whats the biggest thing that would put you off buying a horse?

The biggest - Any history of health problems.

But also I now would try hard not have anything that...

- Had bad conformation, particularly foot conformation
- Had any history of unexplained lameness
- Was bad in traffic
- Napped
- Reared (properly)
- Bucked (properly)
- Bolted (at all)
- Showed any significant question marks on a vetting
- was a bad loader/traveller
- was bad to shoe
- was bad to catch
- was actually over seven years old
- was hard to mount
- Was particularly spooky, hot, neurotic or lazy
- was particularly bad mannered or nasty on the ground
- wasn't very comfortable or easy to ride

I'm getting choosey in my old age. :D
 
Luci07 said:
Agree totally with the above. Also, though not sure how you can really work this out, anything without a strong sense of self preservation!! best horse I bought was one with a good eventing record and the picture of the then current owner hanging on for dear life over a trakener.. she was brilliant then and still great fun now..
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I don't mind one that bucks occasionally!

But when I was horse hunting, someone told me about a 4 year old they had for sale. Fantastic breeding, absloutley bred for the top, top notch stuff. However, it had developed a problem with bucking, it would bronco basically.
The person selling it (a professional rider...) had enough as young family and was selling it - apparantly it would need about 6 months with another pro rider to sort it out.
I said no thanks!
 
I wouldn't buy a horse with any bad conformation faults or any health problems.

I wouldn't buy any stressy horse again, my current horse is a neurotic thoroughbred who stresses about any noise or thing and is not bothered about food so is always a nightmare to keep condition on and goes mental and jumps out or runs through fences if left on his own. Apart from that he doesnt actually have any stable vices, he never weaves or windsucks or box walks.

So yeah, im not getting another stressy horse again.
I love my pony (welsh sec D) he is the complete opposite; i struggle to get his weight off, he loves food ( a bit too much) and he is the easiest to do in all ways.

I am never getting a horse that is cold backed again, i was stupid as my TB was cold backed when i tried him, i just thought it was because he had a bad fitting saddle and had been ridden badly, but turns out he had kissing spines.... so i've learnt the hard way.

It would depend on the individual about rearing and bucking, cos i have seen quite a few that have transformed in the right hands. but obviously if it was dangerous i would avoid it!
 
clairefeekerry1 said:
rearing, bolting, napping, not riding alone, wouldnt even give a horse a second glance that did any of those!
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As I said earlier, my horse did all of this, and if I was sensible I would of walked away. But I didn't, and now shes lovely. Don't you ever worry if you write a horse off with 'issues' before you've seen it you could be missing out on something? Alot of horses have these issues purely because they have been broken/backed badly or they are in the hands of a novice and may excel in the right hands?
 
Gosh this difficult as a lot of the bad habits are man-made rather than the horse being necessarily a bad'un; also summink like bucking could be purely down to bad saddle fitting.

Sooooo; I think that if I looked at the horse and didn't like the look of its eye and/or had a particularly bad vibe from it, for whatever reason, I'd think twice, rather than discount it out of hand for any alleged "vice", tho' having said that I wouldn't want something that reared or bolted.

Also, I wouldn't touch anything that wasn't OK with traffic, but again this is so often more a confidence issue than the horse actually being scared of traffic.

Any serious health issue like laminitis/cushings, or bad conformation fault, I'd think twice about. I bought one with sweet itch tho', simply because I liked him!! and also with sweet itch it can be a geographical thing.
 
Thanks for all your replies.
a question for the ones who especially said bad laoder/wont hack alone.. the reason i asked this question was because next year (march time) i am probably going to be putting my mare up for sale (i know my thing down there says 15.2hh appaloosa for sale, she was earlier this year, then we had time wasters etc so i decided to keep her for another reason and just havet edited that bit yet, whoops.) anyway she is an absolute dream horse except for two things (well kind of 1 1/2).
1. She can be a dodgey loader into a trailer, she can pretty much either walk straight in, go in within 10min, 30min, even upto 1 1/2hours! And tbh we're not quite sure why she is like it, when we first got her (as a 4yo, 2 1/2years ago) she had only ever been in a lorry, but her problem is IF you do manage to get her into the trailer, she they doesnt like the back going up, que her rushing put backwards (only time shes ever bolshy), but she does load into a lorry (have rented one out) or we thing she would even load into an equi trek trailer better (as the ramps to the side, not behind) but we cannot afford one, nor a lorry. btw once she's in she travels 100% fine!
2. She hacks out alone fine over tracks and fields walk, trot, canter not strong etc) but if you go down into the village more she isn't as confident, bit spooky, has to stop look at things etc.
So basically wondered when i do come to sell her would these things really put you off? how do i put them in ad, if at all??! (Goh, sorry this is an essay post!)
 
To be honest, I'm not sure that I'd put up with much - I've had ponies which had awful bargy stable manners, a door kicker, another which spooked horrendously and wouldn't be caught, a rearer, one who would not hack in certain areas (v stubborn) and my mum's current horse is awful to clip because he's so ticklish/sensitive. I just can't be doing with it really.

My current pony has always been good and sensible - since having him I've realised how much easier life can be (but I think that's mainly down to me - I've had him since he was 3 and didn't let him get away with anything - he's all the better for it).

It's hard to say though - it depends on the horse, and the price - I would expect a horse with vices to be cheaper than it would have cost vice-free.
 
The ad's unlikely to say but I wouldn't buy anything with any nappy, clingy tendencies and seperation anxieties. It makes everything you try and do with them so so difficult if they have seperation issues. I've aquired two very clingy horses and it's so diffcult when you take them places - they hack fine alone but become surgically attached to a friend if they're taken anywhere 'stressful'. My youngsters on the otherhand couldn't careless and are the easiest ponies in the world :o
 
naza said:
1. She can be a dodgey loader into a trailer, she can pretty much either walk straight in, go in within 10min, 30min, even upto 1 1/2hours! And tbh we're not quite sure why she is like it, when we first got her (as a 4yo, 2 1/2years ago) she had only ever been in a lorry, but her problem is IF you do manage to get her into the trailer, she they doesnt like the back going up, que her rushing put backwards (only time shes ever bolshy), but she does load into a lorry (have rented one out) or we thing she would even load into an equi trek trailer better (as the ramps to the side, not behind) but we cannot afford one, nor a lorry. btw once she's in she travels 100% fine!
)
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Have you tried loading her without the partition? She might get claustrophobic?
 
I arranged to go and try a horse that was advertised as a good jumper. Got a phone call on the day before I set out to cancel because it was raining. Apparantly the horse couldn't be ridden at all in the rain, never mind jumped, because there was no school. On further questioning, I grew suspicious that the horse got hardly ridden at all and was rather difficult and needed a lot of reschooling. I declined the offer to do a round trip of 140 miles to come and look at it in the stable!

I once had someone have a fantastic trial of a mare I had for sale, everything went well and I was answering some quite detailed questions at the end. The mare was great to load and I often travelled her to shows. However, as with many mares, she lost her balance if travelled on one side of the trailer with the partition up and hence I always travelled her alone with no preference. The buyer turned her down for this, because she wanted to travel a few times a year with a friend to events, which always struck me as a silly reason to turn an otherwise perfect horse down for. The mare sold two days later anyway.
 
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The vices you have listed for your horse wouldn't put me off. Flame's post has literally described my horse, although we have worked through most of them :)

Mine took 4 hours to load when I went to collect him. He didn't have a contructive bond with the previous owner and he didn't know the people loading him so that might have had an effect i.e. no trust in handler. He was also sedated (without my consent) and by the time they were loading, he was so wound up that it had no effect.

I'm sure you will find a lovely home for your mare :)
 
Also, if a horse has been started too soon. I don't see much attraction to a 3year old going round the showjumping every week! I'd rather have more of a clean slate.
 
Bad limb conformation, bad conformation in general (not asking for perfect however) Something which doesn't load/travel well. Something bad to shoe, I have a mare who is a horror to shoe and me and my farrier have managed to keep her as calm as possible etc. but I still hate it when it's time for her feet to be done.
 
Those saying horses that won't hack alone ..... most horses will given the confidence to do so! That usually stems from lack of training and effort, not the actual horse itself.

I'd say a kicker, that would be somewhat annoying ..... Judo Kick! Ow!
 
I with Flame on the getting older and pickier. That said, re the original poster's question about her own horse I wouldn't imagine either of those being major issues as such. Quite often what may be a problem depends on the circumstances - the loading to someone with a lorry would be no issue at all and the hacking sounds more like something that a buyer needs to know about so they can make their decision based on that knowledge.
 
I can understand almost all of the objections people have listed here, except the 'POA' one.

I just feel that buyers might be missing out on some really super - and not necessarily expensive! - horses by refusing to consider ads that don't state the price.

Surely if a horse seems perfect for you, it's worth a quick phone call or email to find out the price? After all, for the right horse, you'd be phoning/emailing to get more details anyway...

Or perhaps I'm missing/misunderstanding something? Apologies if so!
 
Poor conformation both in the limbs and the feet and bad action agian not wanting perfection but not soemthing bent and buckled all over the place. I'm ok with most behavioural things unless the horse is really non retrainable.

POA is also a pet hate of mine, not just in the horsey world but my general rule in all aspects of life is that if theres no price stated it usually means I can't afford.
 
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first sign of vices tends to be a no no for me unless the horse is something really special.

Most importantly though I would not buy an ill-mannered horse. Been there done that. No fun to look after and as you spend most of the time on the ground with a horse.
 
bucking!

mine bucks on the lunge which is fine, but dosent buck/rear or anything while im on her *touches wood* :D lol!

oh and people wearing trainers in the ads.... eugh - puts me right off!!!
 
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