Last Minute Surprises when you're Horse Shopping... share your experiences

[Alliteration]

Well. The other day I went to look at a horse to lease for 2 sisters who are clients of mine. They talked about buying a horse but were not certain about the commitment and expense. So, I suggested finding a horse to lease instead.

I found one close by that seemed like she might be worth a try. She wasn’t for sale, but the owner was going off to college and wanted her to have a job.

When the horse’s owners first came by to visit my barn, they talked about how they’d bought her 10 years ago, shown her at one of the bigger local riding schools in the hunters. Wanted to know if I was interested in a free lease. Sure, I’ll check her out.

Then they mention that she isn’t the best when it comes to loading and Dad says she knocked his wife down once. And she’s a bit herd bound, but as long as she can see other horses she’s fine. But before they have me come try her, she’s a bit foot sore because she’s overgrown and lost her shoes a while ago. So they need to get the farrier out. They said she also sometimes randomly goes lame for a couple of days and then is fine.

Umm, ok. If she wasn’t so close, I’d probably have said, “Nah” at this point. But when the horse is 3 miles down the road, it’s worth a look-see. They also use my farrier so I can talk to him about her.

It takes about 2 weeks before I hear from them again. Finally got the farrier out and she has shoes and is sound.

I go see the horse and she’s actually pretty nice. She’s a registered QH and she behaved well in the ring which was a little ways away from the other horses. So I agreed to take her on the 30 day trial because I was concerned about this “random lameness”.

So, when we start discussing when I’m going to pick this mare up Dad suggested that I come pick her up tomorrow right after she has her teeth done, that way she will be tranq’d for the trailer ride because Ace isn’t enough. Um, you never said anything about the horse needing to be tranq’d for a trailer ride. Kid says, “Yes, remember we said my Mom got knocked down because she doesn’t like getting on a trailer?” Ok, someone getting bumped into by a reluctant horse does not automatically equate to a horse needing to be tranq’d within an inch of its life to get on a trailer.

Spidey sense is going off. If I need to tranq this horse to trailer it, and I get it to my farm and she doesn’t work out, that’s another vet visit I have to pay for to get heavy duty drugs just to get the horse back home.

Then, they tell me about the supplements the horse needs. To the tune of like $300 per month. Oh, and she sometimes cow-kicks when being girthed up.

Ok, I’ve been talking to you about this horse for almost a month and you spring all of this on me less than 24 hours before you want me to take this horse?

Needless to say, I declined the lease.

What last minute surprises have you had in the horse shopping world?

[Bluey]

Drove 8 hours to look at a horse that was “perfect”, at 14.3 hands, my maximum, stated many times, he looked bigger in the pictures.
They said they had measured him with a stick.
Horse was “a friend’s horse”.

We carry a measuring stick in the trailer anyway, got there, horse is a giraffe, doesn’t look at all like the pictures and is, measured, since they insisted, 15.3 1/2 hands.

Then the lady said, well, they had not seen him but once in a parade several months ago and he looked small then.
Just went to pick him up, didn’t realize how tall he was.
Then tried to sell us another horse.

Those were some very long 8 hours back.

[StormyDay]

Almost 10 years ago I went and looked at a horse. The photos looked nothing like what the horse actually looked like, but I had driven a few hours so I figured that every horse deserves a chance. In the photos he was well fed, well groomed, and overall well conformed. They claimed he had been jumping 2 foot courses. In reality, the thing was really underweight and strangely put together. It looked like a two year old, even though he was much older.
Well, I had driven a few hours so i figured I might as well get on. The lady who tacks the horse up doesn’t look like she had ridden a day in her life, and didn’t want to get on, so she leads him up to the mounting block talking the whole time about how calm he is and how wonderful he is under saddle. I go ahead and swing on up there and she starts leading me around the ring, which I thought was weird but maybe she was afraid I wasn’t as good of a rider as I claimed.
The horse was tense and had little nervous poops, but overall was polite and followed her around. When it was obvious that the horse was not about to spook and take off with me, so I told her that I would go ahead and trot around without her leading me.
She said “really so soon? This is his first ride after all.”
Turns out the horse WAS two, had never been ridden before, and her idea of jumping two foot courses was chasing the horse over jumps in the arena. He was ‘so good under saddle’ because he was good at lunging… With a saddle on.

And that is how I taught a strangers horse how to be ridden :lol:

[GraceLikeRain]

1. Advertised as a three foot jumper. Seller nervously trots the horse at a few crossrails and comes back early after each fence with tight hands. Horse becomes increasingly anxious and hot as he lands and tranters off. I’m looking for a dressage prospect so I get on and W/T/C without jumping. Horse is super green and not what I’m looking for at all. I get off and she thanks me for teaching him to canter…apparently they’d never cantered him a full lap in the ring before.

2. Confirmed with seller that horse(s) were available. Drove eight hours. Trainer instantly starts talking about how I need to use her vet for PPEs and that she has a great guy who “finds her horses” so she cannot provide any prior history on her horses. After an extended conversation she casually mentions my top horse got a “scrape in the pasture”. She leads out a horse who literally has a gaping hole over his hip bone and is dragging the leg so badly it clanks over the stall board. This woman has all of her USDF medals and I have since noticed she consistently has multiple “beginner friendly” horses all posted with the exact same bio.

3. Many moons ago I went to look at a horse with my mother. When we arrived the horse was already being worked because he needed to trot until he “blew”. Apparently snorting once or twice was a single of relaxation and a ride couldn’t start until that happened. This poor horse trotted for nearly a hour while the owner’s mother made us watch his racing tape in her house while she cried at the “majesty” of it. The owner said she would only sell if we promised to trot him until he “blew” every ride.

4. Trailer loading nightmare that was not disclosed until I arrived to pick up with a friend’s borrowed trailer. That was also the point when I found out the seller believed in giving to pressure…as if she always gave to pressure. She literally taught her horse to pull and she would give the lead rope. 30 day trial that I felt pressured into was probably the most stressful month of my life. Mare returned knowing how to tie and self-load thanks to a kind expert who likely kept this girl from eventually ending up in a kill lot.

5. Arrived to see a friesian sport horse only to find out the reason her videos were 5 months old was because she hadn’t been ridden since then, the seller had no ring and the mare had rapidly advancing DSLD.

Trying to find a diamond on a coal budget has made for some incredibly frustrating, sad, and at times, unsafe, horse shopping. I’m glad to be out of that for a while.

[fordtraktor]

I have had several sellers try to raise the price after my trial ride because I made their half-broke horse look better than they did. Sorry, your animal is not worth double now because I sat on it! I sure wish I had that power.

I also showed up once and rode an unbroken baby. He was basically meat price and looked calm, so I walked, trotted and cantered it in a field! Only afterward did the guy tell us he had never been ridden before. I bought that horse.

[quietann]

[QUOTE=Bluey;8818568]
Drove 8 hours to look at a horse that was “perfect”, at 14.3 hands, my maximum, stated many times, he looked bigger in the pictures.
They said they had measured him with a stick.
Horse was “a friend’s horse”.

We carry a measuring stick in the trailer anyway, got there, horse is a giraffe, doesn’t look at all like the pictures and is, measured, since they insisted, 15.3 1/2 hands…[/QUOTE]

That’s so funny, because it’s usually the opposite! How many “16.2” hunters are barely 16 hands?

When I was horse shopping, I went to look at a Morgan pony who was described as “14 1 1/2”. Since she had been a kid’s horse, I assumed that this meant she was one of those who might measure over or under 14.2 depending on hoof length, how relaxed she was, etc. She was actually about 13.3 if she stretched … adorable little thing, but that’s a bit small.

The other Morgan where I board was advertised (back in the day) as 15.1. My Morgan is an honest 15 hands and this one could not have been 15.1 even with a show “package”. Just … no way. He’s several inches shorter than mine.

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=fordtraktor;8818645]
I have had several sellers try to raise the price after my trial ride because I made their half-broke horse look better than they did. Sorry, your animal is not worth double now because I sat on it! I sure wish I had that power.

I also showed up once and rode an unbroken baby. He was basically meat price and looked calm, so I walked, trotted and cantered it in a field! Only afterward did the guy tell us he had never been ridden before. I bought that horse.[/QUOTE]

That happened to me with a little four year old arabian gelding.
The lady was selling him because her kids were not riding their horses any more, but forgot to tell me they never did start that one.

She didn’t have a saddle or bridle, I hopped on with a halter and bareback, best I could, he was sure spooky, did ride him around the pasture a bit, boy was he green I was thinking and just moved too rough for what I wanted.
She would never answer how much he had been ridden.

I later was speaking to a friend that also had looked at that horse, that was right down the road from him and he is the one that told me he had never been ridden before and laughed about it.

[Palm_Beach]

I always ask seller to disclose any illnesses, injuries, past medical conditions such as colic, founder and laminities, physical disabilities or limitations, blemishes, and visible swellings, lumps or bumps anywhere on the horse before going out to see it.

I went to see a horse once and when I got there the seller told me that the horse was blind in one eye.

[clanter]

well my “surprise” came about five months after I had bought a young horse that we placed into training

We live in Western Horse Country, we wanted an English Pleasure horse for our kids… wife had grown up showing English Pleasure and wanted the kids to learn

So we go back to Kentucky as we had lived there before and had worked for several saddlehorse farms. Often the farms there are multiple breed Saddlebred., Morgan, Hackney … we were looking for an aged preferably eight to twelve years old, a proven horse with an expectable show record.

We looked at a lot of horses (hundreds as there are so many there)… but in the back of my mind was a stand out that we really didn’t look at but I saw in passing so I went back to look at this young Morgan horse who had just been brought in from the herd in the pasture to put into the beginning training barn --the barn out back of the main show barn.

She was young which didn’t fit the criteria, she had zero record as she hadn’t even been ridden yet but I bought her anyway because she just had that look about her. Every Horse on this farm was an English Pleasure horse.

So leave the filly there in training, came back to look at the progress a few months into the program as they bring her out to be worked… there you have a Western Pleasure Horse ?

The trainer was 100% correct, turns out she just fit the bill to be a Western Pleasure horse, the horse did nearly everything else in horse world but English Pleasure

Ended up leasing an English Pleasure for oldest daughter …the others the closest they got was Hunt Seat

[TrueColours]

Two classics for me …

First one was a 4-5 year old WB/TB cross gelding, just backed. Saw him in his stall, where he stood with his head in the corner, ears flat back, occasionally turning his head to glare at us and warn us from even thinking of coming into his stall …

Owner said he can be a “little grumpy” in his stall but he’s fine when he’s out so she said to go out to the sand ring and she’d bring him out and I could see him move around. So - out they come, he moves around and he really is a lovely mover and a nice type overall. We’re standing in the middle of the ring - she has a lunge whip. About 2-3 minutes into this, he seems to be aware of us in the middle and he’s not happy. He pins his ears flat back and he charges towards us and the owner screams “RUN!!! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!” so I run over to the fence and over as she is beating him off of her with the lunge whip. Needless to say I didn’t buy him and her name and the horse’s name came up a few days later with a local pro and he asked if I saw her hand and I said no - I really didn’t look at her hands and he said she was missing 2 fingers on her hand compliments of this very horse - he had attacked her and bitten them right off. Wonderful. That’s just what I needed being in a public boarding barn and endangering not only me but the staff and other boarders too …

The other was a young WB cross gelding. Was in cross ties when I came in and I said I wanted to see him ridden. He gets to the barn door and refuses to go outside so they get carrots and pat him and tell him its okay - that he’s been outside before and he’ll be okay. I watch this charade for about 20 seconds - I get a broom and whack him on the ass and out he goes and they appear to be horrified I did that to their horse. So - daughter gets on, mother leads her to the far corner and the girl trots back on him. He’s a 10+ mover and cute as heck under tack. He stops at the gate and wont move - mother leads him to the far corner and back he trots again. I ask if I can see a canter so now after he is led to the far corner he canters back. I ask to see him jump. Now after being led to the far corner they put a jump along the rail and he jumps it and is a 10+ jumper. I ask if they can actually ride him around the ring without being led and the girl says I can try but he doesnt really “like it”. So she talks to him and tells him what a good boy he is and pats him and asks him to move forward. He pins his ears and refuses to budge. I cluck at him and flap my arms and the girl is getting really nervous now and his ears are back even flatter against his head and he is now popping up in front and cow kicking and the mother grabs the bridle and the girl gets off almost in tears. They were asking $4500.00 for him. I actually liked him enough that I offered them $1000 for him - take it or leave it. They said my offer was an insult and I said no problem - I am now getting into my truck & trailer and as they were a good 3 hours away from me once I left I would not be back. I get into my truck, start down the driveway, they come running after me, asked me to speak to the husband who again told me my offer was an insult, I wouldn’t budge off the $1000 and in the end they accepted it (smart move on their part). Got him back to the barn I was boarding at at the time, climbed on with the biggest and longest spurs I owned and my beating stick, made it about 10 feet past the barn door and he balked and refused to go forward. He got the spurs and a tap with the stick behind my leg and he started rearing and spinning to go back to the barn so now as well as the diggers REALLY digging into his side, he got the stick on his neck and shoulder into the direction of his spin. The battle probably lasted 3-4 minutes before he decided to walk forward. We got to the ring and he refused to go in and another battle ensued as he started running backwards and trying to rear and spin back to the barn and this time it lasted maybe 2-3 minutes before he went in. We walked around the ring - that’s all I asked him to do - and finished up a few minutes later. Each ride thereafter he would “test” but the tests got shorter and less enthusiastic each time so he was learning. Each ride I would “tap” him on the shoulder with the stick so he knew I had one with me. He actually turned into a lovely youngster with impeccable movement and jump but he always “tested” and I had to tell anyone that called on him that this is what he would do, this is what they needed to do and were they comfortable dealing with this issue with him. He ended up going to a really gutsy forward riding event rider and they enjoyed a lot of success together so that story ended very well for this very talented but initially spoiled young horse …

[Halt_Near_X]

I showed up and the horse was exactly as described, with excellent and age-appropriate ground work done.

[cayuse]

I was about twenty when I went to try a horse with my best freind. The horse was a handsome older type 15.2 hand red roan QH gelding about 12 - 14 years old. Perfect to handle on the ground nice mover, seemed sound and a wonderful ride. Until I went to dismount. I was easing my foot out of the right iron and the next thing I know I was flat on my back almost unable to move. He had gone straight up like a rocket almost going over backwards according to what my freind said. It was really dirty, horse gave no inclination of having that in him. And I was not on his mouth when I went to dismount. He just felt that subtle shift in weight and “blew”.
The owners response was “Oh yeah, he does that with the grandkids…”

[Joyrider]

Halt Near X - that IS a surprise!

Can I just say two words for our shopping surprise recently? Chest biter!!!

[HappyTalk]

When I was in the seventh grade, I started shopping for a horse, previously having owned and ridden ponies. I called about a Morgan in the classifieds and my mother and I went out see him. I groomed him, tacked him up, rode him, and fell in love. We then made an appointment to come back out later in the day with my father to OK the purchase. We arrived and I walked into the horse’s paddock while my parents were talking to the owner. Immediately, the horse whirls and charges at me with teeth bared. The owner jumps in and drags me to safety. He admitted that the horse had been drugged at the first appointment earlier in the day. I will never forget the experience. He was a beautiful bay named Flame.

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

Two stand out to me:

The first was when I was about 11 or 12 - I was outgrowing my Shetland mare and shopping for my first horse. Called about one in the paper, who was advertised as a smaller Anglo-Arab mare, “about 14.2,” they said, and well-broke, “the grandkids can ride her!” Uh-huh. If there was an ounce of Arab in this mare, it was several generations back - she had to be every bit of 16.2 already at just 2 years of age. Her hooves - ye gods, they’d never been done, and the grandkids riding her? Sure did. With grandma leading them around bareback. We passed.

Fast-forward about three years - I was looking for a second horse to bring along (having found an absolute saint of a mare in the kill pens at a local auction for that ‘first horse’) and the local horse trader had a three-year old Arab mare for sale. We knew the breeder and the mare was super-sweet and beautiful - just started, very quiet. And, as we discovered a few months later, pregnant.

[Bluey]

Starting reining, a new discipline for me, with a friend that is an accomplished trainer.
We find an older backyard type horse for sale cheap, that someone bought as a barrel racer playday horse for their beginner kid in the spring, but horse was just too much for her.
Looking him up, he shows to have good reining breeding and even a nice show record when young.
We go look at him and the lady that owns him is scared to ride him to show him to us.
My friend gets on, puts him thru his paces, the lady’s jaw is touching the ground, she keeps saying, I didn’t know he can do all that!

We did buy him and he really was a very talented reiner, but had been soured up in the pen, probably why he was sold for other than show as a reiner.
He made a good practice horse.
He definitively was too much horse for a beginner kid.

[saddleup]

I went to try an Arab gelding to use as a trail horse. The test ride went okay, but when I dismounted he reached around and grabbed the back of my shirt, tearing the whole back off from the yoke seam down to the hem, then waved the fabric around like a victory flag.

The seller laughed and said that was his favorite trick, though usually he didn’t actually tear the shirt apart.

I didn’t buy him.

[Foxglove]

Took a student who had sold her 4-H pig to buy a horse. She’d found a sorrel gelding with good experience that fit the bill. That he was in her price range concerned me until we saw him leaning against a barn looking like a skeleton. And he was bay. Her mom was with us and went into over drive (the woman loved to fatten up critters --everything from barn cats to beef cows). The papers didn’t fit the horse (wrong age, wrong color, wrong markings) --but they bought him anyway. Somehow we did get the papers on the horse, and the mom did fatten him up. He turned out to be a beautiful quarter horse who took the girl through 10 years of 4-H. He died the week she got married --as if he knew his job was done.

Second story: I admired a hunter on the field. The woman’s husband heard me and called and said they wanted to sell him. I bought him IMMEDIATELY over the phone --he was a good looking, well behaved horse. When I picked him up I stood beside him for the first time (I’d always seen him from my horse, never from the ground). He was BARELY 15 hh (at almost 6’, I rode 16 hh or taller when I could find one). I brought him home anyway and thought the kids would like him. Turned out he hated kids (read buck, rear, bolt). So finally I took him on --and (after 10 weeks of training/instruction on how to ride him–turned out he was trained Western) --he’s been my number 1 horse ever since --12 years now --incredible hunter on the field and carried me 250 miles across MI last year on a 14 day trail ride. Sound as a dollar and just plain fun to ride. Still hates kids, though, and won’t work on a tight rein.

Foxglvoe

[mountainhorse]

[QUOTE=TrueColours;8818748]

The other was a young WB cross gelding. Was in cross ties when I came in and I said I wanted to see him ridden. He gets to the barn door and refuses to go outside so they get carrots and pat him and tell him its okay - that he’s been outside before and he’ll be okay. I watch this charade for about 20 seconds - I get a broom and whack him on the ass and out he goes and they appear to be horrified I did that to their horse. So - daughter gets on, mother leads her to the far corner and the girl trots back on him. He’s a 10+ mover and cute as heck under tack. He stops at the gate and wont move - mother leads him to the far corner and back he trots again. I ask if I can see a canter so now after he is led to the far corner he canters back. I ask to see him jump. Now after being led to the far corner they put a jump along the rail and he jumps it and is a 10+ jumper. I ask if they can actually ride him around the ring without being led and the girl says I can try but he doesnt really “like it”. So she talks to him and tells him what a good boy he is and pats him and asks him to move forward. He pins his ears and refuses to budge. I cluck at him and flap my arms and the girl is getting really nervous now and his ears are back even flatter against his head and he is now popping up in front and cow kicking and the mother grabs the bridle and the girl gets off almost in tears. They were asking $4500.00 for him. I actually liked him enough that I offered them $1000 for him - take it or leave it. They said my offer was an insult and I said no problem - I am now getting into my truck & trailer and as they were a good 3 hours away from me once I left I would not be back. I get into my truck, start down the driveway, they come running after me, asked me to speak to the husband who again told me my offer was an insult, I wouldn’t budge off the $1000 and in the end they accepted it (smart move on their part). Got him back to the barn I was boarding at at the time, climbed on with the biggest and longest spurs I owned and my beating stick, made it about 10 feet past the barn door and he balked and refused to go forward. He got the spurs and a tap with the stick behind my leg and he started rearing and spinning to go back to the barn so now as well as the diggers REALLY digging into his side, he got the stick on his neck and shoulder into the direction of his spin. The battle probably lasted 3-4 minutes before he decided to walk forward. We got to the ring and he refused to go in and another battle ensued as he started running backwards and trying to rear and spin back to the barn and this time it lasted maybe 2-3 minutes before he went in. We walked around the ring - that’s all I asked him to do - and finished up a few minutes later. Each ride thereafter he would “test” but the tests got shorter and less enthusiastic each time so he was learning. Each ride I would “tap” him on the shoulder with the stick so he knew I had one with me. He actually turned into a lovely youngster with impeccable movement and jump but he always “tested” and I had to tell anyone that called on him that this is what he would do, this is what they needed to do and were they comfortable dealing with this issue with him. He ended up going to a really gutsy forward riding event rider and they enjoyed a lot of success together so that story ended very well for this very talented but initially spoiled young horse … :)[/QUOTE]

Total sidebar…and I get that this was an obviously spoilt/sour little horse, but just to clarify, this is really unacceptable behavior to do when horse shopping…if you were looking at a horse of mine (none of which are spoilt or sour, however), and performed a similar unorthodox task to a behavior you may have found unpleasing, I would ask you to leave. Smacking someone else’s strange (i.e.: you don’t know this horse/are their trainer, etc.) horse on the rump with a broom, or waving your arms around wildly while an obviously nervous young rider is on a horse are two very unsafe practices. Not cool.

Carry on.

[allons-y]

I had outgrown my Tony the Pony, 11 HH, that didnt take long, 2 years maybe.

“7” yo red gelding in the paper, my dad actually wanted him for himself. I agreed to share, he was in the Sheriff’s Mounted Posse. So off we went to see him.

HO said he could be “hard to catch in the pasture”. Of course, all he had was pasture.Probably 20 open acres of pasture. HO loaded Dad and I in his truck and off we went to “catch” the horse. Remember the movie “Safari” or something? They roped giraffes and Zebras from trucks - well, thats what we did to catch this horse!

He was very sweet after he was caught, rode well and we bought him. We said we would be back with a trailer tomorrow, but NO. HO said “HUP” and Straw the wonder horse jumped in the bed of the truck, flatfooted. He skidded in the bed until his chest hit the back of the cab. HO said “there you go”.

We actually took him home that way, him looking over the cab, mane and forelock blowing in the wind. Come on, I was 11 and both of us were stupid I guess.

After every bath, he got lighter. He was actually a palimino, living like a feral horse for years in Alabama red clay. Former HO said he hadn’t been touched in years.

He was really a wonder horse, we did practically everything and won almost everything we competed at. And he wore that horrible, heavy black parade saddle, with silver things everywhere and tapaderos for parades with my Dad. He went on S&Rescue missions with him and hoity toity English shows with me.

He looked ridiculous conformation-wise, long body, long neck, short legs. He won every trotting race us kids had at the barn too. Maybe some Standardbred in there somewhere…

Best impulse buy ever.