I’ve done it twice. First time I found a horse on FB in Europe from a small farm in Holland. My trainer had multiple calls with the young pro. She sent us video of everything and flew over with him when we imported him. I am still in touch with her. he was an amazing horse and perfectly described.
I just did it again this summer. I needed a 1.30 horse on a 1.15 budget. My trainer has a good contact in Europe who vouched for the horse and helped us with the process along the way. He lives in the US, but is foriegn born and my trainer has bought several through him. The horse is amazing. Time will tell if she has too much blood for me (an adult ammy), but she was well described.
I should say we video’d the crap out of the PPE and went back to get additional Xrays based on what our vet saw.
I went about as sight unseen as you can get: I bought in-utero.
Researched for years exactly what bloodline cross I wanted, followed the program of a well-respected breeder here in the U.S. and then several years after I had decided on what I wanted, luck intervened, that same breeder did the cross, I came upon the ad very quickly after it was published and then I acted immediately.
I took an educated, calculated risk and for once in my life it paid off! I got exactly what I wanted.
I’ll just to answer to this part: I found a baby online that I really liked the looks of, and contacted the seller. Seller sent me lots of pics and some videos, baby is already in the fluffy winter hair stage of things. I sent a deposit with a contract that it would be refundable if she flunked a vetting, not refundable if I changed my mind, dates etc, it was a very good contract (< huffs on nails > thank you English degree). I went ahead and asked the seller for vet recommendations, and went with one that she has used before. I spoke with him before and come to find out, he also collected for the stallion and had good things to say (different owners). I asked for a basic exam plus eye exam because I had noticed one eye always looked a little runny, not gunky or like copious water, just usually had a little dampness at the corner. I also wanted xrays of stifles and hocks due to her breeding and the fact that she cross cantered in some of the videos I was sent, which I mentioned to the vet as a concern, and that the dam was clearly off and could he ask about that. Vet called me from the vetting and said everything looked great, baby was sound, noted the one eye was runny but he saw no abnormality and wrote it down as dust or allergy. He stated rads all looked good, recommended no other pictures needed to be taken, and emailed them the next day for my vet’s review (one is attached). Even I saw the epiphysitis in both stifle xrays, and my vet up here confirmed. She said not really an issue, baby looks a little fat so ask the seller to back her down on feedstuffs. Seller was actually great to work with and I don’t think she and the vet were in cahoots necessarily; I think the vet was either lazy or incompetent or …who knows, really, maybe they were, but he could have told the seller that it was no big deal, just like my vet did to me, but the fact that he didn’t even mention it was sketch.
Baby arrives, and I immediately notice she also has an umbilical hernia that wasn’t visible in any of the pics due to baby fuzz. Why it was missed in a baby exam is beyond me. My regular herd health (annual blood letting) appt was five days later, vet notices the hernia during hands on check and says to wait a few months and see if it needs surgical correction. She eyeballed and palpated her rear fetlocks and said there was pretty clear epiphysitis in those as well.
I do not regret the purchase and my baby is great, honestly if she repeats the breeding there is a high likelihood I’ll grab that baby as well, but I would use a different vet. The vet’s office also almost screwed the pooch on my transport, the same vet went out to administer final shots and pull Coggins for her health cert, then the freakin office staff held on to the blood for no joke 11 days (with me emailing asking about the status of my health cert) and had to rush it, thankfully the lab worked Saturdays or else my first thing Monday morning pick up would have been toast.
The shipping part was easy, I joined a FB page for equine transport and gleaned through reviews, emailed for some quotes (yow, some were more than the cost of a nice WB baby), and did a contract and sent my non-refundable deposit via PayPal. Easy peasy. Transport in March sucked, they got stuck two nights in Iowa I think because the highway was closed due to snow, but baby arrived healthy and happy, underweight but expected that.
I am a happy ammie but I’ve been a pro before, so I did this without “professional” help, however my instructor likes her and my vet does too.
I’ve bought sight unseen more than once but I don’t recommend it to most. I’ve always been happy with my purchases which are also typically sub-10k because I get the “freaks and babies”. I do get them vetted, but I ride a variety of different types and don’t mind modifying my goals or my disciplines based on what the horse actually wants to do. I do want to see them move as well, and good conformation pictures.
But I also ascribe to the belief that one should never buy a horse with money you wouldn’t be willing to light on fire, so I may be more cavalier than some.
I’ve done sight unseen multiple times, always from sellers in Europe whose horses I’ve seen in the US and were as represented. Sometimes it’s a match, and sometimes it’s not, but the horses have always been marketable here and I’m fortunate that I was always able to move along the ones I didn’t personally mesh with (and the profits went to buying slightly nicer prospects each time).
It’s definitely not for everyone. You need a vet you trust to be very thorough in reviewing x-rays. I don’t care about a bad image on a horse I can see that has been doing the job. But a bad image on a young horse from Europe that you might have to sell if you don’t gel with it, you can’t afford to take chances.
There are also a slew of reputable as well as sketchy dealers out there. I always felt more comfortable once I’d seen horses from those dealers landed here. And I always have a pro act as my agent.
Before Covid, you could find nice prospects for less than you could get that horse already here in the US. The pandemic has really shattered the market though. I see a lot of young (2-3 year olds) now, but the nicer/saner/scopier prospects that are a bit older have all been really picked over during the last year. If you find one, do a thorough PPE (including pulling blood) to see why it didn’t sell when people were buying anything and everything.
