So, the responsibility of this mistake is all on me and I own that. But I just wanted to send out a word of warning to others who might use the very extensive video being provided in on-line auction horse sales to assess a horse. I found a fabulous, beautiful little horse, clicked every box I had, video clicked every box I had, called seller and got extra video. Thought it was safe to bid. Did so. Got the horse. Had him professionally shipped here by the seller’s shipper. The horse arrived and was a complete nervous wreck. Could not be turned out in a pasture, Ran through or excellent fencing, jumped out of a 6’ high board fence and broke the fencing. Jumps at his own shadow. We are being very kind to him and caring for this frightened creature. So, thinking of an on-line auction sale based on video alone? Save yourself the headache and GO SEE THE HORSE IN PERSON. The seller is taking the horse back at a steep discount to cover his costs and give him a little profit and I am out shipping both ways. Set back: $6800. Lesson learned: priceless.
Well that’s scary. Do you think he was sedated for the videos? How long did you have him?
I once bought a stallion for my breeding program from across the country. Did a PPE, had the vet on the phone, did almost everything right.
Arrived at my house 5 inches shorter than advertised. Not sure how a 14.3hh stallion is marketed as 16hh but it really derailed a lot of my plans for producing over fences horses. Never thought to have the vet put a stick to him. 
Edit to Add: This was an aged stallion. Like. He’d been breeding and advertising for several years as 16hh. 
I learned that lesson the hard way, too, but I was out only $1500. I bought a broodmare through an online auction listed as 17 hands, registered, easy to get in foal, etc. When she arrived at my barn she was in fact 15.3 hands. And the seller didn’t actually have the registration papers. Then, before I could take any action against the dishonest seller the mare flipped over backwards and killed herself.
That’s terrible, Laverne77.
As far as height, I never believe anyone. I ask for a photo of the horse being sticked. I have seen some SUPER short-looking horses advertised as 17 or 17+. I don’t believe many, and I will consider it a bonus if they tell the truth on height. And it’s not always that bigger is better, but people buy a certain height for a reason, just be truthful. I’d rather an ad said something like, around 17hh, but this is an estimate and he/she has not been sticked. Then you know what questions to ask.
A friend and I looked at a 17hh horse that turned out to be 15hh in person. I explained politely to the young seller how to measure, etc. and that if she changed her ad, she may get even more responses because not everyone wants a horse that tall. She just stared at me with glassy eyes, and never changed the ad. Drives me nuts.
How was she measuring to get that much difference? I need to know for entertainment purposes. I’m picturing someone going to the tips of the ears 
.
And seriously, don’t buy off video, auction or otherwise. Drugged or not, a video is a moment in time that someone else picked. It may have taken three weeks to get three minutes of useable footage. Deal with people you know, or people who can be vouched for by someone you know. And get your prepurchase in a 48 hour time frame from when you rode it if possible. Draw the blood. If you go through a rough patch after purchase the seller would also prefer there to be proof that they didn’t medicate it.
THIS!
Not online, but local Seller described DH’s TWH to me as 15h.
He was every bit of 16.
But to the Seller, who only rode trails, shorter was better.
We were looking for an Eventer, so those added inches were fine.
The Itsy Bitsy Spider method ala Sarah Stetner maybe?
Few people actually MEASURE a horse for height when selling. MOST folks looking can’t tell a height of a horse! We know how tall we people are, so standing next to a prospect makes figuring TRUE height easier. People coming to look at one we want to sell are ALWAYS amazed at how big and
tall a 16 or 17 hand horse REALLY is! He MUST be 18 or 19 hands!! Nope, we DID measure with an approved measuring stick, standing on a cement floor.
A 17 hand horse has withers slightly above my head, I am 5’7". 16 hand horse wither does not go above my head. A case of knowing your personal body sizes, lets you always have a measuring standard in case you left the measuring tape at home. Knowing how big your shod feet measure, how far apart your normal footsteps are, helps measure stride lengths of a horse, along with any overstride they might have. Helpful in setting trot poles too!
I had a (reputable) (I guess?) seller actually send me a picture of the stick.
Horse walked off the trailer a SOLID two inches shorter.
Shoulda had the vet stick the horse before even starting the PPE. Didn’t even occur to me that anyone would fib quite like that. “Ballparking” the height and being wrong? Suuuuuuuure. Pretending to measure and being so off? Whut.
I still don’t quite get it. Did she not think I’d NOTICE? (Course I didn’t send the horse back, so I guess her gamble paid off, lol )
My mare was 15.3 (perfect size for me) I’d measured herself. When I moved to a new state and a new barn, a fellow boarder looked at Tess standing in the cross-ties and said, “Wow, she’s big! I bet she’s 17 hands.”
“No,” I replied,“she’s actually 15.3.”
The woman was sure I was wrong. “She can’t be 15.3. My [small Arab-cross hony] is 15.3. Your horse has to be 17 hands.”
To prove her point, she offered to “measure her for me”. Okay, I wasn’t in a hurry. She left and went into the tack room. I figured she must have a stick in there. Instead she came out with one of those soft tape measures you use for sewing balled up in her hand.
She stood next to Tess, unspooled the tape measure to the floor, then stood on it with the toe of her shoe. (Tess gained at least an inch there.) She then proceeded to run the tape measure up along Tess’s body, going in and out over every bump (fetlock, knee, elbow, shoulder) until she finally reached Tess’s withers.
And what do you know, on that day, with that measure, Tess was 17 hands for the first and only time in her life. So that’s how it’s done.
I joke that I’m a walking measuring stick because I’m 14.2h. Stand me next to a horse or pony and it’s pretty easy to guesstimate what you’ve got.
I was sent to take a look at a local pony advertised for sale, for a friend of mine who lives far away. I took my measuring stick, with a levelling bubble and a welded set 90 degree steel horizontal movable level. My dad was a surveyor, he made the measuring stick. You put the bubble in the middle of the circle to be perfectly vertical, and move the horizontal arm down onto the wither. The pony was 12.2 which was too small for the buyer. The seller wanted to argue with me about this. OK, argue away all you like. The pony is still 12.2 hands high. The seller did not have a measuring stick.
Thanks for explaining one of the ways to measure, to make a horse taller!! One I had never heard before! That is a great story.
5’7" = 67"
16h = 64"
So you’re 16’3
Before I shrunk 2", my 5’4" meant the top of my head was level with a 16h’s withers.
When I had my 17h TWH, & then the 17’3 WB, I couldn’t see over the back of either.
For the WB, I had to check his back for cleanness by Braille 
Footnote:
AMHR (mini registry) used to measure at the last mane hair.
Making them measure smaller.
They’ve switched a couple years ago & now measure at the withers.
There actually are soft tape measures made specifically for measuring horses in hands, with an area marked for your foot to stand on one end. They are meant to be held straight up, not run along the body, and of course aren’t as accurate as a real stick since you need to eyeball the levelness, but they do exist for the purpose of measuring horses (one side for weight, and the other marked for weight, if I remember correctly).
Conversely: my horse was advertised as 16hh. That was the minimum of what I thought my long legs would wrap around. When we arrived to view said horse, he definitely was not 16 hands, but his conformation is politely described as “ribs well-sprung” so he took up my leg anyway. When my trainer asked about his height, the petite seller did not go for a stick- she used her hands to measure the horse. Well, verily, by that method, 16 hands.
He’s 15.2 1/2 on a regulation stick, and thank goodness he was advertised by the old fashioned measurement or I’d never have found him.
I’m sorry, OP. It must be so terrible for that poor horse to exist inside his own brain. I hope he’s more comfortable at his previous home. And that you don’t have to pay that much again to get all your fence fixed.
It was only a few years ago that I realized online horse auctions were a thing. At the time, I was riding young horses for a breeder and several of them just weren’t going to cut it as top performance horses. So the breeder made some nice videos, took the horses home and entered them in the online auction. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the horses, but the written description of each one was, let’s just say, “greatly embellished.”
Isn’t it convenient! I’m exactly 36" to the point of my hip… No need for a tape to measure jumps at the 2’6" - 3’6" heights!
