Worth doing a vetting?

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Cowpony101

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I'm sure this vetting question has been asked many times, but we have found ourselves in a rather sticky situation, with corona virus and vets only doing emergencies. We currently have a horse on trial (originally for a week) since just before the UK went on lockdown (literally collected him the morning we heard). We were going to get him vetted at the end of this week because we really like him and want him, but the vets are unable to do a vetting until we are out of lockdown. This means that we would have to wait 2 months until we can buy the horse, because the owner does not want him with us without us buying him (or not) at the end of the week. We have offered to pay half the price as a deposit, and to lease/ loan him until we can get him vetted but he still hasn't agreed. We are considering buying with no vetting but wanted to weigh up the pros and cons and see what other people think before we send him back. Is it worth waiting and doing a vetting later or risking doing it now with no vetting? He has had clean xrays a few years ago but don't know if that would help..
 
Only you can decide as only you know the horse, price etc but if you like the horse and you have him on trial I would be tempted to just buy him. Maybe not if he’s a high level competition horse or worth a lot of money.
 
Sounds at though the seller is trying to put you in a bit of a corner. How much is the horse? What do you want him for? How much do you like him? How old is he? Old x-rays only give a snapshot of him at that time, on that day a few years ago. Don't pin anything much on those. Not a big help but you need to weight up the risk of purchasing an unvetted horse.
 
Do you have any concerns over any thing obvious / you can do a flexion test yourself and lunge on hard surface on tight circle if your experienced and can see a lameness. Could you ask seller to give permission for vets records to be released not sure if this is possible in current climate and of course value is always to be considered are the things I would be thinking of if you were thinking of buying .
 
Amymay said:
And how, exactly do the owners propose getting the horse back? Do they have their own transport?
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Even if they have their own transport it's not essential travel and my understanding is that we're not allowed to transport livestock unless it's an emergency i.e. horsepital.

OP - as someone said previously, get your vet to talk to their vet and take it from there.
 
Michen said:
Id call the sellers bluff and send it back. Seller needs to be grateful for your offer frankly, which is more than generous in current situation.
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Completely agree with this. They can't transport the horse anyway and no one will be buying horses right now.
 
Do you want the pony? What is the genuine risk here? Get permission to access their veterinary records. Are you working with a contract? You can put a disclosure clause in, with remedies if need be.

It’s time to find an alternative process To get this finalised if you think the pony is what you want.

This stuff is not hard.
 
I'd send back. you would kick yourself if it had a problem. unless you can afford to give away price of horse and to turn it away for the rest of its life if something is worng e.g. blind, heart murmur etc.
 
Could you say you'll buy him straight up and knock a large percentage off the asking price?

That way you will have money saved in case there's something wrong with it.. Also works from the seller's perspective as for all they know it may fail the vetting anyway and I also very much doubt anyone else is going to be buying anything over the next few months.
 
If you really like the horse, these are the tests you can do yourself.

If you can beg borrow or steal a stethoscope, many heart murmurs can easily be heard in a spot behind the elbow.

Look in the eyes and see if anything looks odd. Poke your finger sharply at the eye, stopping short (of course!) If the horse can see it should blink.

Flexion on all four legs.

Lunge on a hard tightish circle.

The neuro tests. Back up in equal diagonals. Turn on a very very tight circle, inside hind should cross over in front of the other.

Listen to the breathing on a fast canter. Noise when breathing out, normally fine. Noise when breathing in, reject.

Trot up in a straight line away from you. Hip points must rise and fall equally. Stick markers on them if you are not sure.

Watch the front foot landing. Do not buy unless it lands heel first out of shoes and heel or flat in shoes.


Since riding is so restricted I'd be sending it back and picking it up again when the lockdown is over. It will almost certainly still be there.
 
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There is no one size fits all answer here.

As to buying, it depends on many factors such as cost of horse, insurance, how much you like the horse, how much you trust the previous owners etc etc etc. I would certainly want vet records released, and perhaps some sort of discount.

As a seller, it would also depend on many things. I don't think I would ever give a horse out on loan anyway, too much can go wrong that would not be the horse's fault. I certainly would not be interested in a part payment thing, very messy if anything goes wrong. If it were me, and I was happy that you were the right owners, I would possibly agree to accepting 75% of the price for the circumstances. But then we have them at home so I would probably be also happy to take the horse back until it was all over, and then sell to you then, if you were still interested. But then, I would also be happy to release vet records as I tell all when selling anyway.
 
Brilliant advice from YCBM about the things you can do yourself, but I would definitely be asking to let your vet speak to their vet. If they say no, it would be a bit of a red flag in the current circumstances.

Also, I would put the onus on the seller to transport the horse back if you don't take him - that might spur them into being a bit more flexible in these extraordinary times.
 
Gosh, what unfortunate timing.

I really feel for the seller but if you don't want to go ahead without a vetting then that's that. You are both stuck.

In your shoes I would ask the seller to continue to insure the horse and I would shoulder the keep costs until such time a vetting can be arranged.

I would agree the best way to manage the horse with the owner - you might feel you can keep the horse ticking over safely or it might be better to rough off. It would depend on your circumstances. Horses being horses they can damage themselves just breathing so it is rough on both parties.

I am never in a rush to make what could be a bad and costly decision.
 
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