Horse Buying Horrors

Yesterday, at 12:27 PM, I bought a horse. He was a coming 5-year-old, a tall APHA hunter/jumper prospect. By 3:46 PM, after being put through the ringer by the horse's agent and "trainer" and being denied a pre-purchase exam because of the offer I had made (that was accepted), I backed out of buying the horse.

This horse was located in the Houston area, and I went to try him out last weekend. The weather was poor, but he stayed very calm in spite of the wind and rain, which impressed me. He had some issues due to a lack of training (or the wrong kind of training), but I thought they were fixable enough to make an offer, though definitely not pay full price.

Basically, the horse had no forward motion, and the "trainer" had been riding him only on a draped rein with a training fork. Seriously. She was marketing this horse as an English prospect and riding him with no contact whatsoever. She was also riding him with spurs, which is not a problem except she did not tell me to bring spurs and did not offer to let me use hers. I could hardly get the horse into a walk, much less a trot or canter. In fact, she had to pick up the longe whip to help get him to canter.

After talking to my trainer and several people in the industry about the horse, each person individually agreed that they would not pay more than xx for the horse, which was $1,000 less than his asking price. So I called the trainer and asked if she was open to offers. She said no, so I said thanks but no thanks.

During all of this I was also speaking with the horse's agent, a broker of AQHA and APHA pleasure horses. When I told her the trainer was not open to offers, she acted like I was being unreasonable expecting to pay less for him when he had already had his price reduced. I ultimately stopped responding to her.


The next day, the agent messaged me to find out what my offer was. I told her the xx price that everyone else suggested, and she told me that it was too low. I came up $500, which was $500 less than his asking price, and she told me he was mine.

After making plans to pick the horse up next Tuesday, I called a local vet to see about them going out to the barn to do a pre-purchase exam (PPE). I then let the "trainer" know I was doing a PPE. She freaked out on me, saying that the price I was buying him for did not include a PPE and she didn't have time to haul him for me to do that. I messaged the agent and told her about what the "trainer" said, and she also freaked out and told me that the extra $500 that I'm not paying the owner for the horse is now going to the vet instead, so it's like I'm making the owner pay for the exam. After going back and forth with her, at 3:46 PM, I told her to forget about it, I'm not buying the horse.

That evening, the "trainer" started attacking me through texts. She "informed" me that I was getting the horse for way less than he's worth and lowering her commission in the process, and again said that she's not spending the time to take him to a PPE when she's not being compensated for it. I don't know what part of me saying "I'm going to pay for the PPE and have a vet come out there" she couldn't understand. She went on to say that I was low-balling her (by offering $500 less? Really?) and trying to make her jump through hoops. And she blamed it on me that the agent did not know I wanted a PPE, when really that's the agent's job to discuss.

The bottom line in all of this is that the agent and the "trainer" were going to get less commission on a horse that isn't worth what they're asking for him right now, and they were butt-hurt about it. If I were the owner, I'd be interested to know that I lost a sale because of their greediness.

And you know, if you're trying to become a horse trainer, attacking and berating a potential future client because they don't want to accept the absurd conditions you've placed on a horse is not the way to further your career. I've always said that it's a bad idea to burn bridges and create enemies in the horse industry, because it's very likely that you'll run into those people in the future. This girl does not know that I write for an equine publication and interact with a lot of horse people. But I know that she is a "trainer" trying to get into the Paint horse world. And guess who has been telling everyone she knows in the Paint industry to not do any business with this would-be trainer? This girl, right here. I will also never do business with the agent again. There are plenty of other people selling horses out there.