This was well said!
I find Benchmark to be pretty honest about the horses, but from a certain point of view. She doesn’t keep them long and has some rather strong opinions about certain things (ahem, kissing spine and “holy hind leg”), but it certainly doesn’t come across as dishonest or shady.
I don’t get it either. It seems really personal.
Several posters also seem to be letting or intentionally allowing their personal opinions to cloud their reading comprehension skills.
If nothing else, this thread is proof that horses are a crapshoot. I’ve seen buyers and sellers make far more egregious mistakes and come out fine, and some people do everything perfectly and still find themselves up a creek.
Or do it better yourself.
This whole using bits of Jessica’s post to try and make her look bad is really an unattractive and unprofessional look.
Thank you, TWilson for sharing the full quotes and context.
What’s benchmark to do? Refund the horse’s price? Pay to ship him back? Pay for the surgery?
The buyer elected to buy a tall dark and handsome horse from several states away despite some clearly unhappy-horse videos. She rolled over when the vet said nah to xrays.
At the end of the day: buyer beware.
Not that I’m saying she needs to or even should at this point, but this one would have been a great one to take back to prove kissing spine is just NBD. 
Has she said KS isn’t a thing? Or has she said that you don’t ride the X-rays? My understanding is it’s the latter.
She has very often downplayed the reality of kissing spine, and that fact that it can manifest in lameness and behavioral issues. This horse would have been a great one to “prove” her side, if the behavioral stuff was really just that.
But the reality is that in this case you DO ride the xrays, and she assumed (incorrectly) it was strictly a behavioral issue.
Hmmm…I don’t see her statements to be as problematic as you do. She’s upfront about her views and I see them as more of a judge what’s in front of you. And for me, this makes her very honest contrary to Amos’ claim. You may not agree with her thoughts and I know if I ever thought of buying from her (I wouldn’t because I need to pet Dobbin’s nose, ride Dobbin a time or two with my trainer present, and maybe even ask to take Dobbin of a field trip), I would know based on her very public statements regarding KS that I would want back x-rays so I could make an educated decision. And yes, you are correct, this is an instance where the x-rays could have saved Amos quite a bit of heartache (and money) but I really think Amos has only themselves to ask why this didn’t happen (not overriding the vet was Amos’ choice - maybe a rookie mistake but still Amos’ mistake). As I stated in my earlier post, this thread existed BEFORE Amos purchased this horse. Amos clearly knew the forums existed prior to buying from Benchmark as they jumped right on after the purchase to ask for recommendations on what accessories to purchase. I’m just having a really hard time believing Benchmark should be tarred and feathered when she has been very upfront in her views whether you agree with them or not. Anywho, I appreciate the reply especially since I only lurk - for some reason this thread brought me out of my hole.
I can’t say I’m surprised the horse’s behavior escalated, if he was being crammed into a frame so soon after being brought home.
Not that I think it is a “behavioral” problem, he’s obviously unsound and those X-rays are not good at all, but I think a lot of green TBs would be … unhappy … with being stuck on very firm contact on a double lunge when they don’t understand what is being asked of them. If you’re trying to take what Jessica said as gospel truth and assume it’s purely behavioral and he’s scared of going forward, shoving him up into an unyielding contact ain’t it. Expecting him to figure that out within a few weeks of coming home, on top of being in pain? No wonder he escalated from a bit of hopping to full-blown explosive. Poor guy.
If her experience has been its NBD, then that’s her experience. She has a bias against thinking it’s BD. That’s like, her opinion, man.
And with that the Big Lebowski has entered the chat.
I agree with you. The entire point if my post was that I saw the intent behind the trainer’s choices.
Looking back, nothing about him says professional friendly. He’s in pain. A professional and self proclaimed expert shouldn’t be selling a horse demonstrating this level of pain. Ever. Period.
Messy situation on all fronts. At the end of the day Amos is an adult who made a decision, albeit a misguided decision. We can argue as an AA re-rider she shouldn’t have purchased that horse, but she’s did. If there was law that said you can’t buy a horse that’s not a good fit for you….well we would have lots of law breakers. Benchmark imho also didn’t do right by the horse either. She’s savvy enough to know he was a ticking time bomb and going to be tricky to place. Horses like him, the longer you have them the more problems you uncover and the higher your liability. That’s why so much of her business model revolves around moving the horses quickly. The best business dealing of the century, definitely not. The worst business dealing, not that either.
Either way I hope the horse can make some sort of recovery. Statistically with that level of remodeling at that age, even with surgery he is likely to have so many other compounding issue that it might never render him comfortable.
And you shouldn’t be coming off the couch after years away from horses and buying a horse from several states away without better guidance.
The fact that she didn’t somehow notice this horse is pretty plainly in pain suggests that her opinion might not be nearly as informed as she thinks it is. I would expect a professional who sees hundreds of horses a year to watch this horse and notice it’s got a serious problem. If she can’t see that, maybe her eye isn’t so great and she should revisit her conclusion that KS is a nothing burger because she rarely sees horses lame because of it. Because this one was RIGHT there and if we’re giving her the benefit of the doubt, she somehow entirely missed this one. The way this horse goes isn’t a red flag. It’s a whole dumpster full of flags set on fire.
I don’t disagree.
Caveat emptor.
If the buyer didn’t want a horse with KS, the buyer should have done rads on the back to eliminate the possibility of KS. It doesn’t matter if the seller believes KS to be problematic or not - it often is and often isn’t. Regardless, the seller is not known to be an expert on KS. They simply sell a lot of horses. This all ultimately falls on the buyer.
For clarification, is your implication that the lunging technique caused the reaction? The radiographs show G4 KS in a very young horse. His presentation was DUE TO HIS PATHOLOGY, not due to any lunging technique used. This is exactly what I am attempting to educate people on. The behavior in Ms. Redman’s videos and the one I posted are NOT DUE TO TRAINING OR TECHNIQUE. This is pain. See it, memorize it, learn from it.
My trainer is very well versed in long lining/double lunging, whatever your preference for terminology. The ENTIRE POINT is that he is NOT cranked up. There are no cinched up side reins. This is HOW HE GOES because he is IN PAIN. Head up like a giraffe, back hollowed, tail like a saddlebred, literally running through the pain. It’s on video under saddle in the sale ads. And hell yes, you are going to brace when you have 17.3 hands of pure power running from pain and leaping all hooves 4-6 ft in the air and bucking well above that. I am not an expert in long lining but I would assume you have more control with this technique than with a single line and this would be optimal when you are lunging an explosive, large, powerful horse.
Within a similar timeframe at their respective barns, Ms. Redman noted (on her own sale ads) and ignored explosive pain. My trainer noted it, informed me, and called the vet out. It is confusing to me that you are criticizing my trainer’s lunging technique but come to Ms Redman’s defense. They are both professionals, both witnessed the same behavior, yet they came to very different conclusions. Only one was correct. Yet the person that came to the correct conclusion is the target of your criticism.
For clarification, Jessica Redman was not acting as an agent. The sale was directly with her.
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