Update: he's here! Horse shopping: trusting your gut vs letting anxiety take over

[fivestrideline]

Yep definitely going to wait and maybe go see him again - there’s more to the story that tips the scales into “this is probably fixable with no impact on future soundness”, but I don’t want to give too many details.

We shall see how the other one goes with PPE. It is one I cannot trial due to distance, which is nerve wracking in its own way, but I have a good list of reasons to like it.

Part of the struggle is the amount of NQR horses I see while just looking at sale videos. Obviously COTH and the internet in general is full of people with problems they’re trying to fix (because people with sound horses are out riding them, not posting on a BB), which can skew the picture towards NO HORSE IS SOUND. And that’s a bigger issue for me - I can make anything look lame if I stare at it long enough, which fuels the background anxiety this thread is about. The money and the goals and the DESIRE to do this is all there - but this almost feels like buying a house for the first time (a four figure house… but still).

[fivestrideline]

@dmveventer

And TBH OP, if you really find you’re talking yourself out of good horses that’s a gut signal worth listening to as well

This is true - but I have yet to talk myself out of good horses. Just the entire process

[risuenaVT]

@Foxglove

I call him Bob.

More horses should be named Bob because it is a hilarious name for a horse (I know a giant OTTB named Bob and he delights me).

[Demerara_Stables]

Can you bring along a pair of easy boots? Even if you don’t want to ride in them, you could longe him in them and see if that helps.

To your greater question: I also try to follow my gut but after shopping for 3(!) years I’m about to give it all up myself too. I’m convinced The One isn’t out there.

[fivestrideline]

I can - but mine are all pretty large. This horse has tiny, run forward, tight-shod racehorse feet. But I could probably pad them enough to see.

I’m sorry to hear about your struggle - horse shopping sucks I’d like to think I have pretty basic desires for this horse, but it’s all quite exhausting. Exciting, sometimes, but exhausting.

I’ve realized this is the first time that I’ve seriously considered shipping something sight unseen, and I’m reevaluating that decision as we speak. I can learn to ride just about anything that isn’t a ticking time bomb and I don’t really need to “click” with a horse - but I think my anxiety may be related to looking at horses I can’t go see.

[chocolate_chip_in]

I’m in the fairly early stages of horse shopping. So far I’ve looked at two horses outside of my barn. In person, neither was as represented and I’ve decided that I’m not buying off video–it’s just too easy to selectively edit. I’m lucky that I live in a horsey area so I don’t think this is going to be a major barrier, but the anxiety is already SO real…I don’t need to introduce a whole other level of fretting about what exactly is going to step off the trailer.

I’m lined up to see two more candidates this week. Both of them have dreamy videos and look like they’re very much my kind of ride, so we’ll see how they stack up in person lol. At least these two are coming from known situations instead of randos on Facebook, so I’m trying to enjoy my current feelings of cautious optimism for as long as I can.

[Obsidian_Fire]

@fivestrideline

Part of the struggle is the amount of NQR horses I see while just looking at sale videos. Obviously COTH and the internet in general is full of people with problems they’re trying to fix (because people with sound horses are out riding them, not posting on a BB), which can skew the picture towards NO HORSE IS SOUND. And that’s a bigger issue for me - I can make anything look lame if I stare at it long enough, which fuels the background anxiety this thread is about.

OP, no advice here but I sure do commiserate with you. It seems I’ve had nothing but lameness issues for years now… one horse after another. With my current one, which BTW vetted 10000% sound, I could’ve bought a UL SM for what I’ve spent on vet bills. And farrier bills. And in my barn life, all I see are one train wreck after another. Either lameness issues, mental issues, training issues (owner created and generally bad enough I wouldn’t want to deal with)… and it’s gotten me to the point I’m not sure I ever want to buy another horse again. I’ll just stick with the one I have and know and the heck with it all!
And never mind what prices people are paying for these train wrecks. That truly boggles my mind.

So I feel for you. I truly do. I’m glad you’re throwing your thoughts out here as you are saying what I’m thinking too.

[fivestrideline]

@Obsidian_Fire

And never mind what prices people are paying for these train wrecks. That truly boggles my mind.

So I feel for you. I truly do. I’m glad you’re throwing your thoughts out here as you are saying what I’m thinking too.

I’m somewhat glad I’m not alone.

This is going to sound completely backwards - but if I was made of money, I’d lease. I’d just lease and show and enjoy taking fabulous care of the horse while I have it. HOWEVER, leases are insanely expensive right now (my budget to buy is under 5 figs, and it’s a saved up budget. I couldn’t shell out $9k every year to lease), and I’m not a great fit for full show barn “programs”. I know a bit too much about care and my standards are high, and I like to trail ride and show unrated local stuff. Not to mention I don’t have Show Program money - the type of leases that I have found just haven’t been a great fit for what I need.

So, purchase or nothing. Though I have kept my ears open for a good situation.

[Ziggy793]

I’m also in the camp of, if you have the money, trust your gut. Purely anecdotal but I’ve purchased two horses in the recent past. At the time I bought the first one, I was looking at green ottbs but was convinced that I should buy one farther along that was a known quantity and that I could just get on and have some fun with. Bought a horse who had previously been doing the job I wanted to do and vetted PERFECTLY. Said horse then immediately became a black hole of vet bills, starting with EPM and spiraling from there. He is a very good boy but I haven’t actually gotten to enjoy him much and frankly I never had much of a spark with him.

Enter second horse, green ottb who I bought on a whim when I saw him in a stall at the makeover. He was in pretty poor condition (fitness-wise) and vetted terribly (though there were extenuating circumstances) but the brain, personality and TRY on this horse were just unreal. My vet read the PPE report when he was home and actually said to me “I can’t believe you bought this horse” lol. But after a couple months of R&R plus groundwork and strengthening, he passed a follow-up lameness exam with no issue. And I’ve really been enjoying the journey so far. Who knows if he’ll have issues down the line, but that’s kind of the point- you never really know with horses. That being said, if the rads had turned up any major, concrete problems rather than general/minor wear and tear, I probably would have passed.

[Bogie]

I bought a horse this summer where I broke all my rules. My mare had just died and I was very sad, but a friend told me about a big OTTB that needed a soft landing because his owner had stage IV cancer.

I hate horse shopping and always prefer to find one that comes from a known source. When I went to see him, the horse was very sweet, seriously underweight, and had no muscle. I sat on him to see if he “felt” right and decided I couldn’t leave him where he was and that I could sell him again when he was healthier and under saddle. I didn’t even vet him because he moved sound and the owners had bred him so I had his complete life history.

So far, so good. He’s still sound, he’s under saddle again, he’s a very nice mover and even after gaining 250 pounds he’s still sweet (although a bit more rambunctious).

In retrospect, buying a horse in this condition 3 weeks after my mare died was probably jumping the gun but I felt the universe wanted this horse to come home with me.

[pluvinel]

@Ziggy793

My vet read the PPE report when he was home and actually said to me “I can’t believe you bought this horse” lol.

Been there…I bought a 2 yr old Hanoverian out of a field. He had been kicked in the left hock and the X-ray showed some “negative” results. I ran the X-rays past the father of a friend who is an orthopedist. He looked at them and said he’s seen worse in human patients. AFTER I got the horse and had it shipped, I had an equine vet look at the X-rays and the vet recommended I not purchase the horse.

Fast forward 11 years. The horse never took a lame step and was a cross country machine. But collection was hard, we topped at 3rd level an I was going to sell him to buy a Lusitano stallion so I X-rayed the Right hock. Well! That hock was worse than the left. But since I had radiographs from when he was 2 and radiographs at 11 that showed no changes in the Left hock, I was able to sell with no problem.

Thus why I think you have to be willing to flush whatever you spend on a horse 'cuz ya never know what the future holds.

[EmilyM]

My philosophy is that anytime I buy a horse, I just assume I’m flushing the money down the toilet, and I will never see a dime of it. That helps me with the “holy cow this is a large dollar purchase.” I pay an amount I can live with. Of course that varies for everyone.

I never buy off a video because feel is everything to me. I’ve sat on horses that I hated to ride and had nice videos. Trust your gut when you get in the saddle. If you are relaxed on the horse, it’s probably the right one. Do a PPE to mitigate risk. You know in horses they can come home and hurt themselves the first day, so all you can do is the basic risk mitigation.

Maybe take a friend along who you can talk to out loud about the horse or who can give you good input. at the least they can video.

Good luck!

[fivestrideline]

@EmilyM

My philosophy is that anytime I buy a horse, I just assume I’m flushing the money down the toilet, and I will never see a dime of it. That helps me with the “holy cow this is a large dollar purchase.” I pay an amount I can live with. Of course that varies for everyone.

I never buy off a video because feel is everything to me. I’ve sat on horses that I hated to ride and had nice videos. Trust your gut when you get in the saddle. If you are relaxed on the horse, it’s probably the right one. Do a PPE to mitigate risk. You know in horses they can come home and hurt themselves the first day, so all you can do is the basic risk mitigation.

Maybe take a friend along who you can talk to out loud about the horse or who can give you good input. at the least they can video.

Good luck!

Honestly yeah the purchase money isn’t an issue - just the change in monthly output that takes a bit of getting used to mentally!

This is exactly what I did with the footsore/maybe off horse I tried this weekend - took a friend and got videos. I like that horse - it’s hilarious in a way that I can’t stop thinking about it even though I’ve passed on “nicer” horses for the same reason. A bit of it was simply “I wouldn’t mind seeing that horse’s face in the barn every day”. A bit of it was pity - it wasn’t in a bad situation by any means, but it had that kind of shut down and self protective feel to it - despite trying very hard to be good.

[Scribbler]

@fivestrideline

@EmilyM

My philosophy is that anytime I buy a horse, I just assume I’m flushing the money down the toilet, and I will never see a dime of it. That helps me with the “holy cow this is a large dollar purchase.” I pay an amount I can live with. Of course that varies for everyone.

I never buy off a video because feel is everything to me. I’ve sat on horses that I hated to ride and had nice videos. Trust your gut when you get in the saddle. If you are relaxed on the horse, it’s probably the right one. Do a PPE to mitigate risk. You know in horses they can come home and hurt themselves the first day, so all you can do is the basic risk mitigation.

Maybe take a friend along who you can talk to out loud about the horse or who can give you good input. at the least they can video.

Good luck!

Honestly yeah the purchase money isn’t an issue - just the change in monthly output that takes a bit of getting used to mentally!

This is exactly what I did with the footsore/maybe off horse I tried this weekend - took a friend and got videos. I like that horse - it’s hilarious in a way that I can’t stop thinking about it even though I’ve passed on “nicer” horses for the same reason. A bit of it was simply “I wouldn’t mind seeing that horse’s face in the barn every day”. A bit of it was pity - it wasn’t in a bad situation by any means, but it had that kind of shut down and self protective feel to it - despite trying very hard to be good.

If you want a rehab and possible pasture pet and have your own property, go for it. If you want to ride, harden your heart and walk away.

Think about it. Anyone above a totally overwhelmed backwoods hoarder will do.their best to make a sales horse serviceably sound even if that means paying for shoes, injections, bute, etc.

I sometimes wonder if people have horses with chronic lameness that isn’t helped by shoes (either issue is too severe or isn’t actually in the hoof) and then pull the shoes to say “oh he’s just tender being barefoot slap some shoes on and he’ll be fine.” Well, why don’t they do it since it will help sell the horse?

Horse either has quite serious bilateral hoof pain or has issues in knee shoulder or neck.

[fivestrideline]

I’d go with “quite serious bilateral hoof pain” + “people who don’t see a dramatic head bob and thus call it sound”.

Yeah, I am 99% sure I’m walking away. The 1% is considering vetting the crap out of it and basically throwing the money in the burn barrel

I am going to look at one down the street later this week - wtc and jumps around, though smaller and plainer than I’d originally hoped, and not an RRP candidate. However, I like its jump and canter, and it raced a decent amount of times in that “won a few but otherwise middle of the pack” type way I’m looking for. Appears to be a fun project, and they have a handful to sit on should I choose.

So, yeah… can’t hurt to go try some that don’t scream THIS IS THE HORSE FOR YOU on video, and see what happens. I’m hoping to feel a bit more confidence about something, enough to pull the trigger and pick it up. Again, it’s not the cash or the time, it’s the entire process that stresses me out

[EmilyM]

i loved loved a horse that i just thought was NQR behind. i told my vet about him and she said NOOOOOOO! sometimes it’s good to have a vet in your corner that way.

[awaywego]

I looked at a young horse recently and took a friend with me. She is a total enabler and a worse sucker than me! I should have taken my super critical friend, who probably would have refused to go on general principal that I don’t need another horse anyway. So consider which kind of friend you want to bring along when shopping

It ended up being a pass, and I felt terrible about it because it was a very sweet horse in a terrible situation so OF COURSE I needed to save it - but luckily I had a vet and farrier who both said NOOOOOOOOO.

I feel like horses are like men and busses: don’t run for one, there’s always another one in 5 minutes. This mantra has helped me countless times when looking at horses, window shopping or seriously.

[candyappy]

@fivestrideline

I am going to look at one down the street later this week - though smaller and plainer than I’d originally hoped,

How many people married the perfect match who looked nothing like the type they were envisioning for themselves??? Happens with horses too ( and dogs etc…)

[blue_heron]

@awaywego

I feel like horses are like men and busses: don’t run for one, there’s always another one in 5 minutes.

I love this.

[Rothesay]

I think shopping for horses is like speed dating but with more at stake.