Posted with my alt because my main is identifiable and I don’t want any drama to follow me into the real world.
Okay so I’m irritated by this situation and I’m wondering if my irritation is justified or not. Here’s what happened:
I tried a horse a couple months ago. The horse was with the seller’s trainer to get him in shape and sold. Technically, he wasn’t being advertised as available yet, but my trainer knows the sales trainer so I was able to get an advance showing.
This horse is GREAT, I adore him. Beautiful gaits and a really cool personality. He has a bit of experience in the jumpers but had been pasture pet for the past few years due to the seller’s circumstances (unsure what those are). Despite that, he went around like a pro. Such a cool guy. I wanted him very badly and had a couple long conversations with the seller about who I am, my plans for him, how I’d care for him, etc etc. She was very concerned about finding him the right owner and she expressed multiple times that I seemed like the perfect home for him.
I vetted him, which involved whole ton of radiographs (I like to know what I’m getting into). Unfortunately the rads showed arthritic changes in his hocks and really extensive kissing spines. Like really bad, pretty much every vertebrae was impacted and had bone remodeling. My vet said “oh my god” when he saw them. The seller and seller’s trainer had no idea about these issues. I openly shared the rads with them, emailed them all copies without asking for anything in return, because I wanted to work with them to figure something out.
With any other horse, those rad findings would’ve been a dealbreaker for me. But this guy is so cool, exactly what I was looking for, and, at that time, was going around sound. However, because he hadnt been in consistent work for a while, I couldn’t trust that he would remain sound. The seller’s trainer floated the idea that the seller might be interested in a lease to own or a long-term trial situation, which would allow me to see if he would stay sound or not. I was also willing to just take him and send him to surgery the second he showed pain in his back. However, I wasn’t going to pay full asking price for this horse in either situation.
My trainer and I talked about it and decided to make the following offer: we take him as care lease for two months and, if things were going well at the end, then pay a purchase price of about a third less than what the seller was asking for him.
The seller turned me down because she didn’t believe the rad findings were indicative of any soundness risks or long term issues and so his price wouldn’t be reduced because of them. Her tone was rude and she didn’t acknowledge or than me for sharing the rads. I was very surprised and a little taken aback given how well we had been vibing up to that point, but that’s the seller’s prerogative so I said thanks for your time and moved on to other horses.
Well now, the seller’s trainer is finally formally advertising this horse. I’m miffed because (1) they say they have “full xrays on file,” which are the ones I paid for and shared with them, and are offering copies of them to “seriously interested buyers” (2) they’re using images and video of me and my husband from my trial ride to advertise him and (3) they’re saying that they’re open to “creative solutions” for the “perfect home” given his “track jewelry.”
I’m just so irritated about the whole thing. I shared my rads and tried to work with them, just to be abruptly turned down when I offered a solution that the seller’s trainer had brought up first. Now they’re advertising my “xrays on file” along with video and pictures of me on this horse! I was the “perfect home” offering a “creative solution” months ago, but it wasn’t good enough back then for some reason!
However, I recognize that I may be unjustly irritated. After all, I shared the rads without conditions and that I never told them not to use pictures or videos of me (though they never asked). I also understand that circumstances change over the months and now maybe the seller has learned more about her horse’s situation and is willing to play ball with other people. I don’t plan to say anything to the seller or the seller’s trainer about this because I don’t think it’s worth the drama in a small community, but if an interested party identifies me in the video and reaches out to see what I know, I will tell them what I think about the horse and share the radiographs.
Also, at the very end of the day, this whole situation is moot because I eventually found and bought (for a few thousand less, in fact) a different horse that is taller, younger, has more training, and has no kissing spines 
