Sold for easier life???

[carthorse]

After reading in latest news that Skwal was sold cheaply to have a quieter life but was put back into top eventing,I thought could there be a freezemark put on a horses shoulder [ like the lose of use one] to show this in some way. I know it might sound strange , but I have heard that this has happened to a few horses and it does seem unfair on the horse.
What do you think?

 

[Weezy]

Only way to absolutely ensure a horse's future is to not sell it - this fact will never change and I cannot think of a way this type of thing could be policed.

 

[Rachel_M]

Even LOU can be useless. All it means is that horse won't be insured for that use but nothing stopping actually doing that discipline.

 

[Skhosu]

But different people have different opinions of what affects a horses career?
I'm sure some people would retire my lad, he's 13 and has an ethmoidal heamatoma which means he has a runny nose (daily brownish/yellow at the moment) an awful lot. He's an eventer and clear to event, but add this to bumpy legs and general odness (although perfectly sound) you might find someone says right, he needs an easier life
Just trying to give an example, I think you maybe have to be there?

 

[carthorse]

Yes ,but if you decided he needed an easier life and let someone have him cheap on that understanding it would break your heart if he was out on the circuit again.
Weezy. Agree if they have been good to you then keep them until the end ,it would be very difficult I know to police it but it seems such a shame.
Sad day for eventing

 

[Skhosu]

Yup, absoloutely. But if he's fit, and he must have been to qualify for it, and happy then its up to them. V. sad for all concerned.

 

[TarrSteps]

I can see the ethical problem when a horse has been sold inexpensively specifically so it will have an easier life, be a schoolmaster, etc. But, as said, there is absolutely no way of putting conditions on the horse after it's sold. (Some people write it into the sales contract but that won't actually hold up in law, it's just to people's sense of fair play.) Really sad in some cases, but true. I know at least one horse that ended up in a really bad situation because it was sold as a companion and then sold on to someone who simply didn't give a damn the horse was fundamentally unsound. I blamed the person in the middle the most since they were not upfront with the original owner (who was supposed to be told if the horse was to be sold on) or the buyer (who was not advised of the horse's history). The original owner even tried to buy the horse back but no go.

That said, I wouldn't be too happy if someone told me I couldn't do as I wished with a horse I owned. I've had quite a few horses that were cast off from other programs who worked out really well and I would have really resented being told what the horse could or couldn't do by the people who has already failed with it. What if I figured out how to fix a problem that eluded his former people? What if a move or a change in the horse's life had produced an unexpected improvement? What if time just healed??

Tough call. I personally have solved it by having to put one horse down, giving the next to the person who had leased it for years and basically paid for it over time, and giving the next to the last person he was a schoolmaster for, and even then I still own him and would not have given him up if I hadn't been moving and unable to take him with me. And the question is one of the things that stops me having another horse of my own.

 

[vicijp]

We have had quite a few horses that we have retired from racing turn up back on the track. We dont mind the young, sound ones, but when its the older, unsounder ones it pi55es us off abit.
We have had quite a few that we have rehomed as gentle hacks, next thing we know its in a selling hurdle at Worcester! People see theyve had form, and think theyre clever enough to have a go. When in fact, anyone with half a brain would know my dad wouldnt retire a horse without good reason, and that buying a sound one off him is hard enough to win with.
Weatherbys now have a 'non racing agreement', on which you can state whether the horse can point to point, or never race at all ever again. Vendor and purchasor fill in a legal document, it gets filed with Weatherbys, Passport gets stamped = horse can never go into training again.
I dont know why Skwal was sold for a quieter life. Was he unsound? If so, it is a bit off him competeting at top level - but the previous owners cant whinge, they let go of all resposibility when they sold him.
If it was for any other reason, then they need to put up and shut up - they sold the horse, it was free for someone to have a crack on. The fact it dropped dead is irrelevant.

 

[dieseldog]

It is only hearsay that the horse was sold for an easier life - and not coming from someone involved in the deal but a person who was it's groom many years ago - so that may not actually be true. Also this same person in the same post seemed quite happy that it had been round burghley last year - hardly an easy life.

If you don't want a horse to carry on competing don't sell it, have it PTS or loan it to someone - as soon as you sell you are giving up all your rights to the future of that horse.

 

[Puppy]

[ QUOTE ]
If you don't want a horse to carry on competing don't sell it, have it PTS or loan it to someone - as soon as you sell you are giving up all your rights to the future of that horse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto!

If people want to control a horse's future, then they shouldn't take money for it!

 

[The Virgin Dubble]

People undoubtedly have different perceptions of what the horse they are selling is capable of, or not, as the case may be, and unless the horse has a known veterinary problem, then I couldn't really see that idea working tbh.

For example, a few years ago, we bought two half brothers both TB's.

One had had a very successful career and had been British Eventing, but the owner wanted a quieter life for him doing unaffiliated stuff/lower level work. The other had been bar fired, had a pretty dismal career, and mostly hunted, so was sold as a happy hacker.

Fast forward to the present day, and the successful horse has been dogged with lameness issues, and is a field ornament nowadays, whereas the crap one, is fit and sound, is out competing and is looking fantastic.
When I sold them on, I could never have predicted that, so I can't believe that you can possibly predict how a horse will perform in another environment with a different owner/regime.

 

[suzyseymour]

My mare is a loss of use case after damaging her him. I would never dream of selliing her regardless. However since the vet wrote her off 10 years ago she has galloped on beackes, done show jumpng and cross country, and is still in regular low at 26. The majical treatment that worked for my horse - we jsut turned her way I was at uni anyway so she was turned away at home for 18 mnths and brought very slowly back into work But if for some reason I was in a positon where i could have kept a horse that I wanted just to eb a ligth hack I would loan it not sell it.