thinking about walking away from a sale

digitalangel

digitalangel

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Funny story...

Went to a dealer that i thought had a good rep. Turns out its not so good. fell in love with the horse though, but a few things concerned me. Firstly the markings dont quite match the horse though it is a grey white leg markings should still show as a foal right? The horse acts younger than its states ( its supposed to be 6, but rides like a 4 year old ) hes weak and needs building up. He had a stonking great splint and was very down on his heels and his feet looked terrible. Also it felt funny behind at a trot on the road, almost like its back end was trailing behind him. hard to explain.

Anyway i thought i would try to find out what vet he uses and a familiar name popped up, the vet has been struck off before and ive heard some people have had dodgy vettings.

So while i really clicked with the horse, and im *very* picky.. i am worried that i will waste my money on a vetting and he will fail. I am also terrified of buying a horse who is going to have issues with his foot conformation ( ive already had 3 of those! ) although i know from experience, good looking hooves dont mean anything either.

There is a sensible option - a 4yo bay probably around the same level of education with better feet and better paces. i clicked with him, but not as much.

my heart says grey, my head says bay. Do i risk a vetting with the dealer? has anyone bought off a 'suspect' dealer and had a positive experience?

i dont know what to do - help!!

:((((
 
If you have gut feelings that he is not right then don't do it. As you think he will probably fail a vetting then I am sure he will. If it is a SE dealer then don't even think about it - assuming it is the one that is well known for using his own vet. I know of several people who bought horses from him, one of whom used her own vet who said the horses was "odd" behind. All of them have huge problems including the independently vetted one. OCD, navicular and SI and suspensory problems being the main culprits. Horses were a mix of TBs and Hanovarian.

If you have had the heartbreak of bad feet before why even contemplate a possiblility of it again?
 
You do not have to use the dealers vet for a vetting, its actually a conflict of interests for the vet and he should refuse to do it.
What is the dealers reaction to a vet of your choice? If an issue I'd walk away right now.
 
Oh dear, lots to answer but I'm not much really.

One thing though - if you really like this horse, and I do mean really really like him, then the cost of a vetting should be your first investment and may well turn out to be the best money ever spent, either way. Any horse, no matter how good it first appears, can fail a vetting and if you think there may be issues it surely has to be a compulsory exercise.

A good 5 stage vetting should throw up issues with feet, passport, odd way of going etc so that will cover lots of your issues. Without this as a starting place there is not point taking any of it any further. But do make sure you have a really good vet do it - don't use the one the deal recommends at any point.

Who is his farrier? Is it someone you could speak to about the feet? Would you be able to ask for your farrier / another well known one to check over the feet?

I'm not sure what you mean about the white markings? Our big grey 7 year old was born almost black bar a white star which is now just a pink patch you can see when he's wet.

Is this an issue with a passport you've been shown? Is there a way of getting the passport details and ringing the issuer to check it out further?

Sorry, I'm rambling as thoughts pop into my head. Basically what I'm saying is either walk away now or plump for a full vetting and see what's what. And any funny stalling tactics from the dealer - leg it!

Good luck with whatever you decide.
 
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Sorry, I was walking away halfway through your first paragraph! Your post is not at all positive about this horse even though you say you have 'clicked' which says it all to me. Sorry!
 
indiat said:
Sorry, I was walking away halfway through your first paragraph! Your post is not at all positive about this horse even though you say you have 'clicked' which says it all to me. Sorry!
Click to expand...

Agree with indiat (and SJcrazee!). : )

I think perhaps you already know yourself the sensible thing to do despite liking the horse so much?
 
My wonderful horse was PTS two weeks ago aged just 11 years old :( we too clicked with him and had him vetted by my own vet. She commented that he had an asymetrical pelvis but it shouldn't be a problem for the job we wanted him for. She said lots of horses have them and are competing at a high level.

We went ahead and bought him and had a wonderful year with him, he adored his jumping & was an angel. AFTER buying him, we discovered that he had NOT been in full work when we bought him. We were told he was!! Maybe the vets opinion would have been different if we had all known he was only being ridden twice a MONTH!! He flew through the vetting & no lameness was detected at all.

After 6 weeks of owning him with the poor chap being ridden regularly, he did have some behavioural issues which our instructor assured us was him testing us and being naughty. He was such a genuine little horse that he did everything asked of him but would sometimes just plant himself and if my daughter put her leg on, he would turn his head and bite her feet!!

We had him checked by the vet and he showed no signs of lameness at this stage however, eventually he did go lame (8 months later!!)

Initially we thought (and hoped) it was something simple like a bruised sole.....how wrong were we?

He was diagnosed with navicular, sacroiliac problems, high suspensory problems and was showing pain in his stifle too!!

The one thing that didn't show at the vetting was that he was smothered (and I mean smothered) in scars. You couldn't see them until he was clipped :(

He never came right 100% but he was retired from competition and kept as a gentle hack for me. He was such a happy and jolly chap but in the end disaster struck 2 weeks ago when he decided to charge around his field and he completely broke, he was lame in all four legs and it was so tragic to see bless him. We made the awful decision to have him PTS.

In hindsight, had the vet known he was not in full work her decision may have been different but we were led to believe he was in full work and not suffering any lameness as a result. Having discovered his scars and the fact that his pelvis was as wonky as it was, it is now thought that he had maybe been hit by a car in his younger days before we got him.

I am not saying that the grey horse is the same BUT I would be walking away anyway as the back end does not sound right at all.

Don't set yourself up for the heartache that we went through it's just not worth it no matter how much you like the horse.

You could get an independent vet to do a vetting but I trust my vet 100% and yet it all went so tragically wrong for me :(
 
Definately walk away. You have to go with what you have observed and what you felt when you rode the horse, no matter that you clicked with him.

'Gut feeling' means a lot, and even if there is nothing you can put your finger on as such as far as the horses' soundness, if he feels wrong, he probably is wrong.

I fear it will all end in disaster for you, if you continue and buy this horse. I have bought a horse before, who seemed nice enough, and did everything I asked when I tried him. For some reason my 'gut' said no, but my head said yes, and I bought him.

And the outcome was not what I hoped.

There are plenty of other good horses out there.... keep looking :)
 
indiat said:
Sorry, I was walking away halfway through your first paragraph! Your post is not at all positive about this horse even though you say you have 'clicked' which says it all to me. Sorry!
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Me too

When I was looking for my first horse, I tried loads and didn't click or feel safe on any. Then I found one, perfect, I even cantered him in an open field on the way home, still perfect.
however I noticed he had a slight deviation to right hind and a bump on the right side of him rump. I spoke to my vet who said nope walk away. I did and never regretted it!!
 
If things look odd (confo wise) and feel odd when your riding, as well as buying from somewhere that is known to do some dodgy dealings then I think that's a pretty good indication to walk away and don't look back.
 
neddynesbitt said:
The one thing that didn't show at the vetting was that he was smothered (and I mean smothered) in scars. You couldn't see them until he was clipped :(

OTE]

Poor creature! Its hard to walk away from an animal you think you can help but you have to ask yourself if the heartbreak and lets face it, the financial cost, is going to be worth it.
Click to expand...
 
walk away, if it's the grey horse you posted up here a few days ago - i would seriously walk away. If he's between 4-6 and his feet are in that state already then you are likely to have problems in the future.

Trust your gut, there are so many horses available and i know you must want to get one home asap but there is forever and a day to find the perfect horse.

With the news of a horribly cold winter ahead of us i guess there will be a fair few horses for sale and some good deals to be had over the next few months. Don't buy a broken one, just keep trying horses out and your perfect partner will find you one way or another :)

Good luck!
 
thanks guys. you are all right. just gutted is all - i am so picky! ill keep looking

anyone got a 4-6 year old with nice paces and a nice light mouth they want to get rid of? ;) preferably grey :)
 
If you really like the horse and can accept it's a weedy 4yr old with no known history or breeding, make the dealer a low offer and state the reasons you've listed above!
 
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