No idea how much you paid for the horse --if less than $5K, and you have the time to do so, consider small claims court. If more than $5K you would need a lawyer. Good thing about Small Claims court is that it is user friendly --when I sued a clinician for return of my deposit (she claimed deposits were not refundable, took the money, then didn’t hold the clinic --the law is clear that “money exchanged in anticipation of a service or product must be returned if the service or product is not provided or produced.” --anyway, I sued her for my $300 deposit.
The court clerks at Small Claims answered all my questions, helped me find the right forms, and made sure I knew things ahead of time --like if you need to go to the bathroom during your case, ask the clerk (who sits by the door) to signal the judge. No one can give you legal advice at the court, but everyone was really nice and encouraging.
That’s the good part about Small Claims. The bad part is that anything involving the court system takes a lot of TIME —to get my $300 back, I appeared in court (with all my documentation x 3 --one for me -one for judge–one for defendant ) SIX times. I am retired, so I had all the time in the world --and it was kind of fun to dress up and show up --and the court house is only 15 min from my farm.
I initially won my case + costs + witness fees ($300 morphed into $765 in my judgment). That should have been it --but the defendant -who never appeared and actually hired a lawyer for SMALL CLAIMS geesh, --she asked for a do-over [called a set-aside], then asked for a continuance, then asked for a second continuance, finally lost her case AGAIN, refused to pay, so I’m back in court to force the issue (Hearing Supplemental allows the “winner” to do things like see tax returns, bank information, credit history --and if the loser won’t produce it, the loser is held in contempt and in theory can be arrested for failing to appear/produce required documents) another hearing --at the last hearing, the judge appeared to be fed up with the clinician’s excuses and the lawyer’s failure to provide documents he said he had.
At that point the clinician paid me.
My case was first heard in Oct. 2018, I received my check in June 2019.
One other small fact --my kids are lawyers --while both made it clear they would not take my case, they encouraged me and when the clinician hired an attorney (totally freaked me out), told me that I would still win because regardless of what the lawyer knew or said, I had the law on my side and there was no wiggle room. The lawyer couldn’t remember the clinician’s name half the time; and spent a lot of time complaining about being in Small Claims and the amount of paper the clinician sent him: “You’d think I was going to the Supreme Court,” he told the judge. The lawyer tried to take the case sideways (argued wrong venue) but couldn’t make it fly cuz the law allows the case to be brought where the contract was made --and in this case, the clinician had been in my state when she signed me up and two of my witnesses (who testified to that).
Anyway, this is way too long . . .but it was my one and only time I came close to feeling like I was on Judge Judy!
If there is any sort of contract, you might have false swearing if that’s something your state has (mine does). These are ways to push back against LE saying it’s a “civil issue.” Contracts and sales are sticky so the average poleese is going to lead with “can’t help, it’s civil, suggest small claims court.” Which I would also do, tbh. There will be some out of pocket for the OP in the form of a second vet exam and finding one that will also complete a sworn affidavit based on findings that it couldn’t have been sound when it was seen on X date because of Y chronic issue or Z signs of lameness being advanced.