would sweet-itch put you off buying a horse?

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lukeylou

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just wondering!

One of my good friends is selling her lovely 16hh cob, he's such a good boy, a real yard favourite. easy to do and ride, really bombproof, but not a complete plod. he's a novice riders dream, or a perfect happy hacker.

however he has sweet-itch and lives in his boett blanket in the summer, he gets it quite bad bless him. because of this she's going to put him up for under £2000. he is 13 but i can't help thinking that he's worth more. perhaps it's because i know how lovely it is, but do you think she could get a bit more?
would sweet-itch bother you guys?
 
Yes, I used to have a share horse with sweet-ich, and never again, I'm afraid...
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It's a very personal decision, but I personally wouldn't touch one with a barge pole unless it was very mild. This is probably partly because I like to show but also the one I had trashed everything with his itching. He destoyed fencing, walls, stables and even partially uprooted an old tree! Like this boy, he was also a big chap. I'm sure some people would consider the hassle worth it for an otherwise perfect horse.
 
I think it should definatly reduce price, he is 13 too. £2000 seems quite fair
If it were a bargain with proven comp record maybe would consider it but otherwise not worth the bother, also worry when selling on
 
No, but it nearly did. There's a lot you can do to try and help them apart from the Boett, such as the environment you keep them in, part stabling, what you feed them....

My daughter has the most wonderful little mare who ticked all the boxes (main one being confidence giver after a "hot" pony who scared her) apart from she had sweet itch. I'm so glad I got her, really she needs to be sold on now, but we can't bear to part with her, we owe her so much. If we did though, I certainly wouldn't be selling her cheap - good safe honest kind childrens pony club ponies are worth their weight in gold...The Boett rug works well for her along with overnight stabling all year round and a low sugar/molasses diet. I don't find her high maintenance at all. I'd want at least £4,000 for her even in the current climate. I would add that you have to look very closely even in summer to see that she has SI - the boett works really well for her.
 
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I think it should definatly reduce price, he is 13 too. £2000 seems quite fair
If it were a bargain with proven comp record maybe would consider it but otherwise not worth the bother, also worry when selling on

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13 isn't old!!!! The pony who won the Baileys Supreme M&M Championship at Olympia in December was that age! Its nothing!!!!!
 
no me niether. As long as it is manageable.

I have a sweetitch horse, and have doen for 10 years, I bought him with full knowlege of the fact as a 5yo and would never have been able to afford a horse of his calabre if he had not had sweetitch.

Boett or equivalents do work very well along with fly repellent etc, In my case the horse is well worth the little extra effort you have to put in.
 
Difficult...
I have a sweet itch cob. Its a horrible, horrible thing and I wouldn't wish it on any horse. It requires alot of management to keep it under control if he has it quite badly like my lad. It can be better or worse depending on the location of where they are kept and the way they are kept, so a mildly affected horse can become a severely affected one overnight.
I would have to think long and hard about taking on another one. It would have to be very special in every other way..
 
I've had a horse in the past with chronic sweetitch and my current horse has moderate sweetitch, and neither cases would put me off buying another. With correct management it is very controllable, and I would prefur to buy a horse with sweetitch to a horse with a vice any day!
 
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they are high maintenance but at least its a cob so hogged already! price sounds about right for age and sweat itch!

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eh? hogged already?
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Not all cobs are hogged
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and actually hogging just exposes the skin more to the midge bites so doesn't always help...
 
It wouldn't put me off, not if it was the right horse in every other way.
I'd also look at what she's been doing to manage the sweet itch, maybe you could find ways to manage it better.
Really safe horses are hard to find, and often worth the compromise on something like this x
 
No it wouldn't put me off. They may need a bit more management but there are a lot of other things that would put me off a horse before sweet itch.
 
i brought paddy and he has sweetitch i have to say i would not sell him on i love him to bits but in the summer he does suffer. not sure i would buy another one with it thou unless i have mastered how to manage it.
 
Having owned my mare for 7 years and because of sweet-itch she's unridable, can count on my hand how many times I've ridden her. It's rotten condition for any animal and no I wouldn't buy another with sweet-itch.
 
john robert - can I ask you how you keep your mare? What kind of filed she is in, what you do to control it etc. My old mare had chronic SI to the point where we stopped riding her, (she has bloody rubs under her belly, everytime you put a girth on she bucked because it hurt, poor thing) but managed to get it under control. PM me if you prefur.
 
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john robert - can I ask you how you keep your mare? What kind of filed she is in, what you do to control it etc. My old mare had chronic SI to the point where we stopped riding her, (she has bloody rubs under her belly, everytime you put a girth on she bucked because it hurt, poor thing) but managed to get it under control. PM me if you prefur.

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Me too....I was even considering pts at one point as my boy was soooo miserable and stressed.
A location change was a big factor in his turnaround...
 
Yes, I would never, knowingly take on a horse or pony with this problem, I have a now 5 year old sec C mare whom I bought at weaning, she developed SI as a 3 year old rubbing he mane and tail raw, it's a bloody nightmare and I can honestly say that if she gets to the stage where she is miserable all the time I will have her PTS. Horrible as it may seem, SI is a nasty thing for a pony to live with and I would never try to sell her with it.
 
My old pony had sweetitch, so we hogged her and she just had cream put on and she was ok. rubbed her mane and tail but was quite happy. My horse now also has sweetitch and it doesnt bother me or him. He is rugged up all the time, has a new supplement that i got from the vets all summer and has a lotion on every few days. Although i dont really enjoy having to rug him up all the time in the hot weather, it keeps him clean! it wouldnt stop my from buying a horse, especially if thats the horses only fault. My horse has a full mane and a pulled tail so you cant tell he has it at all as long as he keep sweet itch hoody and mask on. Hope that helps a little.
 
i have one who is unrideable du to sweetitch, its chronic, my vets rekon she is one of the worst cases they've seen. pts is still tinkering on my mind so for that reason i would never buy another. however, if it was the mild case, i.e itchy tail, mane then i may consider, but it really is the most horrid condition ever
 
Yes it would put me off

My pony suffers quite badly with it - it's just about manageable with two Boetts, super strength fly repellent and marmite (plus an ace seamstress on our yard to do running repairs on the Boetts) and much as I love my pony if I saw "sweet itch" in an advert even if was described as mild, I would walk away from the horse even if it seemed perfect in every other way. It's a rotten condition - absolutely relentless and debilitating for horse and owner. I just hope the vaccine will be the answer when it goes on general release this summer.
 
Yes having seen a friend in tears as her pony's SI was so bad even though it had a boett and was covered in fly sprays - keeping her she would rub herself against the stable walls till she bled - it was terrible.

However some areas of the UK are worse for SI suffers than others my friend moved to a place near the sea and the wind blows away the midges and her pony is much improved.

I certainly would not buy a SI suffer far too many midges where I am for them.
 
I think if you've had an itcher then it would put you off. Mine itched like hell, removed half his mane every year. Turns out he had allergies, not sweet itch after all but it definately would put me off another itcher - its horrible seeing them so upset by it.
 
nope i love my pony to bits despite his sweet itch.ok so its not nice to see him suffer but it doesnt make him any less of a star
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rugging, fly repellants and stabling all help, oh and try and keep in electric fencing so theres nothing they can rub on
 
My mare is stabled from 3pm-10am each day. she has a boett rug and face mask which I cann't recomend highly enough from Feb-Dec. She does get bites down her front legs but am able to put Itch stop on while she's eating and because her immune system is breaking down she's developed other allergies. I have 2 boett rugs for her so when I take one off to wash the other goes on straight away.
My field is a hill 3 acres and sandy, she already had sweet-itch when I bought her, only I thougth it was lice the previous owner hadn't the decentcy to tell me and I felt sorry for the mare as she gone through a very bad time and a total nightmare to handle.
 
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