Has anyone imported or know someone who has imported a horse from Lombardo Sport horses?
A client likes a horse they have and wants to buy it sight unseen. Personally I like to see any horse before I buy it and I want to support North American breeders but I am also trying to be supportive of my client and their wishes.
I don’t know them but a direct flight from SFO to AMS can be had for $1000 give or take and in the grand scheme of horse buying, that seems reasonable to do in this situation.
Thanks Xanthoria, yes, I agree. Sitting on a horse under saddle and a good vet check to know what you are buying is always worth the investment in my opinion.
Sent you a pm
I was curious about them and did a search and found this review. What is weird is they had some really bad reviews on Facebook and I think they changed something to where they aren’t there anymore or at least I can’t see them.
FB pages can turn their reviews off and hide them. When they do, you will no longer see the “Reviews” tab. People are no longer able to leave reviews either. If you can’t see them anymore, I’d say that’s what they did.
YIKES
This is so interesting. I randomly came across one of their sales horses in a group the other day which pinged some red flags. I scrolled through their page for a full body shot and literally yelped when I saw the critter’s pasterns. How curious to see this thread (and that review) a few days later.
The Facebook review I read before it was removed or hidden had something about x-rays being switched on a horse being bought site unseen.
I don’t have any personal experience with them this is just what I read.
Thanks NJRider, I really appreciate the review. Our experience seemed very positive until we tried to pay for a vet check not done by the sellers vet. The seller had her vet out instead at my client’s cost who performed the same sort of vet check ie. everything showing as “pass” with no commentary about the horse in-spite of the specific request for a very different kind of vet check. We also asked that the whole thing be videoed in one take and we were sent clips. The conformation shot picture showed every heel at a different height and angle so I was looking for a little more information on the specifics of this horse, not to rule him out and not go through with the sale, but to know what we were taking on. We said that we still really like the horse and could we arrange to fly out in one week to see him in person? We were told that our behavior was “icky” and the seller did not want to do business that way. Apparently the whole business model relies on selling horses mostly sight unseen to US clients. 30 horses sold last year mostly to the US, mostly sight unseen so I understand that there can be good and bad experiences but thank you for the excellent advise here as always. I took it to heart and we will go see horses we are interested in in person.
I saw a horse that was bought from them sight unseen and had the same type of pasterns! It really does make you aware that if you are buying long distance you really do have to ask specific questions.
Yes I think being told that you are discouraged from flying out to look at the horse in person would be a huge red flag!
Not Lombardo, but I had a very similar situation arise when I purchased a horse from Spain through a person who was supposed to be quite reputable, lots of US clients, etc. Horse appeared to vet ok, then went to be gelded a couple weeks later. Was slow to heal, so didn’t ship for a while. Arrived in Amsterdam with a wonky eye, vet said problem was older - maybe 6-8 weeks. When here, was shipped immediately to vet hospital. Short version of long story is he had polyneuritis equi, which has auto immune component, cranial nerve issues and hind end issues. He was put down after about 4 weeks. Seller lied to me about multiple things during all this, sent pics from vet who declared the horse ready to ship, even had pics of the wonky eye up close but still total denial. I wont ever know but I believe the problem was triggered when he was gelded, stress or the anesthesia or combination. Never again will I do this.
2tempe, I am so sorry for your loss. What a tragic story, thank you for sharing. My client and I have decided to plan a trip for the spring when we can plan out who we wish to visit in person and we are flying our own vet over with us. In the meantime, we will be shopping in North America.
I am so sorry, @2tempe, that’s a terrible story. But I got a lovely horse, sight unseen, through folks I trusted. It’s a crapshoot.
yes you’re right. I know a number of people who have been just fine doing this, including from this seller. I did contact an attorney, there were clear breaches of contract, but doing anything legal across countries is pretty much impossible.
I’m so sorry you had to go through this and even more sorry for the poor horse. What a nightmare and then you can’t even have any legal recourse to go after such evil people. 
Re Lombardo, they have a bunch of ads on Facebook page “Dressage Horses in North Florida and Beyond”. Happened to notice that tonight while surfing horse ads…seem to have some nice looking horses
They are seemingly nice horses from very nice lines but the fact that they have disabled and hidden all reviews, and that the pictures and video are very limited - most pictures from an angle that hides conformation and video being extremely edited with auction style riding (you see a horse moving down the straight away and then immediate cut) would definitely give me pause.
Re Facebook reviews….
I have a business page on there and FB removes review tabs seemingly on a whim of it’s own volition. I had 16 straight five star reviews and if you hunt about on my page you can see maybe five of them, but the tab where they all were is gone.
Their absence is not my choice.
That’s odd. I have a couple of pages as well and the Review option has to be manually disabled so they don’t appear. Lombardos doesn’t show any reviews at all. It looks like they disabled them from their page. It looks like they disabled all but two tabs from their page. Very limited info including address and location.
When my “situation” occurred, though I was tempted to plaster bad reviews all over FB ect, I did not. Was not interested in a social media pissing match. I did, however, share the story selectively to friends, both riders and trainers, that know. It moved along the grapevine, as these things do.
Cant imagine that any horse seller would voluntarily leave up bad reviews…
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