What conditions/problems did you find your horse had AFTER you bought him/her??

sleepykitten

sleepykitten

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I'm only asking this as I'm selling at the moment (don't want to, but find myself in an awkward situation) and I've gone from telling people who ring up about my boy, to actively putting in his advert that he has a bit of a sticky stifle when unfit, and hopefully weeding out the time-wasters before I get to the "coming to try him" stage.

I hope I'm doing the right thing by being honest, but must admit, he's been on the market quite a while now.

What things did you only find out about your horse/horses/ponies after you had bought them, and would you not have bought them if you had known?
 
You are absolutely right to be honest with people, you dont want him to go to someone irresponsible.

Have you got vet reports? details of investigation?

I personally wouldnt buy a horse with a known problem (I have had a lame horse for 10 years), but my friend who does quiet hacking would not be put off. She actively looks for horses over 15 looking for a nice mum, she is never put off by minor issues.

Do you have an instructor who can vouch for him?
 
My horse had dermatitis, arthritis and ringbone. If i had known I still would've bought her because the ringbone could've been sorted before it got to this stage and the arthritis is really not a problem and the dermatitis is just one of those things that a lot of cobs get. I had loaned her for 2 years prior to buying her so I knew her really wel and the problems would've only been picked up on a 5* vetting and they didn't show up until a year afterwards, the ringbone showed up this year (after 5 years of ownership).
 
I would never buy a horse with a stifle injury I am sorry as I know that won't be what you want to hear.
The horse won't be insurable for that issue and vet costs are so high I think that most prople just wont want to chance it.
 
I discovered about 3 weeks after I bought my mare that she had had lami around 5 months before I bought her, only discovered it when my farrier mentioned it to me when he was putting new shoes on her. So I rang the old owner and explained what the farrier had said, and she admitted that she did indeed have lami about 6 months prior to her selling her to me.
I got her to ring the the vets to give me permission to have the details of the lami she had had, we have the same vets so it was easy enough to do this.
My vet explained to me that the mare was grossly overweight at the time and required no special shoeing etc at the time and although no xrays were taken at the time he believed with careful future feeding should keep her healthy. Thankgod when I bought her I considered her to be overweight and put her on limited grass, I dread to think what could of happened if I had not done that.
To be honest I am not sure wether I would of bought her had I known about the lami, and I had already become smitten with her when I discovered the condition so decided not to send her back. She has not had lami again with me, and has her saddle adjusted by 4 sizes since me owning her so this goes to show how fat she was when I bought her, let alone how fat she must of been when she got the lami.:eek:
 
Laminitis. But in fairness it came on after the vetting and money had changed hands, but before collection (collection was then delayed further till horse could travel).

No, wouldnt have made the purchase.
 
Headshaking and EPSM - she was unbacked so wouldn't have been able to tell beforehand. I wouldn't have bought her, as the idea was to sell on, which in this climate, with a horse with issues, isn't really an option. She's very talented though!

The others I knew their issues and bought them anyway!

Just to add though for the OP - my horse with the locking stifles (genetic not injury based), has been my horse of a lifetime. I wouldn't swap her for the world. Is yours conformational rather than from an injury? Is it worth putting a link to info about this in the ad?
 
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A whole list of allergies.. :rolleyes: and an extreme aversion to being left behind (in a group)

Still would have bought him. In fairness, the allergies were unknown to the vendor - tis just me feeding him fancy feeds that made them appear!

The left-behind thing.. again, I know vendor was genuinely unaware. He'd never been in the situations I put him in so how was anyone to know.
 
Goldenstar said:
I would never buy a horse with a stifle injury I am sorry as I know that won't be what you want to hear.
The horse won't be insurable for that issue and vet costs are so high I think that most prople just wont want to chance it.
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Its not an injury, its a condition and my vet can confirm that it doesn't cause any problems. It was not picked up at 2 vettings.
 
Mine had a suspensory injury, found out when I did some digging for info about him. Had 3 vets who couldn't find anything so had him scanned and thankfully it's just been a minor injury to the main body of the suspensory ligament. He's fine to do any job in future.
 
Mine had a locking stifle when she came.
I didn't actually know what it was (tbh i kinda of panicked when i saw her getting 'stuck') and when I read up on it properly I actually realised it was nothing a bit of work couldn't sort out :)
I would by a horse with a sticky stifle as long as it didn't affect him badly :)
 
That she is an absolute bitch from hell when being shod! Luckily a twitch sorts it but we found out the hard way, the old owners told me she had always been an angel, something I just ant believe and neither does my blacksmith !!!!!
 
ADHD lol Leukocytoclastic pastern dermatitis , Extremely Nappy and later on discovered Kissing spine which was operated on.

Kissing spine is one of those things but if I had known just what a complete stress head my mare can be I would not have bought her. I do love her to bit but she is not easy and if somebody offered to take her off my hands I wouldn't hesitate. She is the wrong horse for me at my time of life, but because of my experience I am able to ignore most of the annoying behaviour. She is just extremely opinionated but clever with it!
 
Mine was underweight which resulted in ulcers, had bad mud fever and an awful scar from a wire cut the previous year.

He resorted to galloping off with you if you asked him to do anything out of his comfort zone and jogged everywhere, jumping was done at 100mph (tbh it still is) but he was the sweetest little guy to deal with on the ground and really tried his hardest for you.
 
Pedal bone demineralising! Tho tbh it took 4 years to show up and only cause stupid yo stuffed her so full of haylage (cos they felt sorry for her) when on box rest that she got laminitis which then made the pedal injury show up. took months to find out what it was and shes never been the same since poor horse was doing all sorrs of jumping before that tho and i would still have bought her as it can be managed
 
And people say that there ARE genuine sellers out there!! Lol, interesting replies. My vet will vouch for my horse as his stifle does not lock when he's in work, so have also put that in his ad.

Such a shame as he is a really super horse but I really want the best home for him so I will stay with being honest I think!
 
TuscanBunnyGirl said:
Mine had a locking stifle when she came.
I didn't actually know what it was (tbh i kinda of panicked when i saw her getting 'stuck') and when I read up on it properly I actually realised it was nothing a bit of work couldn't sort out :)
I would by a horse with a sticky stifle as long as it didn't affect him badly :)
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Just out of interest, was your horse vetted? Mine was but didn't show up when I bought him, but tbh, has never bothered me at all!
 
We bought our lad from the field as a "suitable for novice when brought back into work", which I took with a pinch of salt. When we went to look at him, we found a lovely natured horse, a bit underweight, who had not been ridden for six months, poor feet and the most horrendous scar on one rear cannon. Because of the scar we had a two stage vetting, though he was a very cheap horse. Scar no problem, and the horse behaved impeccably on a windy day and unhandled for six months. (Asked other liveries, some had never even seen him!)

Six months later, horse really well, feet in excellent shape (he'd had seedy toe in all four and thrush, which an equine vet failed to pick up!) he went off to be re-started. He had proved a lovely horse to handle, good with traffic, including tractors, loads like a dream, easy with clippers, farrier, lunges really steadily with no high jinks, fantastic with others in the field, whatever size and sex....s****y in the stable but hey!

So his dodge? Canter!.He has good paces but remarkably green for an 11 yo, shies a lot at silly things he knows, but when he goes into canter he just explodes and dropped the poor girl time after time, till I called it a day and took him home for her safety. (they really wanted it to work, they think a lot of him too) He is terrified of whips so has obviously found out what they are in the past. What a shame, such a lovely horse. We are going to have his back etc checked out, but it is looking as if he will be a pet for the next couple of decades.

So sad.
 
I bought one with a locking stifle. It showed up 4 days after I got her. I did not have her vetted. It was something of an odd buy anyway and part pity buy. With her it was easily sorted with a bit of condition and work. I would not have bought her had I known but having had experience of it now it would not put me off buying a horse with this issue in future. I am really glad I got her as she has a super nature. She had terrible hooves too no hoof care at all until I got her at 2 and a half. She has improved hugely but will never be great. It does not matter as she is capable of doing what I want her to do. Her previous owner could not care less about her and she suffered for it. They were very careful to point out how nervous she was but made no mention of this. As a responsible owner if I were ever forced to sell her and I would have to be forced as I intend her to have a home for life I would tell a potential buyer as she will always need to live out for as much exercise as possible and get good hoof care as a result of her poor start. I do not regret getting her she is absolutely great.
 
Cocorules said:
I bought one with a locking stifle. It showed up 4 days after I got her. I did not have her vetted. It was something of an odd buy anyway and part pity buy. With her it was easily sorted with a bit of condition and work. I would not have bought her had I known but having had experience of it now it would not put me off buying a horse with this issue in future. I am really glad I got her as she has a super nature. She had terrible hooves too no hoof care at all until I got her at 2 and a half. She has improved hugely but will never be great. It does not matter as she is capable of doing what I want her to do. Her previous owner could not care less about her and she suffered for it. They were very careful to point out how nervous she was but made no mention of this. As a responsible owner if I were ever forced to sell her and I would have to be forced as I intend her to have a home for life I would tell a potential buyer as she will always need to live out for as much exercise as possible and get good hoof care as a result of her poor start. I do not regret getting her she is absolutely great.
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I feel the same, my boy was bought as a total hat rack, had no muscle condition at all, now when he gets regular work, the stifle issue disappears completely but I do want to be honest. Now that I have experience of it, it wouldn't put me off buying another with this prob as he does everything I've asked of him. Would be keeping him in different circumstances too!
 
My boy doesn't load into trailers (although last owner's wouldn't have known this as they had a lorry. Even if I had known this, it wouldn't have put me off buying him.
 
That she'll eat everything and anything offered, including marshmallows and she tries to drink squash.... :D
In honesty nothing I didn't already know.

Same with my old horse, he came to me warts and all and by the time he got off the lorry, I felt I knew him inside and out already. He was a difficult horse and I wouldn't have had it any other way :)
 
I found out she was not the age they said. No, I would not have gone to view her in the first place if they told me her real age. She is definitely not the age they said but about 6months less we think, which is not great deal in the grand scheme of things now. After the initial shock of being taken for a bit of a mug I am persevering, just bringing her on a bit slower
 
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