Horse buying saga - walk away or reassess? Opinions? (x-post /r/equestrian)
I am currently in the market for a new project horse. I have been looking for a few months and not found anything suitable really, lots of nutjob owners who think their three year old is going to be the next Valegro and are asking silly money and a lot of horses that are sold as 'projects' but are closer to RSPCA cases. It has been somewhat disheartening.
I finally found one that sounded perfect. She is a rising 6 british sport horse who was backed last year in walk and trot, turned away over winter and is now ready to come in and continue her education. Precisely what I was looking for. I got some videos of her trotting and cantering from the seller, went up to see her on the basis of that and really liked her. She is pretty uneducated obviously, but has a lovely attitude and just isn't fazed by anything. With a year's work she could be a really nice little allrounder.
So, I booked the vet. She isn't broken so they could only do a two stage vetting (for those that don't know, this is a full physical exam including teeth/eyes/feet etc, then a trot up with and without flexion tests and lunging on a hard surface). She passed the physical exam with flying colours apart from some mild concerns about her feet - she has TB in her breeding and she has quite flat feet that have been allowed to splay and drop at the heel and the foot balance is all wrong. The owner has a lot of horses and this particular one has been kicked out for months with no farriery. She is barefoot, but not in the proper looked-after-and-trimmed way, in the I-don't-want-to-pay-for-hoof-care way. Not ideal.
In the trot up she was intermittently 1/10th lame on the left fore. The ground was hard, uneven and gravelly in place. She didn't even look lame, more like she occasionally stood on a stone and just went 'ouch!'. Flexion tests did not exacerbate the slight lameness. In fact, flexion tests on all four legs were fine which I am not sure I have encountered before. The lameness increased to 3/10ths when lunging on the left rein - but again, was intermittent and we were lunging on a rutted, rock-hard surface (we haven't had any rain in about six weeks, the ground is like concrete). At no point was any other leg affected.
I was gutted, obviously. The videos I have of her from a couple of weeks ago show no sign of this, though admittedly they were of her free not lunging. The owner swears she has never had an issue in the two years she has had her (but I don't think she sees her from one month to the next, so take that with a pinch of salt). The vet is 98% sure that she is just slightly footsore from being left out with no footcare then dragged in and trotted up on not ideal ground He said if it was his money he would be tempted to lowball an offer and go for it anyway (and I know vets don't say that lightly) - so I did, but the owner won't take it.
The compromise we have come to is that the owner will get a farrier out on Tuesday and put a pair of front shoes on, then give her a week or so to adjust and I will go back and have a look. If she looks sound to me then I can get the vet out again to double check.
Am I being ridiculous in reconsidering this mare? Is what the owner is offering to do fair? Should I just walk away? I have 25 years' experience, have bought and sold multiple times in the past for both myself and other people. My gut is saying that the issues are not a big deal, and given proper farriery and a pair of shoes she will probably be right as rain, but am I trying to justify my own emotions? In every other way she is perfect, but obviously the lovely attitude doesn't count for much if I can't ride her. What are people's thoughts? Be honest, please.
Submitted April 22, 2017 at 03:33AM by P_Lazarou
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