"I recommend getting a 30 day lease on a horse you are interested in buying.
It is worth the insuracne and other costs to make sure that horse is right
for you. I think and good seller would do this if they care about their
horse and where it ends up."
On the flip side, I know two people who were selling horses and did this.
The people who got one horse grossly overworked it--having him jump beyond
his conditioning limits--and then wanted to return the horse because he
turned up lame. He was sound when he left my friend's. Fortunately she had
it on video. She brought her horse home because she felt he had been abused,
and several hundred dollars in vet bills later, the horse was sound again.
In another case, the people did not feed the lessee horse properly, and the
horse lost condition rapidly. Then they wanted to return the horse because
the horse was in poor condition.
For this reason, I am leery of people who want the 30 day lease before purchase.
I put an abuse clause in my sale contracts--if the purchaser abuses the
horse, I can repossess him or her. I encourage anybody who wants to buy a
horse from me to spend as much time as they like here with the horse, have a
vet check, ask anybody on earth about me and my animals, etc. I will give
them names and phone numbers of others who have purchased horses from me.
If a horse has a problem, I talk about it. I sold a gelding who had bucked
me off to a woman who likes horses that buck now and then! I pointed out
that a mare I was selling was sickle-hocked, and sold her anyway. When I
sold my dressage gelding, I told the buyers that he chews wood like a whole
colony of termites, otherwise he is perfect. I refused to sell one horse to
two different buyers because I felt he was too timid for them, and they were
not experienced riders. They fell in love with his looks, but I knew the
relationship could be a disaster.
If you are not honest about selling horses, you can not expect to continue
to sell them. It's very simple. Also, you can't sell a horse to a beginning
rider that is not suitable, or a horse with leg problems as an endurance horse.
Conversely, we sellers ought to be able to have a kindness check done on
potential purchasers to make sure our horses will not be abused.
On the question of vet checks, I am suing a vet who did a prepurchase exam
on a broodmare I was buying and pronounced her breeding sound. She was the
first mare I was purchasing as a broodmare, and I didn't know enough to
insist that a culture, cytology, and ultrasound be done. She wasn't breeding
sound. She had a yeast infection, endometritis, etc. He was the farm vet,
and was the only equine vet within 200 miles at the time. I had no
choice--except to pay hundreds of dollars to have another vet spend an
entire day driving out to this farm, checking the horse, and driving back.
At the time, the latter seemed unnecessarily expensive. In retrospect, I
should have spent the money!
This vet then proceeded to "handle" the breeding of the mare for me. Months
later, with me considerably poorer and the mare not pregnant, I brought her
home and had her checked at the vet teaching hospital near here, where they
discovered her serious problems.
Don't skimp on your prepurchase exam! But do be aware that many vets are
afraid of being sued, and will be hypercritical of the horse to lessen the
risk of this.
On the other hand, I bought a 7-month-old filly and two 9-year-old
broodmares--from 900 miles away--without vet checks, but with videos and
photos. Not one of them has had any problems.
Guess it's partially luck, partially the honesty of the seller and vet.
I've been lurking for months--this outburst should more than make up for it.
Susan B. Felker
Black Ridge Arabians, Straight Crabbet, GSB-eligible and related horses
http://www.awhitehorse.com/cmk/black/