Hopefully he is everything thing you want.
Unfortunately I know of a Lombardo horse that was sold via video as a safe AA horse. But a nasty bolting habit reared it’s ugly head. Horse was eventually sold, not fun to deal with!
So I would caution people not only buying directly from them but buying horses that come from them.
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Oh, I expected that it was worse.
I wish I could say that it surprised me that she doubled down, but unfortunately she’s likely had success using the “ignore, ignore, ignore” method when dealing with American buyers, banking on you not having the contacts in Holland to hold her responsible for her immoral and potentially illegal business practices.
I don’t blame you in the least for putting her on blast - she had ample opportunity to work it out with you in private and chose not to. She has plenty of time to post horses for sale all over social media - she has plenty of time to at least answer you. She certainly had time to read the FB thread and untag herself so she is well aware of your unhappiness.
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THESE STORIES are why I may just check out of horses entirely. I finally found a horse that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I’ve been casually looking for a few years. It was the first and only horse I’ve ever felt fit the bill enough to even go look at. Long story short, I have this forum to thank for teaching me to go in eyes wide open. There were so many lies by omission. Things changed more when I mentioned I’d be including a drug test at the PPE. After a failed attempt at a PPE (no one could get near her) I was pretty much ghosted by all involved. The owner took down everything on the internet that linked her to horses at all. The whole experience has me even more distrustful, depressed and wanting to call it quits.
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This. I’ve imported 7 horses and always handled importing and quotes personally and notified the seller who I was using.
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This has been your experience, but not everyone’s.
The seller (not the owner but the trainer/agent representing the owner) arranged shipping (importing to the US from Canada) for my horse and it was just as we agreed. To this day I am grateful to her for making it so easy for me.
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I can appreciate that, but they literally advertise themselves as “USA import experts” and say on their website that “By starting each horse ourselves and handling all aspects associated with importation and quarantine, Lombardo Sporthorses eliminates the fear, uncertainty and potential disappointment of buying a horse overseas.” It’s is not uncommon – this was the second horse I looked at overseas and the other seller was also arranging for me.
If a seller says that part of their shtick is to make sure the import process goes smoothly, I think it is fair to assume they know their quote is not off by 5000 Euros.
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Ooof! I’ll have to add this to my list of Lombardo-purchased horses with major issues for when folks ask about her. Including this one, I’m up to knowing of 2 put down with EDM within 3-6 months of import, this bolter and 2 rearers (both sold as AA horses).
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I would say so! 50 euros maybe. Not 5000
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Totally. I definitely did build myself some cushion into the budget, but if I had wanted to spend an extra 5000 Euros, I would have raised the budget ;). It’s not that the money didn’t exist to pay that cost, it’s that it ended up coming out of the wrong bucket. I am a single parent and I don’t have a traditional 9-5 job (I make most of my money as an adjunct – part-time – professor at two different schools, and then some doing direct service social work, and then some writing and delivering trainings for other social workers) and my horse money is separate from the cushion I maintain for myself and my daughter, which I consider to be the foundation of our financial stability. I would have stayed far away from that second bucket of money if the shipping quote had been even remotely close to what she told me it was. “Budget” does not mean (to me) “this is all the money I have on earth” it means “the money I am willing to spend.” Several people (mainly on FB) came at me for “trying to buy a horse I couldn’t afford,” which feels weird. I saved for five years to buy this horse, but that doesn’t mean I spent my entire savings on him. Of course I would not put myself in a position where 5000 euros is the difference between “budget” and “homelessness,” but that doesn’t mean it’s ok for someone to just spring it on me.
The issue is of course that Tamara knew I was at top budget with her 9000 euro quote. Whether she knew it from the day we started talking when I first asked about cost to LA, or sometime in the period before he was paid for, she did know before I paid for him. By not clearing this up, she prevented me from saying “you can negotiate the price or I can walk” when I actually had the option to do that. She told me before he was paid for that she had contacted the company and they would call me; if they had called me when she said they would, I would have known this ahead of time and could have dealt with it before there was no way out, but either she didn’t contact them when she said she did (this is my bet) or they didn’t reach out promptly (eventually I called them, which is when the person who answered said, “oh the horse going to LAX?”). She had told me she owned him for five years (implication: costing her money) and she had waited and waited and waited to break him to saddle and sell him because he was so small (stallion is 16.3; mare is 17 hands, both chunky builds for modern Dutch Warmbloods; he is a very finely built barely 15.2 at 5 1/2 years old). In that context I didn’t negotiate the price because it felt fair to me, so it’s not like we are talking about a situation where she had already come down – she hadn’t. Plus, she knew, even if I didn’t, that she had owned him less than a year and had incurred very few costs. So, you know, yuck.
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I have a friend who imported last year, her first time doing so. She used a buyers agent (not the seller or anyone connected to them), recommended to her by a mutual friend who is from Germany and has many connections throughout Europe. The agent arranged both the vetting and transport. A cost range of what vetting and transport “should” cost was provider to my friend by the agent ahead of time. The vetting went a few hundred dollars over budget because a few aspects of the horse’s health needed more investigation (intentionally vague here) but the transport went WAY over the amount estimated upfront. Like you probably about $5000 over but with less reason. There were reasons given for the estimate being way off (again intentionally vague), but my friend certainly wondered whether she was given a lowball estimate for transport to expand the amount she would spend on the purchase price, which was very reasonable for the horse in question. Even though the purchase price went to a different person, she suspected that generally an American importing for the first and probably only time is seen as someone who can be overcharged and even deceived without much in the way of consequences. She did share the details with the person who recommended this agent so maybe if there is a pattern with several similar problems that person might no longer recommend the agent. She has not shared her experience more widely because she is not as certain as you are that there was anything nefarious happening.
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I imported a young horses a few months ago. I used a highly recommended agent who does have a long term relationship with the breeder I bought from. In any event, pricing was between me and the breeder. Agent gets his commission from them…not me. Horses I was shown were in my price range - no surprises. X-rays were sent to me, so I only paid for physical exam and flexions. All transport (farm to export airport - US airport to quarantine, quarantine facility to my barn) was handled by agent and international shipping company. I could have, but didn’t want to handle all the logistics. My horse shipped quickly and once in transport, there were no delays. Flight to quarantine to my barn was 5 1/2 days. I’m so sorry OP! Glad you’re letting others know what can happen. I actually saw several bad (and good) reviews re: Lombardo Sport horses as I was considering using her. So glad I didn’t!
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Do you mind sharing with me who you used?
I used Klaus Schengber. He used to work at High Point Hanoverians in MD. Now he is doing mainly importing & trips to Germany. You can Google his name or look him up on Facebook. He is very transparent and happy to answer any/all questions. PM me if you’d like more direct contact details or info.
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I personally know of 2 quite nice characters who were sold as AA horses and were exactly as described. One is upper level, the second is doing 3rd atm. There are certainly some gems out of there.
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Very well said. Breaks my heart for people who have a lot of money tied up in a dream horse.
A horse person I know had a horse imported that she owned in Germany and the horse was being trained by a “friend” trainer there. When the horse “needed” to be retired, she brought him to the US with her trainer accompanying him. He started having lameness issues and he was xrayed. Turns out the trainer had put pins in his legs due to an injury and never told the owner. Owner tried to contact the trainer and get the story and could never get the trainer to respond. And this is someone she knew for years.
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