Seller is importing a horse to sell and I’m interested. Seller doesn’t have any info about past colics, shoeing, any health issues etc because horse came from an auction. I’ve found the previous owner and want to reach out to get more detail. I have a gut feeling seller will look askance at this… but I can’t logically think of a reason why they should, and horse ain’t cheap. What’s your take?
Tough titties. If you are about to spend good $$ on a horse and the seller isn’t providing any useful info, by all means do what you can to inform yourself.
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Although I completely agree with this, if you’re worried the seller could react poorly can you have a friend contact the previous owner for you?
I think that if the seller doesn’t like it, perhaps there’s something to hide … I can’t imagine having a source for more info and ignoring it, that’s for sure… hmm.
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My first question is: How would the seller know? If you talk to orig. owner and are happy with responses, you dont even have to tell seller. If you find out something bad that would make you walk away, who then cares what the seller thinks. More information is always better. On the other hand my next question is: how do you know the orig owner will even be telling the truth? No motivation to get in the middle…
I admit to being jaded at the moment, having gone thru a an import situation that turned into a nightmare beyond my wildest expectations. And along the way seller and others were not truthful.
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Ooof, I’m sorry to hear that… share details if you can?
To your other point no - there’s no way of knowing if anyone is being truthful, and I bet the previous owner is relatively incentivized to say the horse is fine/great. But sometimes you might see or sense a pattern, or can read between the lines. At the end of the day though if you’re importing sight unseen, you take the biggest risk out of anyone in the chain. I did learn things from the breeder and got lots of photos, but it’s all very much TBD if it’s true…
Vetted a horse in Spain from a reputable seller; did not know personally but know a number of people who have been buyers from/thru her and have seen the horses. Mine vetted well in April. In mid May went to be gelded, and five weeks later got picked up to go from Spain to Amsterdam for flight. Arrived there with a wonky eye, vet examined said eye was sunken in, rotated on axis and not terribly responsive to sudden movements. Indicated it was likely 4-6 weeks old based on amount of atrophy. Shipped horse to USA, sent directly to major clinic for evaluation. Eye was part of cranial nerve issues and there were also hind end issues; all neuro. Many tests and 3 weeks or so later the conclusion was a rare disease called polyneurits equi - degenerative, no treatment. Its believed to be auto immune related and I suspect but cant prove that the process and stress of putting the horse under for gelding probably triggered it. Seller (or part-owner or agent depending on the day) claimed it was injury on trailer. Necropsy and tests proved otherwise. In early days “seller” said she would “make things right and if I wanted money back…” then did a 180 and went back to denial. As I found out in late June, horse was never sent back to the original location (which was part of contract), but to some unknown farm while he recovered. Someone there took pics of the eye, which is clearly NQR and sent a note from vet that the horse was fine…(???).
I do not “blame” the seller for the disease, but someone should have been more honest before he shipped, and IMO there should have been at least a modest financial offering as I was out a lot of cash in spite of insurance. Instead she offered to work with me to find another horse (and would waive commission - yeah sure…) or I could have one of her youngsters. She well knew that I am upper 60s and wanted a somewhat made horse - 8-10ish, not 1 or 2.
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Oh how galling - I’m so sorry 
Hopefully you were able to get something from her (even a sellable youngster?)
I do not want a youngster, sellable or otherwise - or the bills until its sellable. (I board…) She knew that. Plus I would have had to pay for transport to US. Plus I do NOT trust this woman. Personally I am burned harshly with respect to the idea of importing and buying sight unseen. Even though many people do it all the time with no problems. So in the end I got nothing.
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