’s a punt, as are so many horses out there.
Not disclosing what you know however is a completely different prospect!

 

[nagblagger]

i did ask in message #9 how much she would want for him - there has been no answer.!
If low enough someone on here might be interested...

 

[SO1]

The horse is a mare by the sounds of it.

If she has nice breeding and conformation and her injury is as a result of an accident then she may be suitable to be a broodmare and have some value as such.

I think it is unethical to sell on a horse that is not at least field sound. In any case to ensure the horse gets the best chance of getting the best home you need to declare the injury and encourage the potential purchasers to speak to your vet so they know what works ups have already been done.

It sounds like if vet doesn't know if it is pedal bone racture or soft tissue then the issue is in the hoof and they only way to get an accurate diagnosis is MRI which is expensive if the fracture has not shown up on xrays.

I think the problem is you have is you don't just have an injured horse you don't know what the problem is.

Pedal bone fracture is possible to fix in a lot of cases but requires a lot of box rest.

DDFT injury is more risky as might come good with either box rest and rehab or turn away or might not.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I think it's an extremely difficult situation when you have mentally signed off from a horse and decided to sell it, and before you can do that the horse is injured, or it fails the sales vetting.

It's a completely different situation than deciding to get rid of a horse because it's gone lame and needs money spent on it.
.

This is how I read it and I do feel for the OP. I went from believing I had 6k in my pocket for Max who sold at that price, to multiple k’s OUT of pocket when he failed the vetting. Diagnostics then treatment then rehab livery on a horse I had mentally let go of ages before. And he was retired at the end of it anyway. If I were faced with a similar situation of a horse I’m selling going lame while for sale then I would also look at all options including ‘take a punt’ price. As long as I could ensure I didn’t sell to a dodgy dealer. Which I probably couldn’t so I probably wouldn’t sell in the end. But I’d definitely be wanting advice on options and that doesn’t make me callous or selfish I don’t think.

 

[ycbm]

I think it is unethical to sell on a horse that is not at least field sound

I feel it's ethical as long as the buyer knows and convincingly commits to treatment. It probably couldn't be a stranger unless it was a rehab specialist.
.