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

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Diamontaire;8837893]
I got one of those happy surprises once. A neighbor was giving away 4 horses, due to cancer/back surgery/age. Neither one of the folks would be riding again, so just looking for good homes.
3 were paints, not my cup of tea, but the 4th was a gorgeous dark bay QH, foundation type with a kind eye. He bucks and jigs, was told. Miles on the trail will probably fix that, I thought, and walked him the mile home.
They had insisted I take his bridle, so glad I did, or I would still be scratching my head. Got home, put his bridle on to see what I had to work with, the Tom Thumb bit was hanging 2 inches too low and banging his front teeth.
Swapped out for a fat snaffle and rode off on my perfect trail horse.[/QUOTE]

In similar vein, this feedlot cowboy bought this well bred, beautiful filly, started her under saddle but could never get her to quit bucking.
As others told us, she used to buck him off every morning when he first got on, then work fine the rest of the day, rarely bucking again.

Well, cowboy got tired of getting bucked off, so he sold her to us as a broodmare prospect, saying he just could not get her to quit bucking and she did buck very hard.

I was not told that, just that a pretty filly just came in and see how she rides.
I always start or try horses in my English saddle, rode her around, she was very nice and quick and a bit hot, but never hinted at bucking at all.
After riding her for a couple weeks, I decided one day, we had a long ride, to use my western saddle, kinder on horse’s backs when just walking along trailing cattle slowly for long, hot hours.

I saddled her tied to a post in the barn, walked back into the tack room to get a bridle and heard this noise, came out and she was bucking, hard, tied to the post.

Stopped her, checked everything, finally we figured she was super sensitive to flank cinches, they really set her off.
We worked on desensitizing her to those, she was fine once she knew that those cinches were not someone goosing her out of the blue and she was fine after that.

Same as the quoted post above, she made a wonderful cowhorse and later a good broodmare for us.

You just never know, some times, horses are not really bad actors, but have a good horse reason to act up.
It is up to us to figure the difference.

[RackNRoll]

I was looking to buy my first gaited trail horse. An online acquaintance had just what I was seeking - a dead broke, nicely gaited trail horse with no vices or training needs. Perfect.

Drove 6 hours. Pulled into his drive. Saw spotted saddle mare tied to tree… saddled, dripping with sweat, lathered up and panting. Uh oh.
But I’d driven 6 hours, so I started looking her over. Started to pick up a foot and owner jumped in saying “Let me!!”
She double-barreled him in the chest with both hinds. Sent him flying. He laid there gasping, then got slowly got up and said, “She’s in heat right now.”
But I’d driven 6 hours, so I got on and tried to ride off. She balked and reared.
But I’d driven 6 hours, so I got her moving around, then rode out. She actually had a nice little saddle rack.
Turned to head home and she tried to take off.
But I’d driven 6 hours, so I got her turned her around. She stopped. Asked her to move forward. Rodeo starts. She is actually a pretty talented bucker.
Got her stopped and stepped off. Walked her to owner and handed him the reins.
Looked at the hoof prints on his chest, then said “Yeah… she’s not what I’m looking for.”

Resisted urge to punch him in the throat.

Then drove another 6 hours.

[chai]

I love these…mostly because it makes me know I’m not alone. I’ve taken in many, many horses through the years that needed a home, so I’ve only horse shopped for 2 actual purchases. But I know how sellers can often take, um, poetic license, in their advertisements.
For that reason, I developed a list of questions for every seller. I was polite, but I asked direct questions like ‘Has the horse ever had laminitis, navicular syndrome, multiple colics, etc., and will you share your vet records with me’ to “How long have you owned this horse, why are you selling and who was the previous owner,” that stuff.
Even so, I ran into some situations that are so similar to the ones posted here. We should all be in some kind of recovery club.
Here are a few highlights:

1. Oh, we just drove 6 hours and you didn’t mention you bred the mare two weeks ago?
2. Golly, what a mystery it is that we’re halfway through a pre-purchase exam 8 hours from home on a $15,000 horse and the veterinarian has just discovered the x rays you provided us are not even from the sale horse. Selling trainer disappears into thin air at that moment, I pay the vet and wrap that one up quickly. Take sobbing daughter and start the drive home when horse owner calls to tell me the woman ‘is a liar and a drug dealer but I’ll sell you the horse for $1000’. Um, no thanks.
3. Horse number 30 in the search. So wonderful, we take her to my daughter’s trainer for a week long trial. Fall completely in love. Final x ray of the pre-purchase exam shows a significant OCD lesion and arthritis in a $15,000 horse that we’d be buying for jumping. We tearfully send her back. Owner calls and offers her to me for significantly less, but we don’t want to set my daughter up for a situation where the horse can’t do what she wants to do so we pass. Wees later, daughter is still pining for the horse. I realize that sometimes chemistry is more important, so we call the sellers, who jack up the price by $5,000 and we buy her. She turns out to be the most courageous, wonderful, partner my daughter could have asked for. She came home after a regional show career and lived out the good life as a back yard love bug until we lost her to complications from Cushings. So once in a while, even though the buying can be a nightmare, if you just hang in there, something wonderful can happen.

[x]

[QUOTE=clanter;8837901]
imaginary dollar signs?[/QUOTE]

Maybe!

[PeteyPie]

[QUOTE=bugsynskeeter;8835018]
PSSM horses CAN have grain, you just need to have low NSC. My PSSM gelding in on grain.

Back to the program…[/QUOTE]

I’m curious about this. What grain do you feed your horse? Oats, Corn, and Barley have respective rates of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) of 45.6%, 64.5%, and 56.0%. The NSC in Timothy hay is only 17.1%, and 21.9% for alfalfa. So the percentage of NSC in grains is sometimes more than triple that of the hays, high rates by any standard. Are you feeding another type of grain?

I have noticed that some people call any pelleted feed grain, including alfalfa pellets, so there is some confusion which results from the different usages of that word. When I say grain, I mean the fruit or seed from the cereal (plant). The grains I am familiar with are oats, corn, and barley.

Source:
Joe Pagan, Kentucky Equine Research
https://ker.com/wp-content/uploads/1998/01/103.pdf
(I quoted the data from this article by Joe Pagan. I noticed that the Triple Crown Feed data are slightly different; Triple Crown Feeds list alfalfa as having only 11.3% NSC).

Triple Crown
http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/articles/horsenutrition-carbohydrates-in-equine-nutrition-horse-nutrition/

[OldMorgans]

From the Other Side

In this one, I was the seller. Had a nice young mare that was not what I wanted in my breeding program. She was going well under saddle and really enjoyed going out on trails & was very good at it. Talked with potential buyer on phone before she came to ride & try. Told her the mare was green, could be opinionated at times, needed someone who knew how to deal with a horse that could get pushy. The buyer & her husband came, we mounted us all & headed out. The mare did well both at front of line, side by side, and behind.

Then, going down a narrow cleft in a creek bank, she fired off a double-barrel kick at the horse I was riding behind her. I sheepishly gave the old line “She’s never done that before.” We all laughed.

At home, we took her to the wash rack to hose off. She had been in it several times & hosed also several times. About half way through, she suddenly ducked her head and tried to walk out under the railing and got herself sort of stuck. She never panicked, but we had to help her out. Yep, “She’s never done that before.”

They bought her anyways. The woman eventually divorced her husband and moved to another state. She took the mare with her and had her till she died of old age. She rode her everywhere and loved her dearly.

But I have to wonder what stories she told of her trial time here.

[Risuena]

I have a story from when I got my “screenname” (not sure what you call it) horse, Risuena. In case it matters, I got her for free, well, $1 with the bill of sale.

Right after we had completed the sale, her owner said, “Oh, there’s one thing…”

:eek:

Apparently, she had a history of going down when being saddled/girthed up. He then showed me the dent in the side of his truck she made when she went down one time!

Figured I’d deal with it but was (and am) pretty grumpy that he didn’t mention it until then, especially since he told me immediately after she was officially “sold”. Interestingly, she never did it with me. She had been ridden western, and I ride english, so I presume it’s related to that. After a long time being very careful saddling/girthing her up, I eventually stopped doing anything differently, and once intentionally threw the saddle on and girthed her up pretty enthusiastically to see what would happen - she never even batted an eye. Huh.

[bugsynskeeter]

[QUOTE=PeteyPie;8839403]
I’m curious about this. What grain do you feed your horse? Oats, Corn, and Barley have respective rates of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) of 45.6%, 64.5%, and 56.0%. The NSC in Timothy hay is only 17.1%, and 21.9% for alfalfa. So the percentage of NSC in grains is sometimes more than triple that of the hays, high rates by any standard. Are you feeding another type of grain?

I have noticed that some people call any pelleted feed grain, including alfalfa pellets, so there is some confusion which results from the different usages of that word. When I say grain, I mean the fruit or seed from the cereal (plant). The grains I am familiar with are oats, corn, and barley.

Source:
Joe Pagan, Kentucky Equine Research
https://ker.com/wp-content/uploads/1998/01/103.pdf
(I quoted the data from this article by Joe Pagan. I noticed that the Triple Crown Feed data are slightly different; Triple Crown Feeds list alfalfa as having only 11.3% NSC).

Triple Crown
http://www.triplecrownfeed.com/articles/horsenutrition-carbohydrates-in-equine-nutrition-horse-nutrition/[/QUOTE]

I do not feed whole grains, such as those listed. Mine is on SafeChoice Special Care. My apologies if I didn’t use the correct terminology.

[ATB]

My palms were sweating while reading this thread, as I was wondering if some people we had come to look at a mare would chime in here. Here’s my perspective (I’m absolutely positive that they would tell a very different version of the story :lol: ):

So we have a nice little mare for sale that we’re advertising as a Dressage or Event prospect, great all around horse, nice to hack out, average mover but pretty, pretty, pretty, looks like a Breyer model (super refined palomino with a stark white mane and tail, blaze, etc.). Sugar sweet on the ground, but very green and sensitive, pretty straightforward and good minded but NOT a kick/pull ride (which we have been completely up front about to all interested parties).

People call, super interested for their 18 yr old daughter who wants to bring along a green horse, used to jump but wants to eventually do mid level Dressage, been riding all her life, yada yada yada, horse would be in a training barn, sounds like a decent fit so we set up an appointment.

Mother and daughter show up, daughter sort of nervously leering in the background, won’t go up to the mare to pet her and hasn’t checked her out, hasn’t asked any questions, kind of odd but whatever. I get on the mare, warm her up, take her over some crossrails, she feels good so I ask the girl if she wants to get on.

Before getting on, I give the girl a few words of advice (no pulling or yanking, light calf squeezes are all the leg you need, no heel, talk to her etc) and just get a deer in the headlights look, doesn’t ask any questions, and gets on the horse and proceeds to hold her reins in a tightly clenched fist. She then gives the mare a huge wallop from her heels. The mare scoots forward and her head up, and the girl grabs her in the mouth hard.

Instead of walking to get the horse calmed down, the girl again wallops her in the gut with her heels, trying to get her to trot. Again, the head goes flying up and the girl yanks back, and it keeps happening over and over again, and the girl isn’t taking any direction from me. But wait, it gets better.

So she finally gives the mare her head enough to get a little trot out of her, but then starts flying out of the tack. Like, I kid you not, her butt was a foot out of the seat. It quickly becomes apparent that she doesn’t know how to post and her reins have slipped so she’s clutching them by the buckle. The mare hates bouncing, so gets quicker and quicker while I’m yelling “JUST TELL HER WHOA AND SHORTEN UP YOUR REINS”. Predictably, she ignores me. Finally, they break into a canter. They just kept getting faster and faster and the girl almost fell off several times (did I mention that her foot was jammed all the way into the stirrup?? :mad:). Finally stopped them by stepping out in front of the horse and raising my hands up. The mare wasn’t running away - the girl just was kept kicking her and bouncing around without any consistent contact.

This bullsh*t goes on for a freaking HOUR. The girl finally falls off (not bucked off. Fell off.), but insists on getting back on, completely ignoring my suggestions to call it a day. Gets back on, mare is getting pissed (at this point mouth is bleeding, covered in foam, just done and fried with the whole situation), throws an itty bitty cow kick and the girl is off again, finally says she wants to be done.

Throughout all of this, her mother is just standing there holding a video camera, not even upset when the girl falls off??? I lead the mare out of the ring, stick her on crossties and try to bid them goodbye. “Well aren’t you going to untack her?” the mother asks. I explain that I don’t want her to end on a naughty note like that and I’m going to get on her in a minute (while casually slipping her mints and wondering why I’m not asking 5k more for her after she didn’t completely lose her mind with this girl). Mother insists on staying to watch me work the mare, with the disinterested daughter staring at the ground. I hop on, mare gives a tiny crowhop, then does a quick w/t/c both ways in a cute frame without issue. Mother is recording the entire thing (was she hoping to get film of me falling off???) and the daughter goes storming out.

The whole thing was the weirdest thing ever. A quick fb stalk revealed that they did in fact have a trainer, but how is it even possible for someone to be that bad of a rider while in a program? We sell several horses a year (some of them beginners trail horses) so I’ve seen some pretty bad riders, but she was easily one of the worst. And the mother didn’t seem worried when she fell, is that just a normal occurrence in her lessons? How is it possible that she ever jumped? And weirdest of all WHY are they looking at green horses? So many questions.

[EmilyM]

[QUOTE=StormyDay;8818577]
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:[/QUOTE]

OMG. that could have been a serious disaster. Some “horse” people have no horse sense.

[Minerva]

I boarded with a woman who always explained the story of her horse’s tail. It was a western pleasure paint, nicely bred, that she had test ridden and bought and was loading up. As the horse walked onto her trailer, the seller said, “Oh! By the way, we had his tail done!”

Horse was already loaded, so she just said okay. When she got it home (long haul), she discovered that it was more like the tail had been butchered. It was completely paralyzed, and muscle atrophy kept it clenched down. She had to physically lift and hold his tail up multiple times a day to remove the stuck manure and wipe the area down, and of course he had to live in tail bags (clean ones every day or two). During the summer the flies would be attracted to the stuck manure but he couldn’t swish them away obviously so he’d just kick the wall in his stall, which exacerbated hock issues.

I never could figure out how she didn’t notice the completely immobile tail.

[peedin]

[QUOTE=ATB;8846812]

This bullsh*t goes on for a freaking HOUR. The girl finally falls off (not bucked off. Fell off.), but insists on getting back on, completely ignoring my suggestions to call it a day. [/QUOTE]

Why in heaven’s name did you let this continue for an hour? She “ignored” your suggestions? You TELL her it’s over.

[invinoveritas]

Well, 98% of the horses I was shown were shorter than my 16 hand minimum height. One in Florida could not have a bridle put on him due to mouth injury. My horse showing friend who owned a barn down there had lined up a tryout one weekend and then the seller told him that the horse had been injured weeks before. (And she’s a Cother.)

I guess the main thing was height. When you are looking for an expensive horse, the sellers tend, in my experience, to be less honest. When I was looking for a cheap horse after finding a great expensive one (finally after looking and trying out dozens and dozens of shorties) it seemed that the seller were more honest about height and everything else.

It’s like buying anything, you have to use your judgment and that of your expert friends to get the right horses.

[ATB]

[QUOTE=peedin;8847712]
Why in heaven’s name did you let this continue for an hour? She “ignored” your suggestions? You TELL her it’s over.[/QUOTE]

Hindsight is 20/20. I do wish that I had made her stop, but in the moment I really saw no way to do it without being a total a$$hole. If they had wanted to try the horse again or go forward with the purchase, I would’ve said NO WAY. Some lessons have to be learned the hard way, I guess New test ride policy is that EVERYONE signs a liability waiver (before this I treated them like an afterthought and frequently let people ride without them, and yes I know that they don’t hold up in court). Also, everyone starts out their ride on a longe line now, only taken off when they’ve shown their ability to safely stop the horse. Riding like she did was dangerous for everyone and I don’t care for a repeat.

[HappyTalk]

[QUOTE=Minerva;8847665]
I boarded with a woman who always explained the story of her horse’s tail. It was a western pleasure paint, nicely bred, that she had test ridden and bought and was loading up. As the horse walked onto her trailer, the seller said, “Oh! By the way, we had his tail done!”

Horse was already loaded, so she just said okay. When she got it home (long haul), she discovered that it was more like the tail had been butchered. It was completely paralyzed, and muscle atrophy kept it clenched down. She had to physically lift and hold his tail up multiple times a day to remove the stuck manure and wipe the area down, and of course he had to live in tail bags (clean ones every day or two). During the summer the flies would be attracted to the stuck manure but he couldn’t swish them away obviously so he’d just kick the wall in his stall, which exacerbated hock issues.

I never could figure out how she didn’t notice the completely immobile tail.[/QUOTE]

She bought it without a PPE?

[Equisis]

[QUOTE=peedin;8847712]
Why in heaven’s name did you let this continue for an hour? She “ignored” your suggestions? You TELL her it’s over.[/QUOTE]

I have to agree with this. The mare’s mouth was bleeding??? Jesus. It’s your responsibility to keep your horse safe from this kind of abuse.

When I was shopping for my first horse as a teen, we were on a budget and my trainer was minimally involved, so we ended up having a couple of interesting experiences. Highlights include:

• STB pacer who had a leg so crooked you had to pick his hoof from the opposite side (neither the pacing nor the crooked leg were noted in the ad; he was advertised as a LL event prospect)
• Totally green TB gelding whose ad stated he had lots of hunter pace experience, done local shows, had professional training, etc. I did my best on him but struggled to keep him on a circle and the canter was a mess; meanwhile, owner is telling my mom how great he looks, considering it is his first under-saddle canter! :eek:
• Cute little TB, advertised as advanced beginner safe. Owner said she didn’t have time to tack her up (??) so I tried her bareback in a halter. She balked and reared- seriously reared, not just a pop- every time we tried to pass the arena gate. I was a kid and fearless, so just kept kicking and trying to carry on, but in hindsight, it was pretty horrifying.

[Beck]

[QUOTE=ATB;8846812]

This bullsh*t goes on for a freaking HOUR. [/QUOTE]

Umm…no. No it does not. Why would you allow this? I see elsewhere you commented there was no way to stop it without being an asshole. Guess what: stopping that would not be ‘being an asshole’. You were taking an awful risk, allowing it to go on.

…
Throughout all of this, her mother is just standing there holding a video camera… Mother insists on staying to watch me work the mare… Mother is recording the entire thing

Also no. Seriously? You allow them to video all of it: all the risky behaviour, all of how you did not step in. Lucky it did not become evidence in a court case.

We are all afraid of taking actions that can provoke someone into calling us ‘assholes’ but there are times when it should not - and does not - apply.

[Beck]

[QUOTE=ATB;8846812]

This bullsh*t goes on for a freaking HOUR. [/QUOTE]

Umm…no. No it does not. Why would you allow this? I see elsewhere you commented there was no way to stop it without being an asshole. Guess what: stopping that would not be ‘being an asshole’. You were taking an awful risk, allowing it to go on.

…
Throughout all of this, her mother is just standing there holding a video camera… Mother insists on staying to watch me work the mare… Mother is recording the entire thing

Also no. Seriously? You allow them to video all of it: all the risky behaviour, all of how you did not step in. Lucky it did not become evidence in a court case.

We are all afraid of taking actions that can provoke someone into calling us ‘assholes’ but there are times when it should not - and does not - apply.

eta: abusing a horse like that, misrepresenting themselves and documenting it? THEY are the assholes. The response is “Off my horse, NOW”.

[allons-y]

Oh Oh, I’ve got an even better one! The old farmer running the barn when I was a kid bought horses at the stockyard for resale. I usually got to ride his new purchases, work out the kinks, then he’d resale. One I bought. A small 15 hh bay, looked Morgan but with giant hooves, some Draft in there. I got him to be my Western speed-event horse. He was very fast, but had no breaks. I finally got that sorted out after a couple trips to the ER (My poor sainted Mom, we spent a lot of time there)

Anyway, now I could stop, go, steer. So the real work (for him) began. Now he said NO Im not going in the arena, that’s where all the work happens! He would not go in the arena gate, not astride, not led. I believe in intimidating, barking not biting, so I hollared at him (I’m 14), and picked up a nearby 4x4 and waved it menacingly.

His legs crumpled and he laid flat out, on his side, unmoving. “You killed him!” Shouted the old guy Mr H. “I never touched him” I retorted hotly. “You gave him a heart attack!” I replied cooly, “then you sold me a sick horse and I want my monet back” All 125$

“Nope, buyer beware (be wire is how he said it), he’s yours now”

Turns out he was a trick horse, had multiple buttons I gradually learned. We were even featured in Western Horseman magazine. Mr H. was furious, “I didn’t sell no tricks with that horse”.

Seller beware, I thought.

I didn’t really want a speed event horse, sold him to a friend. Got a crazy TB and jumped all sorts of things. Retrained him to be a Dressage horse and got a good reputation for training.