[QUOTE=hannah619;8048117]
I blew my afternoon reading through the posts on here referencing this place. I also blew my cool and got to the barn all paranoid and worked up.
It seems like there are two, and only two, instances of personal experience with horses from here that are continually linked back to, along with lots of eye rolling, judgment, and hearsay.
In one instance, it sounds like bone chips were discovered in the horse well after it was received. Those can happen anytime and are a big risk in OTTBs. Additionally it sounds like the person with this unfortunate experience has personal financial difficulties that are going to keep him/her from treating what is overall not a very serious ailment (although expensive and time consuming, certainly).
In the other instance, a person says her horse came off the trailer skinny, .2 HH shorter than expected, and was not “black.” A true black TB, or any breed, is rare. Lots of horses look black one season and lighten with the weather. Simply pulling the horse’s pedigree up on equibase.com would have informed the buyer what the horse’s registered color was. Other posts address the obvious, that TBs are not commonly measured because it doesn’t matter as much in the racing world as in other disciplines. There are no six foot jockeys.
Finally, TBs are notoriously difficult to put weight on. To non-OTTB people, they usually look skinny even at a perfectly healthy weight. Stress and diet change and a long trailer ride are more than enough for a horse to look “skinny.”
Oh, and there was a comment about the horse having a winter coat. Horses get winter coats. I personally find them ugly and would prefer a shiny summer horse too. But give me a break. You can read debates all day about stabling vs. paddock, blanketing vs. not blanketing, and there’s no right or wrong, just opinion. The fact of the matter is in winter, horses grow winter coats.
What was utterly ridiculous was at the end of that complainant’s thread, she finally admitted that the horse turned out to be performing successfully.
From my browsing through the horses sold by this place, it appears the vast majority are bottom-level claiming horses. This isn’t a knock on the seller (on the racing industry, maybe). I think we all know, and hate, where unproductive gelded racehorse running claiming races and earning little to nothing ends up.
So this seller charges $2,500 for a horse that’s probably worth, at his current stage in life, one dollar a pound. Too much? Depends. Do you want to go scour auctions looking for the perfect horse? Do you think a $2,500 horse is going to go for just a dollar a pound at auction? Do you get a chance to review the horse’s race history, breeding, soundness, get a PPE at auction?
I don’t think this seller holds itself out to be the same as an “adoption” group like CANTER or RERUN. Chiefly, you get a tattooed horse that you can sell if you want to. You could actually get an investment here, in that you can resell the horse after you put some mileage and training into him (and the seller does not purport in anyway to have reschooled the horses for whatever discipline you ride). Believe it or not, some people actually want to make money in the horse business. Buying from here gives you the opportunity to invest and make a return on your investment in a horse. I know that many good hearted souls think that’s wrong, but so be it. It’s reality.
I think it’s imperative to look up a potential OTTB on equibase.com. Did he have a six month layoff between races? Don’t buy him. Did he race consistently, but not too much? He’s probably sound. Look at his breeding. Learn about TB breeding, if you don’t know about it. Look for a sound line. Look for a line that’s not notoriously hot.
Look at the date of his last race. Again, this seller is in no way holding itself out to be training or reschooling these horses. Most of them are just off the track. If you don’t want to reschool or know how or have the patience to reschool an OTTB to be a normal horse, you shouldn’t buy from here. You shouldn’t buy an OTTB without lots of off track training. Guess what–those ones usually cost more.
For the record, and it seems like this will only be the third ACTUAL experience with this seller discussed on these forums, I know I took a huge risk buying this horse. I knew from the date of his last race that he is fresh off the track. I knew from the value of the races and his performance in them makes him a candidate for slaughter. I’m glad I paid more for him than $1 a pound, because he’s in better hands now.
I researched his race record and he’s as sound as that suggests. I am deeply familiar with TB breeding and know his lineage–not the best producers of racehorses, but sound, sane, durable, and decent with hunter lines.
I know that from the video the seller sent, he was ridden in a tight martingale in a two point and being worked on hard to do normal-horse stuff. I haven’t gotten on him yet and I won’t until he’s lived life as a normal horse for awhile.
The seller was easy to communicate with, returned my phone calls, talked openly. I didn’t know a thing about and could care less about her grammar (I’m a lawyer and and English major. I see stuff in my barn labeled “DO NOT TUCH.” Grammar and horses have nothing to do with one another. Did you know that horses don’t speak English, or any other language? Give me a break. I’ve ridden horses from abroad where they literally don’t speak the language you are all hyped up about being grammatically correct).
The seller didn’t really make me any promises, nor did I ask for them, but she said the horse was calm and sensible, got on well with other horses and was sound. So far, all of those things are true. She speculated he’ll be a good adult amateur hunter. She can’t know that for sure and I won’t go banging down her door if it turns out he isn’t. I could tell from equibase.com that the horse was a mudder, and she has a relationship enough with the trainer he came from to confirm that. (One final thing about equibase–you can pay like $5 to watch all the archived races you want. Do it. See how your potential horse moves, how he comes up after a race. If you can’t evaluate those things, don’t buy an OTTB). No one knows what a horse will be able to do. But he’s impressive and I do not feel taken for a ride.
I feel like these posts are an example of the worst things the internet, and horse people, do. There’s a lot of speculation-based opining, and it may actually deter people from buying a horse from a place that is legitimately doing good–buying slaughter-bound horses and reselling them for a teensy profit. I hope the ranting ends here.
I got a great horse from this seller. Like any horse, you never know and anything could happen, no matter how much you research or what anyone says. With an OTTB, you have to know what you are getting yourself into–he has NOT lived the same life as the rest of your horses or been trained the same way. That doesn’t make him not worth it. You just have to understand it. If you don’t understand notorious basic qualities of TBs like bad feet and “skinniness” and sensitivity, you aren’t ready for one.
I think this seller saved my horse from slaughter and he’s going to have a great second career. Please stop the bashing. Thank you.[/QUOTE]
Post 0 since nobody else quoted it. This tribute does not address the past history of fraud, non payment or even begin to explain the “Eclipse Award” claim (see the Racing Forum) and other claims like the Canadian SJ Team one that dwarf the usual questionable horse sales practices.
BTW, post history says 2 of 8 and shows only the 2 on this post? What hapoened to the other 6?