Re: Leases/ horse selling

["Michelle Fink" <michrowe@redwrench.com>]

> What ever happened to buying a horse, then selling it when it doesn't
> work out?  Why should someone else have to wait out your indecision?

Selling a horse around here is a likely sentence for no vet care unless the
owner thinks the horse is going to die right away, poor to no farrier care,
and general neglect.  I hate selling horses.  Buying a horse locally (if you
can find something other than QH's and Paints) means it's likely never been
wormed and many of them have never been haltered, lead, or had their feet
trimmed.  Buying a good horse out of area also means I would not likely be
able to resell the horse locally and recover anything near the cost.

So for many reasons, I'd personally prefer to lease and potentially buy a
more expensive horse that has had good basic training, good health care,
etc.  I lease planning to keep the horse - I have my vet check the horse
before deciding to buy it, pay the full amount at the time of leasing the
horse, have the prepurchase done, all that stuff.  But if I can arrange a
lease at no more expense, then why not?

Not all sellers are 100% upfront about their horses either, and it's an
extra level of protection.  The run-away we leased and returned was sold to
us as a beginner level horse for my husband. :-)  The owner 'forgot' to tell
us he had always been a runaway - he'd been schooled hard at her place and
so he didn't try it when we rode him there.  She just hoped he wouldn't do
it with my husband when we got him home.  Alas, that little expensive sucker
ran away with me on him in a round-pen before we sent him back.

Yeee-haw!

Michelle