Calling on horse people for an opinion!

[sufficientforme]

P.S. Thanks everyone, I feel a little better and value others experiences, thanks for sharing!

 

[valmom]

He sounds like a steal to me, even if the wart turns out to be a sarcoid. A sane, safe family horse who can go to shows for $500? Unheard of. Get your trailer tire fixed and go get him before show season starts. Sounds like the owners are being careful who he goes to, which is a good sign.

 

[sufficientforme]

LOL, My trailer is already hitched, it was not mine broken, just got new tires last week I am ready to roll and make the drive, just trying to talk myself into this with the help of other horse people.

 

[hwillm1977]

hwillm, what a great photo!!!! How tall was he?????

I had a grey TB once too, she was a wonderful horse!

Casper was wonderful, he was 17.2 hands (17.3 with shoes on... lol)... he taught my 2.5 year old niece to ride, and she won a first place in her very first leadline class...

Casper loved Raven, he followed her like a puppy dog.

Not to hijack the thread, but here she is winning her first ribbon at three years old:

I say if you find a trustworthy horse, who's good with your kids, for a great price... no matter what, it's worth the money. I wouldn't trade the three years I had with Casper for anything in the world, and even with the expenses I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[freemotion]

Hey, sounds like you already have it worked out. If you like the horse and your kids get along well with him....well, $500 is not really that much to be out in the horse world if he is not perfect. What you don't want is a horse at any price that you can't use and that will cost you thousands in vet bills.

Can you put him on the trailer and bring him to the vet? Bring his current owner along, too, if it feels safer to do that? If it is a melanoma, the vet can cryo it off right then and there. Do a thorough inspection with your hands of every square milimeter of him first, to see if there are more lurking.

My Arabian mare was diagnosed with malignant melanoma at age 5. She was cryo-surgeried at age....um....15? and was put down at 22 for unrelated reasons. One little bump on a great horse for $500 is a caution but not a deal-breaker. Good kids horses are hard to find.

Don't walk away because he is an Arab. I worked primarily with Arabs and there are many different family lines with many different personalities and quirks....and there is also his training and experience. Many can by hyper when younger, really hot stuff, then mellow babysitters later in life.

Take him on the trails yourself to see how he does. Many Arabs have a strong flight instinct, and you want to know if he will bolt at a leaf or a spot of sunlight. You also don't know if they tired him out by lunging him all morning before you got there. So spend a little time with him. He could be a wonderful steal for you.

 

[sufficientforme]

hwillm, what a great photo!!!! How tall was he?????

I had a grey TB once too, she was a wonderful horse!

Casper was wonderful, he was 17.2 hands (17.3 with shoes on... lol)... he taught my 2.5 year old niece to ride, and she won a first place in her very first leadline class...

Casper loved Raven, he followed her like a puppy dog.

Not to hijack the thread, but here she is winning her first ribbon at three years old:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b83/hwillm1977/ravensfirstplacewin.jpg

I say if you find a trustworthy horse, who's good with your kids, for a great price... no matter what, it's worth the money. I wouldn't trade the three years I had with Casper for anything in the world, and even with the expenses I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I love pictures like that! SOOO CUTE.

 

[sufficientforme]

Everyone he sold

 

[bibliophile birds]

oh no! that's really too bad. he sounded like a winner to me.

well, good luck in the ongoing search. i've got a bunch of horses that need to go live somewhere else (we're trying to scale back our horse operation and scale up our livestock) so if you are close to E Tennessee, let me know!

 

[rebecca100]

I bought a horse for my 6 yr old dd a couple of years ago. Pretty gray mare. Advertised as being shot off and spookproof. Bought it from a woman my age with 5 kids and 20 or so horses. I noticed she had a slight problem with her backleg, and the woman was hesitant to let my dd ride her bareback. But SWORE that she was a good horse and would be great for my dd and that she must have stepped in a hole is why her backleg seemed off. I trusted her rather than my instinct because she was a mother like me and would NEVER put a child in danger I thought. The horse did great for three days! Then the next time my dd rode her she ran off with her and jumped a fence with my dd still on her. She would not let any of us near her and everytime we tryed she ran off agian. My dd pulled as hard as she could trying to stop the horse, but it lowered it's head to the ground while running and yanked the reins right out of her hands and it did it so smoothly that I have a hard time believing it was the first time it had done it. When she finally stopped, my dd jumped off and was shaking so hard that she could barely lead the horse back to us. It also never got over the slight limp. It was my first time ever to buy a horse and also my last!

 

[big brown horse]

Oh, that is too bad!!! I wish you lived closer, I just saw a nice 17 year old POA children's horse, schooled in English and a seasoned 4h-er being sold for $500. The ad says the price is negoatiable too.