 |
[RC] Horse Buying - rides2farMy latest project was NOT for sale by the owner - I made the offer to buy him. The rider was not in the market to sell.. I really liked him and wanted him.. this loss really knocked me back a bit.. I never expected an issue... I thought I found my 'last' horse... Here's my problem with vet exams. Look at that owner. They had a horse and were doing just fine, so fine that somebody wanted it. They agreed to sell, and horse "failed" exam. Horse is now "marked". I took Kaboot to probably the same vet Roger uses, (who I think a *lot* of) and he pointed out to me that "this horse is not built to hold up in endurance" and made a comment about his knees. Heck, I'd never noticed anything about his knees. I said, "He's got 800 miles and just did a 100" and he said, "Nevermind". He ended up with 3000 and no knee problems ever. I know Val said if she'd ever seen Jedi's x-rays *before* she bought him she wouldn't have touched him. That would have cost her the win in the WEC which was the "biggest equestrian event in history" I sold a mare once that was about 5 and the vet at UT said she had the beginnings of arthritis in her rear ankles so the lady returned her. Of course, then she was "marked". I sold her as a pleasure horse for less money. 5 years later I bought her back and at age 10 she did the Tennessee 50 miler and as far as I know never had a problem in her life with rear ankles. Equus did a study once where they took x-rays of horses to look for navicular wear. Then they followed the horses careers to see which ones actually showed lameness later. They found there was NO correlation between which ones they'd diagnosed as having "navicular problems" and which ones eventually showed lameness. The horse I found for Bekki Crippen I suppose "failed" his prepurchase exam. He had very limited flexation in the front fetlocks but did not trot off lame from the flex. Heck, one of the winningest horses around carrying a heavyweight a few years ago had limited flexation in the fetlocks and we're going to go a lot easier than that on him. His stifles were "loose" but he was very underweight and the muscles were wasted away. If he lasts 5 years he was worth $10,000 as far as I'm concerned. Rode with him yesterday and he's a slick beauty with no stifle problem and just powers up the hills, ears up and happy. I can understand not wanting to buy a horse once a vet points out a problem, but I'm kinda careful about what problems I let them point out to me. If it were an ex race horse I'd like the coffin bone x-rayed, and I like flex tests, but I do not want a vet to tell me what this horse is "predisposed to" etc. etc. Too many "Ifs". If I had a horse for sale, I'd be very hesitant to tell someone about it who I knew was really in to extremely thorough vet checks because I wouldn't want my horse "labeled". Luckily, the horse doesn't hear the results and usually continues to compete and complete oblivious to the label. :-) Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|