I have never had much trouble with temperament changing too much with proper nutrition, as someone else has said… they usually get better!
But, I did have one horse fairly recently that was just awful when he started being well taken care of. Kind of makes sense why he came in the condition he came in. This was also a horse that my gut feeling was no, but I was bored and bought him anyway.
Your budget is good enough that I would look for a young WB.
Unfortunately I don’t know her breeding.
It is clear this mare was starved. I almost wonder if she landed in an Auction somewhere. The seller is doing right by her and she’s obviously gained weight seeing before and after photos. But it’s going to be a long road. She was emaciated. Now she’s still pretty darn thin.
I hope she finds her forever home! I really do feel for her.
I’ve bought a thin horse because I felt sorry for it before and while it repaid me by being a wonderful horse to ride, he was a shockingly hard keeper with an awful appetite and that was expensive, time consuming and quite stressful for me to manage. He needed much more blanketing, multiple extra feeds per day that he’d pick at for hours, and he’s give up eating altogether at shows… I much prefer an easy keeper… and not all thin horses are easy keepers just waiting for a few groceries.
Someone is charging $10-15k for a horse who was emaciated and has only been in the care of the current owner for two months and is a BCS of 3? I’d hard pass. I thought we were talking about a OTTB who lost condition after the track or a craigslist type of find.
Agreed! I missed that point initially. For that kind of money, there are plenty of horses who are considerably less of a project.
Well, unless your friend or trainer wants to float the bills if this mare turns out to be a lemon…be as picky as you want.
I find horsepeople are some of the worst when it comes to being able to exercise self control and play the long game. We also tend to get suckered by our emotions. I say that as someone who has done both of those things.
At the end of the day, you’re buying livestock. You have a healthy budget for a quality horse that you can start riding today, you don’t want a project and you don’t want a “known unknown”, so to speak. So don’t allow your emotions to get you into something you know you don’t really want, and don’t allow people around you who won’t be footing the bills for your horses to guilt you into a decision. If you had room in your world right now for a nice mare that needed groceries and TLC and you weren’t super concerned about what she turned out to be, I’d say take her. But that doesn’t appear to ultimately be what you’re in search of.
They aren’t charging $10k. The mare is mid four figures. But I looked at her because the market is extremely dry here/I didn’t realize her current condition. Unfortunately with COVID raging everywhere, I’ve had to pause traveling out of state. But my budget is in the $10k to 15k range so my point was, I would rather not get such a project. The mare was a good mover but again, not what I want. I think I just felt guilty passing on her.
That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.
Unproven TB prices have really sky rocketed over the past few years, which is a good thing for horses coming off the track. But this is my personal opinion, I don’t feel like they gain all that much value with training, as most riders with competition goals feel they will be limited by a TB at some point. The one exception is eventing, where TBs can still excel at the highest levels of the sport.
So overall, I think you are smart to pass on a horse who is going to need some rehab plus isn’t what you want.
Good luck with your search! I know how frustrating it is when the market isn’t offering what you want or need.
@Texarkana they definitely are getting higher and this year prices (of all breeds) seem to be especially high and moving quickly. So I’ve tried to be open-minded and look at anything that might be a possibility. But in reality, I might just need to stick it out for a bit. At least until I can travel. I do have a soft spot for Ottbs but I am really trying to look at something else this go around. I just need to stick to what I really want!
I’m am seeing a lot of OTTB’s, 3 or 4 years old, minimal retraining, decent but not exceptional movers for $8k to $10k. It’s disheartening. This is a different market than even last year. (I lost a horse to Wobblers recently…so unfortunately I was looking not that long ago.)
I will absolutely pay more, even too much, for something sound and sane. But some of the pricing is getting out of hand right now.
I’m not horse shopping, but we are farm shopping and the trend is the same. Farms are selling for double what they were sold for 5 years ago. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about horses or houses, that kind of price inflation scares me to death after the market crash of 2008.
Oh yes so true. We are living in a small house (1600 sq ft, small yard) on the edge of town for $350k. Insane. I know it depends on different parts of the country but I cannot even imagine what trying to buy a farm like is right now!
It really can’t stay this way. Something will crumble. Totally agree.
You are right – the OTTB I bought 2 years ago, right off the track, cost double what the one before him did, bought 9 years ago with a year of layup. Good for the horses & resellers, sucks for buyers who don’t poop money every time they sit down. And the most recent one was a very thin 3 y.o. and while his lovely personality hasn’t changed, he remains a hard keeper & it was expensive to fatten him up & remains expensive to keep weight on him.
So it has reinforced to me that you are going to bleed some money into a horse either way & for folks like us who just want a horse to ride & don’t have heaps of money to drop on things, it’s likely better to pay a known up-front cost than to step into the unknown cost of physical fixer-upper. Even in that latter category, there’s a big difference between a horse who just needs a couple months of some extra hay & a horse who seems to turn food into nothing more than fur & bad ideas (guess which one I seem to end up with, sigh).
Funniest thing I’ve read all day!!
I own this horse. 
You want another one, lol?
And deny you the fun?!?
It sounds like you have decided to listen to your gut and pass on this horse. Always, always listen to your gut.
FWIW, I once bought a very thin horse in poor condition. Six months of good feed (TC Sr - not high sugar), good farrier work, and great living conditions turned him into an absolutely drop dead gorgeous horse - who bucked like a rodeo bronc. I found out later that this horse had sold repeatedly because of the bucking. It would literally come out of nowhere, with no warning, and was explosive.
I ended up selling this horse for $1.00 with full disclosure. He was so gorgeous that a young trainer was willing to try to sort him out, but I sure wasn’t.
I agree with everyone about trusting your gut, and remember you are buying the horse in front of you, not what he might be in 6-12 months!
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