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 Night Watchman
Posts: 5516
 
Location: Central Montana | I have a couple of times now and probably will not do it again.
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 Expert
Posts: 1526
 
Location: Texas | I buy all mine off breeding and a picture! Have always been happy and worked out awesome! In fact this Is the way I prefer to buy. |
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 Sorry I don't have any advice
Posts: 1975
Location: Sunnyland Florida |
I did it twice, I'm a slow learner, LOL. I would not have bought either horse had I seen and/or ridden them first. |
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 Heeler Hoarder
Posts: 2067
| I have bought my last 6 off pics and pedigree. Happy with all of them :) |
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Addicted to Baseball
Location: Where the stars at night are big and bright, TX | We live 878365238 miles from everything so we've bought many sight unseen. One I held my breath, sold off my show horses and thankfully he was a dream come true...until 7 months later when he died where he stood after his only known HYPP attack. I got a crash course on HYPP and crooked breeders during that process.
From there I had 2 with feet issues, one was a great mare but she had a wonky rear foot that didn't show up in photos. Went onto ranch work rather than using it to plant and pivot. Great mare just would have not lasted in the sport. The other is a gelding I have now. I don't know how in the hell they kept him sound at the track, he has the worst feet I've ever had to deal with. Shelly, unimaginably thin walls, a convex sole on one foot, and a heel that wants to crush in the blink of your eye. I saw him on racing videos and some photos. The videos were only 4 weeks old, so relatively recent and he looked fabulous...he crashed almost fatally after coming off the track before we got him - they didn't share any photos with me then lol. When I walked in his stall expecting to see this fit, glistening, bay horse, instead he was hanging his head, dead eyes, dragging 3 racing plates hanging by one nail each and not even landing on his foot anymore, he was a rack of bones and his coat was crunchy to the touch, it was completely sunburned to orange and he had open wounds all over, a wound and swelling on his withers, his head had lumps and open wounds all over it and he would cave his body down if you touched his loins. He looked like death warmed over, a horse for the knacker. You'd never guess it was the same horse, nothing looked the same, nothing. When I laid eyes on him I thought my husband was going to KILL me. My husband turned the corner, a sick look flashed across his face. I'm in tears and completely defeated, but when he could find the words, he said we can't possibly leave him here, he needs help, so we started the slow drive home. He collapsed the next day due to ulcers, the vet handed me a pack of Ulcerguard and told us to dig a hole. The horse was a freaking disaster. He has had 2 resections which took the better part of two years to grow out. We still battle the one wonky foot with the convex sole and crushy heel - and forever will have to keep up on it. I don't know why I bother, we have yet to be able to point him in a specific direction. I won't buy anymore OTT's without seeing them in person. My parents used to all the time as they had a H/J business but we had an agent who gave us good leads and got them through the worst of it. I thought perhaps I was safe with this one since his race videos were so recent. This guy was advertised as "ready to go"...ugh apparently they meant "ready to go from our feed and vet bill to yours". LOL
Edited by Tilt The Kilt 2014-10-20 3:11 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 196
| Bought three sight unseen....its a great way to meet dishonest people, lol. Two others I planned to buy that way, but ended up getting to try them first, Would have been just fine unseen as the person was honest. Its a chance you take... |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| I have bought about 20-30 ost 8-10 yeas ago only had one that has a soundnes issue. Rode some for other people 3/4 of them had soundnes problems. But if i kept my price low i always could take them for 30 days and come out ahead. Now i had a special effort gelding was a wierd guy after about 30 days that sucker would buck some days and not other, then some days he would lope a circle to left and not rights without a bunch of crap. Made money on him but he never amounted to anything. Had a bad attitude. Never wanted another. But most horse try and dont buck. After 45 days you can get a halfway broke horse loping barrels. Been a little long and most of my started horses are all retired now. L love working with young horses and seeing them improve and grow.
Edited by daisycake123 2014-10-20 7:34 PM
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Expert
Posts: 1642
Location: Kansas | I have not bought without seeing and or trying them but have sold a few babies sight unseen to people. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1229
Location: Royal J Performance Horses, AZ | i would ONLY ever buy broodmares sight unseen. and I have twice. and was VERY HAPPY with it.
One of them i bought they said was sound for riding, I had the vet out this week turns out she has some navicular changes but nothing serious so we'll she how she goes, BUT it doesnt matter to me. The horse is AAAT and ran over $35,000 and is built so darn nice. So if she's only a broodmare, I have absolutely no problem with that.
I got such a darn good deal on her also it doesnt bother me either way.
I would NEVER buy a horse i'm going to ride/run sight unseen. You just cant know if the horse will mesh with you and be exactly what you want. |
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  Extreme Veteran
Posts: 461
Location: Illinois | The mare I just got a week ago I traded for sight unseen and have never been happier. It was the best thing I could have ever done, she is amazing and everything the lady said she was. I honestly think I got the better end of the deal in the trade.
Now with that in mind I have gotten burned a few times too. I purchased two horses that were very well bred from a friend of ours and were told they were kid safe and wonderful horses. We just went down and picked them up and took them at their word. They didn't mention that they had sat in the pasture for two years. One of them was a real sweet horse but every time I rode him and asked him to lope he would go into a bucking fit and try to kill me, got a nice broken finger out of that one that is still crooked. The other one was so freaking lazy you couldn't do anything with him.. and when you asked him to do anything he would get pissed off and start bucking. Needless to say those two went down the road real quick.
The other one I traded a mare for and he was a real nice horse, great barrel horse, I just didn't like him. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1034
| I have never bought sight unseen. The only way I would is if I had a very good friend whose horse opinion I respected a lot who could go try them for me. OR from a seller I already know very well and trust. I'm talking more than a decade worth of friendship here. |
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 Crazy Chicken Chick
Posts: 36132
| When I was pretty green in barrel horses...I bought my mom a horse from the sister of a horse trader "friend." When he got here, he had a knot on his ankle that they SWORE they told me about. No way in heck I'd have bought him without xrays if I'd known that. But he ended up being a really good horse for my mom.
Fast forward about 7 or 8 years. The horse is sore and I convince my mom to send him with me to the vet for exam and hock/ankle injections if he needs them.
Lameness exam starts off by flexing that ankle with the knot. Oh yeah, horse can't even walk after he does that. X-ray it and find at LEAST 7 fractures in there, and what looks like a couple more that have healed.
Sure, he was born with it. Yeah, right. Most likely he was kicked or kicked through a fence. Vet said that horse has the most heart he's ever seen because that horse should be packing that leg, much less RUNNING on it.
My mother is heartbroken. She adores that horse.
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | luvinrunnin - 2014-10-24 12:00 PM When I was pretty green in barrel horses...I bought my mom a horse from the sister of a horse trader "friend." When he got here, he had a knot on his ankle that they SWORE they told me about. No way in heck I'd have bought him without xrays if I'd known that. But he ended up being a really good horse for my mom.
Fast forward about 7 or 8 years. The horse is sore and I convince my mom to send him with me to the vet for exam and hock/ankle injections if he needs them.
Lameness exam starts off by flexing that ankle with the knot. Oh yeah, horse can't even walk after he does that. X-ray it and find at LEAST 7 fractures in there, and what looks like a couple more that have healed.
Sure, he was born with it. Yeah, right. Most likely he was kicked or kicked through a fence. Vet said that horse has the most heart he's ever seen because that horse should be packing that leg, much less RUNNING on it.
My mother is heartbroken. She adores that horse.
wow |
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Crazy Chicken Chick
Posts: 36132
| The vet said 4 months small paddock rest and recheck to see if anything has fused. I highly doubt that it will if it hasn't after this long.
I hate it for my mom because she can't afford to buy another well patterned, safe barrel horse and neither can I. She has another horse to run, for now, but he's older as well, and I have been running him for 2 years because he is SO strong going in the pen, so I don't know how well that's going to work out.
Oh yeah, the seller said "he was born with it." when I asked about it. Yeah, right.
Edited by luvinrunnin 2014-10-24 12:59 PM
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Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | luvinrunnin - 2014-10-24 12:57 PM The vet said 4 months small paddock rest and recheck to see if anything has fused. I highly doubt that it will if it hasn't after this long.
I hate it for my mom because she can't afford to buy another well patterned, safe barrel horse and neither can I. She has another horse to run, for now, but he's older as well, and I have been running him for 2 years because he is SO strong going in the pen, so I don't know how well that's going to work out.
Oh yeah, the seller said "he was born with it." when I asked about it. Yeah, right.
What an A-hole that seller is!!! I hope things get worked out for your mom, I hate when sellers take advantage of good people!!! |
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Crazy Chicken Chick
Posts: 36132
| hoofs_in_motion - 2014-10-24 1:04 PM luvinrunnin - 2014-10-24 12:57 PM The vet said 4 months small paddock rest and recheck to see if anything has fused. I highly doubt that it will if it hasn't after this long.
I hate it for my mom because she can't afford to buy another well patterned, safe barrel horse and neither can I. She has another horse to run, for now, but he's older as well, and I have been running him for 2 years because he is SO strong going in the pen, so I don't know how well that's going to work out.
Oh yeah, the seller said "he was born with it." when I asked about it. Yeah, right.
What an A-hole that seller is!!! I hope things get worked out for your mom, I hate when sellers take advantage of good people!!!
Me too. She told me if she couldn't run him again she'd probably have to quit. That breaks my heart. I bought this horse for her after her being out of riding for 35 years and it's the ONLY thing she enjoys for herself. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 926
| I stink at picking horses. I left it up to my trainer, and he's one of the best guys I've ever owned. He even broke my knee the first time I made a run on him.....in practice on a plastic barrel...he's still awesome. Bought another FWF bred colt, he's awesome but has some issues that we'e have never known about without running him for a time, but the price was right. Frankly, with what we do with horses in this discipline, it's sort of a crap shoot no matter what you do....and I'm usually a vet check the crap out of them type of person. |
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 1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
Location: Southeast, Texas | We bought our yearling colt sight unseen, from MILES away!! His owner was a BB, Erin Chrisman-Goings. We got EXACTLY what she said he was, and are thrilled about him. He was also transported down from Nebraska by fellow BB's, Amy Schimke and Lisa Kuhlmann, with updates the entire way. I've never felt more comfortable about a transaction than I did knowing these ladies were helping handle it!! [= They are all three breeders that I would buy from again, sight unseen. |
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