Agreed. If I saw that on a PPE but the horse above was the animal I had seen in person, I would wonder if it was the same horse the vet looked at!
If the buyer is so inexperienced that they took that and believed it (and didn’t discount the rest of the PPE/ask some questions due to that being a little unhinged), then your horse dodged a bullet.
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OP you’re reading way too much into this. You said the vet that did the PPE wasn’t even part of the practice when you were a client, why would they have a personal grudge against you? You haven’t posted any of the actual language so we have no way of knowing if it was actually unprofessional or not, but disagreeing with their body score isn’t an “inaccuracy” and it’s way more likely they just misheard or misremembered the history you relayed than that they purposefully twisted it to undermine your sale. It’s also possible that you have an unrealistic view of this horse, or at least one that’s out of step with how most buyers would look at it.
Fully agreed. No one is obligated to buy a horse for any reason. It’s a luxury purchase, and a risky one at that. As a buyer, the more a seller complains about PPEs the more I wonder what they might be trying to pass off on unsuspecting clients. My risk tolerance as a one-horse amateur that boards is going to be very different from a pro with a farm and multiple horses, if a seller can’t respect that (or at least keep quiet about it) I’ll take my business elsewhere.
This is tricky though. If I’ve done my research and selected a vet for the PPE and then the seller starts pushing back it would raise some red flags for me on the sale in general. I think a neutral “just so you’re aware I’m a former client of that practice so there may be a conflict of interest” would be the way to go, nothing about having issues with them or how they practice. I wouldn’t outright ban any vets unless there were major issues (like, abusive practices type of issues), and would assume that some buyers will read a ban as the seller having something to hide and move on entirely.
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I am not. The OP is not a current client and this vet was not there when the OP had a relationship with this vet. There is no conflict happening that should have prevented them taking this PPE.
Great post @rulex! You make a very good point.
This is a VERY unprofessional attitude.
You can always hold yourself to a higher standard than those around you.
Or maybe the buyer is just using that as their excuse they are giving you for ending the sale.
If this horse is as amazing as you say it is, and your pricing is good, stop letting this buyer ruin things for you. Move on and sell this horse to the next person.
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You can bandy about the words unprofessional all you want. While it was annoying to lose the sale, that is not the issue here, as I’ve said repeatedly! The issue is that the language used in the ppe was harsh enough that it reflected poorly upon my care for the horse. It is language that would not have been used, I think, if it was a horse being sold by Boyd Martin, for example.
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You have said this over and over again.
It does not make your attitude any better or make you more right.
You are letting this consume you. You are angry because this person has different opinions on things than you do.
I will tell you, that one vet at the practice I use typically says the weight of my horses is great, one of the other vets can not stop talking about how over weight they are. They grade them VERY differently. (Clearly my problem is at the other end of the spectrum than yours is.)
Clearly this vet finds the total lack of topline and the pointing hip bones to be a serious concern to them. Some other vets might not be so worried. You are clearly not worried.
Again, if this horse is not any of those things, move on and sell it to the next person.
That person will not know that this vet described it in a way that you are sure no one would ever use for one of Boyd’s horses.
You are free to reach out to this practice manager and insist that this vet is ruining your life. We are just trying to help you realize that this might not end how you want it to.
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Got it, essentially getting feedback from someone like a vet that your care of the horse is inadequate. I can see how that would really sting. In that case, it is very unprofessional of the vet.
I would just steer clear of them. You already stopped using the practice. The horse community tends to be small and likely you will have to cross paths with them again. This is a case where it’s best to be the bigger person, remain the professional one, don’t try to tell them how to run their business. If they are making those kinds of statements that are so off base, any buyer with any ounce of common sense will be able to see right through it. And you are probably not the only one having negative experiences with them. In my experience gross incompetency has a way of revealing itself in time. No need to bring your own reputation down with how you respond to their poor judgement.
I also wonder if the practice has fallen to the unfortunate situation of being bought out by corporate interests. It’s much more common in small animal practice, but that’s when you start to see them relentlessly pushing for more sales. In that case it often becomes about quotas and less about what is best for the patients.
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Unless you want to share the exact verbiage for everyone to see first hand, everything you’ve posted reads that you are taking this way too personally. There is nothing you can do to change the outcome or how the vet/practice operates.
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I had a ‘bad’ PPE experience when I declined the horse, the sellers just kept coming at me. Your vet is wrong, you can’t say anything, etc. They even sent the x-rays to a radiologist who disagreed with my vet and back at me saying SEE! Ok instead of a chronic abscess and pedal osteitis, he had rotated. Oh yeah, now I really want him (NOT).
Look, no is no. It doesn’t matter why. I guess the sellers were afraid I would take out ads in every medium declaring there was something wrong with their horse? They did get him sold and unfortunately, he was retired like 5 years later due to ‘navicular’ (if I remember right as my instructor at the time relayed that info). This was like 35-ish years ago.
Very unpleasant to have the seller up in my business like that.
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Sometimes, you just get a bad PPE vet. My worst vetting experience was from a “baby” vet fresh out of school. I held for the vet, did all the jogging, lunged the horse, and rode him, since the buyer could not be present (planned to, but had a sick child at home). The vet was professional and tight-lipped, as expected, and I maintained my distance and wasn’t nosy about the report. The horse was back sore to palpation that day, likely due to riding for a long XC school the day prior in the buyer’s saddle which didn’t fit him well (but buyer insisted on using it because mine didn’t fit her at all). PPE vet didn’t do xrays, but buyer had told me “I don’t care about xrays, just as long as he horse seems sound and fit for the job.”
The buyer called 6hrs later and declined to purchase, saying the report said horse was baseline 3/5 lame. Before 2+ hrs of flexions, lunging, and riding (why would vet continue if horse was baseline lame?!). I was horrified-- I would NEVER present a horse to a vetting that was 3/5 lame! I felt sick and utterly confused, my horse was sound in consistent work and competing regularly, and certainly wasn’t head-bobbing while I jogged him. Afterward I called two very experienced sport horse vets, from two different practices, to do a soundness exam on my horse. Both said my horse was sound, flexed fine, and rolled their eyes at “baby vets who can’t ever see a sound horse.” Both agreed the horse was acutely back sore, and moved a little bit differently behind to compensate. But given their experience, they said it would be noted in their PPE, would recommend radiographs, but not a deal breaker as it wasn’t a chronic problem.
I treated the horse with chiro, got his back feeling better, and sold him 6 months later with a beautiful PPE by a big name sport horse vet, perfect radiographs including back xrays.
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There’s a reason freshly minted vets are told to go for their first job to a location they don’t want to end up in.
Hint: has to do with the high level of “learning on the job.” I saw it firsthand, many times.
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