> It's always wise for people to educate themselves when buying > horses, it can be just like buying a used car. I myself, haven't > gotten any nasty surprises, I had a pretty good idea of what I was > getting into each and every time.
The worse case of bad horse trading I have ever seen is when my sister-in-law called and asked me to help her find a new horse for my 11 yr old niece who is mentally handicapped. My niece had a nice little racking pony but the pony just couldn't keep up with the big horses when the family rode together. They didn't have a lot of money to spend so I went to the local trading magazine, hit the horse ads and started calling. I explanined the situation - a good rider but she is mentally handicapped so she can't have a horse that is going to put her in a situation where she has to think quickly - she just needed a nice smooth horse that would follow the pack and keep her safe. Some folks I spoke with were very honest and said they just didn't think their horse would fit the bill but we narrowed it down to 6 horses to look at. My sister and my niece came on a Sat and Sun and we went to try horses - my god! I can't believe what some people were going to put this child on and call it safe for her. Of course, I insisted the owner/trainer ride it first (that eliminated 1 right off the bat - the owner wouldn't ride it), then I would ride it if it passed the owner test - that eliminated 3 more, then my sister in law rode 1 after I did and we could quickly see that a novice couldn't handle the horse. By this time my niece was upset because she was seeing all these horses and couldn't understand why she couldn't ride. Finally, the last horses we tried was perfect, an older TWH that had been ridden by a young girl who wanted to get something fancier - He was plain ugly and older, but a jewel. I know horse traders can be dishonest (though there are many that are very honest and good) but I was still shocked that these people, knowing my niece was mentally handicapped would put her at risk just to sell a horse - it was depressing. I was just very grateful that my sister-in-law had asked me to get involved because there was one that was real pretty and smooth gaited but not appropriate that she would have bought. There were things she she had no idea to look for (one was clearly drugged, another lame as could be) Horse buying, especially if you don't know the seller, is truly a Buyer Beware situation Laree
