I have been asked to help a client to sell a very nice horse but the horse coliced over a year ago and the hospital recommended surgery but realized that it was just gas after they opened the horse. Nothing was done, just open, look and close back.
The horse is very talented and nice and has been schooling 4’ since then and has been very healthy.
If I have a vet record in hand and if the horse is otherwise super nice, do you think it will be an issue to sell him?
I would take it if it was a horse for myself. For resale - I don’t know. So much can go wrong with horses, I would probably want a clean slate. If it went out and started winning, then yes, people might overlook it’s veterinary history. But otherwise you probably are looking at a bit off the price.
If it was gas colic and it’s documented by a vet, I would consider it but the price should reflect the fact that the horse had colic surgery even though it was nothing.
Consult with insurance companies and find out the general policy of several companies regarding reinsuring it. With vet documentation and several companies that have a policy that it can be insured I wouldn’t be too afraid if its a really nice horse without a chronic problem.
My horse has had 2 major colic surgeries and has been admitted 8 times for colic. They did the surgery because they could feel that he had displaced on physical exam. According to my vets at New Bolton, they take horses to surgery for displacement, not just gas, unless the gas colic cannot be managed medically. A trocar can be inserted intra-abdominally to decompress gas along with fluids, meds etc. He went from a 6 figure horse to whatever he means to me. He can do 4 foot fences no prep and is an incredible mover.
What a shame they had to do surgery for a “simple” gas colic. If there have been no further colic episodes, and you have the vet report in hand as well as a statement from the vet, and the horse has not been dropped by the insurance company, I would think you would be good to go. JMV
Yes I would. It seems that so many have had colic surgery any more. To me the big thing is demonstrating that the horse returns to full work/showing/etc. IMHO just because a horse colics badly once, even if it’s badly enough to require surgery, that doesn’t mean it will again or will require surgery again.
If the insurance company is willing to take a chance on it then why shouldn’t I?
Thing is some buyers might be spooked, especially if they have personal experience with colic surgery.
Up to you if you want to take it on but I imagine if it has a rated show record at 1.2m+ and currently showing it would not be that big an issue.
But that ball is in the buyers court so who knows.
I would think hard about buying as a resell. Whether it is right or not, whether it is a valid concern or not, you already go into this with a smaller market. Some folks will NOT buy the horse. Some. Now, as a personal mount, I am much more open.
The issue with opening up a horse and then closing him back up is that you now have scar tissue from the surgery. Adhesions (think sticky web-like scar tissue) form from the surgery. Some horses form a lot of it, some form little of it.
At any given time, those adhesions can stick onto part of the intestine and cause an impaction. It might not happen but the chances of it happening are high enough that the insurance companies usually exclude coverage for colic surgeries in some form or another once the surgery is done.
Your odds of not having a relapse are greater once a year has passed but it is still a greater risk than if the horse had never had surgery.
The horse would need to be priced accordingly. The farther out from the surgery without any issues the better. Not being able to be insured for colic would mean to many that the horse should be a bargain basement deal.
One of the kids in our barn got a packer junior jumper for about $40K because the horse had a surgery exactly like this and wasn’t insurable. They had him for about 2 years, he taught the kid a ton and they never had any issues with colic.
They went into the purchase thinking that it was like leasing. If they got a year out of the horse it was worth it.
Had the horse never had surgery it would have been easily well over 100K. He was a really really nice horse. Great first junior jumper, one that you would want your kids on to learn the ropes. Would jump anything and would take a joke. Totally safe and a wonderful teacher.
not unless the price reflected it and reflected it very well.
No.
[QUOTE=sarcam02;7491785]
No.[/QUOTE]
Perhaps they should consider a lease (which I don’t do but plenty of others will).
For resale, no. For myself, yes.
Doesn’t look like you have much to lose if you are just being hired to sell the horse. Again, if it is insurable you may find that many currently operating experienced horsemen are pretty used to having horses in their barns that have had colic surgery at some point. The dividing line seems to be if there was a resection or not regarding how nervous a buyer may get.
I would! Many horses have had colic, and this was kinda the same thing, since it wasn’t a true “surgery” I guess you could say. I’m not sure how many people would be turned off by the fact that he had to go in for surgery in the first place…it’s definitely something that will come up in a PPE!
I would not buy one for myself or for resale…adhesions can lead to all kinds of problems.
[QUOTE=chunky munky;7491823]
Doesn’t look like you have much to lose if you are just being hired to sell the horse.[/QUOTE]
I know, but I do not like to take horses in consignment and charge people full care and training if I know that I will not be able to sell the horse in a fashionably manner… Also, it takes up a lot of time to market and sell horses and so I don’t want to spend months and months to try to sell a horse if it is not going to sell. Without the colic surgery the horse would be in the $40k/$60k bracket … I am thinking about marketing him in the $15k to $25k range. He has amazing bloodlines, he is the definition of fancy, scopey, you name it. But if there is no market, my job as a trainer is to tell the owners that their best option is to try to sell him for $8k to $10k and move on… I have never had a horse with colic surgery before and so, I don’t know how the buyers are going to react.
Personally, I don’t think the colic surgery would necessitate a discount of greater than 50% which is what you have above.
I think that part of the issue is who the target market is. DIY owners would probably not be interested but if the horse is a serious rated completion candidate, there will be a market.
I would do it. I don’t know anybody who is a dealer that hasn’t sold horses with scars down their belly atone time or another. But do check on the insurance. When I sold a few of them that was the buyers big issue.
Agree that I’d really want to know the insurability question. IF the price is right and it’s insurable and you feel it’s otherwise a nice horse… maybe. But if it can’t be insured, it would have to be so cheap that ANY resell would be a profit even if you were stuck with the horse for a long while.
