Honestly it sounds like you are being taken advantage of. Gee, we’ll give you this lame mare for “free” because we don’t want to waste anymore money on a chronically lame horse. Well as others have stated, this mare will be FAR from free. Don’t let them take advantage of your emotional attachment to the horse. If you had thousands to burn and loved the horse, I’d say go for it. But you don’t. It is bad for both you and the mare to take her on without the funds to care for her properly.
Another thing to think about - even the quietest horses out there might turn into an explosive nightmare (if confined to stall rest due to rehabbing) and many do including mine. Breaking my hand the first time he was on months of stall rest for a suspensory tear and then flipping over on me with my leg stuck under him the second time he was on stall rest for his navicular fractures were much worse than anything I’ve experienced with a “not” quiet horse. It took prayer and all of my courage just to hand walk him. And this is a horse I once put small beginner children and my own mother on. I spent in the ballpark of 13,000 on this horse in the last 8 months for navicular fractures. Not including all the normal stuff like board and farrier! Thankfully insurance paid for much of it. This horse would be better off kindly euthanized than going to auction. Maybe you could offer to pay for that? There are so many quiet sound horses out there. It does not sound like your BO is helping you in any way. $1000 will NOT get you far at all with a major lameness. Listen to Deltawave - a $1000 sound horse will cost boatloads less than a $0 lame horse!.
[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;7043265]
Listen up.[/QUOTE]
^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^
[QUOTE=Chandler_K;7043210]
the reason that I am interested in trying to gain her soundness is both for me and for her. I need a horse that is dead broke/won’t spook at anything because I have too many severe injuries to myself from the past 16 years of riding OTTB’s and pesky ponies. And selling her is the problem; who is going to take a lame horse? That is why she was offered to me, because the owner does not want to put any more money into her as a lesson program horse. She won’t sell to anyone, so she will be sold to the auctions, and it would kill me to see her go to the meat man because she is lame and no one feels like “wasting” money on a super fantastic horse. I won’t be able to get back into a saddle with stirrups alone for the next year, and finding free horses does not mean they are anywhere close to dead quiet/broke that I need.[/QUOTE]
A couple of things -
If the horse is in pain now, that may be why it’s “bombproof”. Remove the source of the pain you may have a different horse.
If you don’t have money to take care of her properly, do yourself and the horse a favor and don’t take her at all. Regardless of where she might end up, I’d say she’d probably choose a shorter life than a life of chronic pain.
And lastly, if this is the attitude of the barn owner, why are you electing to do business with this person? Money talks and I’d take mine elsewhere.
And $1000 is a drop in the bucket compared to some of my past vet bills. Thank God for credit cards and home equity loans - but those are reserved for super special lifetime horses. I would not exhaust my safety net for any random horse.
Move on…
Don’t do it. Just don’t! You will end up out of money, out of further options, and your heart will be broken far worse than seeing her go now.
[QUOTE=Chandler_K;7042449]
I’m broke and desperate :([/QUOTE]
If you are too broke to buy a sound horse and so desperate that you are considering a lame horse, I’d suggest waiting to actually own a horse.
There are plenty of leases, some free, on really nice, sound horses. And that barn owner should be ashamed of herself.
All great advice. As you wrote in the signature line “Empty Wallet” I think that would be the answer for me. You sound like a wonderful caring person but sometimes you really have to just say no thank you.
This is not just about GETTING her sound, it would be about KEEPING her sound as well. She would need ongoing care for the rest of her life, which could be 15 years or more. If you have less than $1k to spend, you are not going to be doing the horse any favors in the long run. Because you are going to burn through that very, very fast. And then you are going to have a painful horse that you cannot help.
I am sorry you were put in this position, but please think this through before you agree to take her on.
DOn’t forget the other aspect the BO is looking forward to, another paying boarder!! Sounds like the BO has some very mixed up priorities.
Run, don’t walk, away from this horse. And shame on BO trying to emotionally manipulate you into buying a lame horse that you can’t afford to care for.
What everybody else said.
Your chances of getting/keeping a chronically lame horse sound on <1000 is basically zip.
I’ve had one of my lameness workups alone cost almost that much!
The barn owner is attempting to take advantage - or is trying a ‘well, if you don’t like MY solution (eg auction), why dont YOU take the horse?’ gambit.
^ ^ ^ This. You sound very vulnerable to helping out a horse that is in a tough spot. But this particular horse may never be ride-able and you are already carrying a burden that is actually not yours: worrying what will happen to her – that the auction house is looming. If you want to help her - find that companion home. Don’t make you the companion home – think of the thousands that cost per year for you. Yes, your heart is engaged, but that thinking is down a unhealthy path for horse ownership. In that scheme, you are owned by the horses, not the other way around. Making sound decisions financially in the face of needy horses is going to make you a better horseperson.
I know some horses pull on your heart strings but don’t make someone else’s problems your own. It is their job to do right by her, and all her $$$$ treatments will likely exceed her budget. What she needs is retired (and still maintenance $$$).
I ate a lot of ramen noodles to support my horses for a long time. Vet bills add up quickly on a sound horse, let alone one already riddled with problems. Your first horse should be a delight, not an empty wallet and plenty of tears trying to turn a lame horse sound. Be patient, the right one will come along.
Shame on your BO for trying to pass the buck.
That is not a free horse, that is a $10,000 horse.
[QUOTE=spotmenow;7043813]
If you are too broke to buy a sound horse and so desperate that you are considering a lame horse, I’d suggest waiting to actually own a horse.
There are plenty of leases, some free, on really nice, sound horses. And that barn owner should be ashamed of herself.[/QUOTE]
Trying to manage a lame horse is expensive. And sometimes even when you do everything under the sun they still are never quite right. One of my horses with some minor issue did great with IRAP, weekly adequan and I was also giving monthly legend as well as shoeing every six weeks.
If you must do something then take the horse and euthanize her. It saved her from the auction house and saves you from vet bills and further heartache. But I suspect OP is not going to be able to make a rational decision on this time. We’ve all been there and most of us learned. The rest started rescues! 
Take the horse. Pay vet to euth it. Bury horse. You’ve then done right by her and won’t feel bad about her going to auction.
Then follow the advice of those who said to get a sound horse. Sound horses are out there for free
BO should reimburse you the expenses of euthanizing but she won’t. In fact, she’ll blame you for putting the mare down. When you do get a horse, board it at another barn. This BO obviously does not want to do the “dirty work” of euthing probably because she doesn’t want to spend the money. But she’ll pretend that she cares about the horse. She doesn’t or she’d pay vet to fix her or she’d pay to put the horse down. She’s just passing the buck.
If you think that you are attached to the horse now, wait till you own her and get so emotionally attached that you won’t want to put her down. So take her, have vet euth her right away, and move on to another barn when you find a sound horse that you can save from auction. Lots of them are out there.
Whoa, wait. The BO is using her for lessons while she is lame? Or am I reading that wrong? Talk about getting every last dime out of her if that is the case.
[QUOTE=Chandler_K;7042449]
Without getting into detail too much, I have an 11 yr old QH that I am looking to take over from the barn owner because she is lame. She was diagnosed with a bone cyst/spur in the right front cannon bone by radiographs by the barn’s vet (two very high-end, reputable equine groups). To the extent of my knowledge, they blocked her to find the source of pain, have done x-rays, and did joint injections, with stall rest intermittent, and that did not help at all. Since she has been lame, they have only been using her for light work (maybe one lesson/day) and she has been out in a large pasture with other mares. The biggest source of lameness is in the trot/canter, but she has her good/bad days. I have been recommended to do so many things, but I am a f/t college student and can only afford so much! This “to do” list includes; Adequin/Legend injections, corrective shoeing, extensive trimming her hooves to recompensate for her pain (lateral/longitudinal?!?!?!), draining of the cyst if it is fluid-filled, Acupuncture, Denerving, & surgery w/stem cells and/or bone matrix.
As of right now, this whole project with her is just an inquiry to see if I could afford to possibly get her sound again. I have also heard from a vet that denerving (the somewhat affordable solution) may not touch her lameness. I don’t even have $1000 saved up yet, let alone $10,000 for surgery! Recovery time is not a big issue for me, since I am recovering from a severe ankle injury myself. Her level of activity that i’m hoping to gain back is for low level dressage, since my doctor is prohibiting any jumping for the next 2+ years for myself. Does anyone have any experience with any of these procedures or this issue in general?!?!?! I’m broke and desperate :([/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=WildandWickedWarmbloods;7045022]
Take the horse. Pay vet to euth it. Bury horse. You’ve then done right by her and won’t feel bad about her going to auction.
Then follow the advice of those who said to get a sound horse. Sound horses are out there for free
BO should reimburse you the expenses of euthanizing but she won’t. In fact, she’ll blame you for putting the mare down. When you do get a horse, board it at another barn. This BO obviously does not want to do the “dirty work” of euthing probably because she doesn’t want to spend the money. But she’ll pretend that she cares about the horse. She doesn’t or she’d pay vet to fix her or she’d pay to put the horse down. She’s just passing the buck.
If you think that you are attached to the horse now, wait till you own her and get so emotionally attached that you won’t want to put her down. So take her, have vet euth her right away, and move on to another barn when you find a sound horse that you can save from auction. Lots of them are out there.[/QUOTE]
This is very good advice! Not easy, but the right thing to do. Even finding her a companion home does not guarantee she will not go to the slaughter house…once she is out of your control, she can wind up in the wrong place very quickly.
I can understand because I would have been tempted to take the horse and try and help it too. It is also upsetting to hear the horse is still being used for lessons. But it sounds like this is an expensive horse and you have to really think about weather you want to take on that. One thing I learned years ago was that weather you pay 30K or 20K or 10K, 5K or get a horse for free the cost of keeping the horse is more.
