The reality of buying and selling horses is that you can't have xray vision and there are going to be times when you get some surprises on a vetting. Any person who does a high volume of sales and says all their horses pass vettings is not being honest.

I don't vet the horses that I buy because it simply doesn't make financial sense in my business model. There are times that I will xray a horse after I buy it just to have a set of films if I think buyers may question something (mainly ankles). I try to cut down on the risk by only buying from people that I know and trust and researching every horse using every piece of information possible (google, race record, forums, trainers info, jockey info, etc). I look closely at the pictures and video of the horses. I try very hard NOT to buy horses with lumpy ankles unless they have xrays available as I do find ankles tend to be where I find the most issues. Knees can be a bit harder because you can't always see calcification or changes in the pictures but I do ask for side and front view of the legs. I won't discount a horse that appears to be body sore but there is a difference between that and lame and I think it takes an educated eye to tell the difference. If I have a choice between one that jogs down great and another that looks like it will need a few months of turnout then it is an obvious choice which direction I will go.  In my experience, good trainers know the horses well and will tell you if something is bugging them or if they have had an issue. I know the trainers that I deal with don't inject/tap and medicate to get them to the races. I have done enough networking/homework that I only deal with people who I trust. Trust me when I say I have done my time and been burned enough times to get a well earned education in who to steer away from and quite a few of those that I will never ever buy from are frequent sellers on the many facebook groups.

No matter how hard you try there are going to be horses that come up with issues upon vetting. This lovely horse in this set of pictures is one that I bought from a super trainer. She said he was sound, has steeplechased, hunted, trail ridden, been xc and much more. He was an absolute rock star. Super brain, sound as can be, good feet and just a horse that anybody could ride. He had steeplechased without issues which we know is hard work. Both ankles had some calcification on the outside and upon vetting one was just an osselet and the other one had some chips in there that had been there a long time. The vet who did the vetting said the horse was very sound to be lunged, flexed and ridden and likely would hold up with no issues but there was arthritis and the chips couldn't be removed. The buyer passed and I totally understood. I kept him for a while as my personal horse but I decided to rehome him. I wrote a really honest ad about him and posted it to facebook and had a long line of interested clients.  My friend mentioned she needed another horse to hunt and he went to her. Just saw him at a horse show this weekend and he was rocking it!  

I had another lovely 3yr come in this year that had only ran a few times and was just as slow as could be. He looked absolutely perfect from the outside. Flexed sound. Lunged sound. Never had an issue his whole life. Owned by his breeder. Upon vetting both ankles had small ocd chips in the front. They were smooth, round and the joint was quiet. Likely had been there his whole life. I had paid $2500 for the horse but now I was presented with a horse with an ocd in both ankles. What do you do? I offered him for free to the people who vetted him and they chose to have them removed as it was an easy surgery. They looked at it like all horses have something but his joints were clean and he had no damage so they would easily spend $5k on another horse as nice as this horse plus the risk of vetting a lot more horses just to run into the same issues upon vetting. They took the horse and had the surgery done and he is doing super. Now would most people do that? Likely not but I could see their reasoning.

Recently, I had a horse vetted that also had a ocd chip in the front of the ankle. It was also smooth, round and the joint was quiet. The buyer passed so I reached out to a few of my contacts that I know don't mind a quiet chip and he was purchased for a price lower than I paid for him but someone felt lucky to get a nice horse. They could do the surgery if they wanted to but they may also just leave it.

When findings show up on horses I do disclose them to future buyers. Sometimes they are just so minor that I don't find them to be any cause for concern. What some buyers find to be a big deal others won't even be bothered by! I had a buyer pass because a horse had a scar on his chest and old pinfire marks on his hocks. She was doing resale and thought future buyers might find it to be an issue and I understood but we couldn't fault the horse for that. If I have xrays available then I will provide them with horses. Many people will allow you to have the xrays from their PPE and others will not but you can at least say the horse was vetted and this is what was found.

Vettings are always very subjective. They are just a glimpse at a horse at a moment in time. I have had horses fail vettings because they flex off and later the horse is fine and passes another vetting with totally clean xrays. It isn't the vet's fault because maybe the horse just wasn't quite right that particular day. In those cases I am not going to disclose anything because I know the horse is sound and just was off for whatever particular reason. I have had horses do dumb stuff like tweak something in the field and be sore for two weeks and then be perfectly fine or ill timed abscesses that don't necessarily present themselves enough to conclude that is the issue. I think you do your best to know your horses and be honest but at the same time realize that horses are not machines and things do come up that are not a big deal. Some vets will find something on a xray that they think is a big deal and another vet doesn't feel bothered by it at all. In those cases all you can do is present the information to future buyers and let their vets sort it out.

I do spend some time thinking about horses that I personally know have been vetted by friends and customers that have fairly major issues and are unsound (which to me is a big deal...because being sound with a finding is different that being unsound with a finding) yet are still being marketed at the same price and said to be sound. No mention of the issue despite the seller knowing that the issue is there. I mean if the horse has a fracture how can you advertise it as sound? That kind of stuff really bothers me when there are plenty of good sellers out there that I know will do the right thing even when it means losing money, giving a horse away or euthanizing a horse because it is the right thing to do. None of us are perfect. I have sold horses that later were discovered to have issues or have things turn up but I can honestly say I really didn't know about them. If I know then I am disclosing it! All I can say is do your research. Nobody is perfect but look to see if a person has a history of disclosing issues on horses when they are found or if they try to sweep things under the rug.

This lovely horse was one that was owned by his breeder his whole life and never took a bad step. He was unraced because he had a minor tendon strain. Very sound but upon vetting he went lame on flexions and I was totally perplexed as he never took a bad step to ride. Xrays showed he likely had a suspensory strain (not a tendon strain) 4rs ago in race training that popped a small chip off the sesamoid bone. It was floating so when you flexed it he came up sore but it was not near the joint, the suspensory wasn't bothered and it likely wouldn't cause an issue. A friend bought him cheap and then her vet took over the ride. In a few short months he started competing and is doing great. Just goes to show you that the right buyer might find the risk very worthwhile.

I was recently interviewed for the magazine published by the Retired Racehorse Project https://www.retiredracehorseproject.org/join-ottb-magazine and one of the questions was where do you find your horses?

I typically buy about 35 horses a year and very rarely do I ever get to look at them in person before I buy them. The majority of the horses that I buy come from well established connections at various tracks. These are trainers that I know and trust. Some are new connections that have come recommended from people that I do highly trust.  I do buy from other resellers if the price is right. I will shop on facebook trying to find the obscure horses that nobody else has seen yet but will be a great buy. I have some local breeders that I work with as well who I get several from each year. It has taken years to develop good connections and I am constantly working to find more. In the past two years, I have been getting a lot of calls from various people at the tracks or in the industry saying that they have been referred to me because I am someone who is easy to work with and does a good job placing horses. That really means a lot to me and I have always tried to do right by everyone. Being a sight unseen buyer is very risky. It often means buying horses based off a phone call or a picture. I often have bought the horse before I have ever seen it move. I am sometimes sending money to people that I don't even know! I will tell you that many times I get the call before other people do because I am willing to buy and ship a horse very quickly. In a hot market being able to make a deal quick is often how I get the really good horses. They know that I am not going to make them jump through hoops and for many track connections they simply don't have time to mess with anyone who can't make something happen very quickly. They love their horses but a slow horse is taking up a stall of something that could be earning money. When a horse needs to move it needs to move very quickly. I have many connections that I know so well that if they call I just send them the money and know I am getting something really good. It is a bit of a crazy way of doing business but it sure is fun! It is like Christmas every time a new horse comes into the farm.


I try to stick to my criteria- 3-7yr geldings, 15.3 h and up, sound with no vices and something that will really stand out among the other horses. I trying to buy something special enough that it has potential for the upper levels of the various disciplines. I know you are thinking well how can you tell that? The reality is that nobody truly can tell until a horse is actually competing at that level but I look for good conformation, good feet, pedigree, a solid race record and a horse that moves well enough to be competitive. I have been involved in the TB industry for a long time so I have gotten pretty good at identifying which bloodlines that I really like for sport and most of the time it is very accurate. I want to buy the horses that are in such good shape that they don't need extensive let down. They are physically and mentally happy which makes transition to a new job simple. If you buy from the right people this typically is the case. Most of the horses that I buy arrive in such good condition that they could hit the show ring the next day. I also am very detailed when I look at a horses race record. I never agree to take a horse until I have seen it's breeding and race record. I just want to look for anything that might stand out to tell me a horse has had a soundness issue or some other issue. Many times people can explain a gap in the record and that I am okay with but if it is an unknown I will often pass because it is important that a horse be able to pass a future PPE.

That brings up another topic of PPE's. I do not get PPE's on the horses that I buy. I don't recommend that for the majority of buyers but when you run a business sometimes it comes down to economics. I couldn't afford to PPE everything that I buy. I rely on my very educated connections to be my eyes on the horses. They have incentive to only sell me horses that will pass future PPE's. I do evaluate a horse in pictures and I can tell a lot from a picture. I won't buy horses that have osselets or anything structural that I can see on a picture. That picture may be all that I have to go on so I have to use my gut feeling. If a seller has xrays on a horse and osselets are just osselets then I will consider buying the horse if the price is right but I always find them a bit tougher to resell because buyers are visual. If I don't know the seller I will ask for a video. I can't tell you how many horses appear to be unsound in the videos that I get. I have a very educated eye for soundness and if a horse doesn't jog sound then I don't take the risk on buying it. I realize that some horses are just track sore but I can typically tell the difference between that and unsoundness. Many horses I buy without ever seeing them move. It's super risky but I am lucky enough to have good connections that typically don't steer me wrong. It is never fail proof but I accept the risk and if things go wrong then it is my responsibility (I have learned good lessons on sellers to avoid though and while buying horses sight unseen is the risk I accept I really detest people who blatantly lie about soundness).

I don't think that any person who sells horses have horses that always pass PPE's. I sometimes have a horse that has a finding upon xrays. However, the majority of them are sound and it may mean they aren't going to be an upper level horse but have a good career in the lower levels. The majority of what has been found that has caused a horse to not pass a PPE is small chips either in ankles or knees. Most of those have been found on xrays and not because a horse isn't sound or doesn't flex sound. I am lucky enough to have my own farm which allows me the flexibility to rest horses as long as needed and take my time. I have gotten horses that sellers lied about and have had injuries that I didn't feel would make them something that I would represent. I am comfortable euthanizing horses that I don't feel can have solid performance careers. I will not sell horses that I don't think will hold up and I don't try to find pasture homes for horses. I personally feel it is the responsible thing to do to only sell horses that have a very good shot at never ending up in a bad place because of soundness issues. None of us can ever prevent the actions of other people but I just feel that I don't want to risk horses being passed along because of unsoundness and have my name involved with it.

In many ways facebook has changed the horse business in my opinion. It is very easy for people to research you and find out information which can be good and bad depending on how you conduct your business. As all of us know...the horse world is a very very small world. I believe in always trying to do the right thing. None of us are perfect but being honest will keep customers coming back and sending all their friends. It works the same for those of us who buy a lot of horses. All my connections want their horses going to someone who will do whatever it takes to sell them into the right home not just any home. My favorite part of the business is seeing the sold horses excelling in their new careers and being able to pass that along to their former connections. 

I am laughing as I watch this again because he really was trying to say no and she just kept saying you can do this..you will do this..cut the crap.

I spent many years retraining horses for CANTER Mid Atlantic and got used to having horses come in for training that already had upward of three months of rest where they just hung in a field with their friends and got to be a horse. They mentally and physically had healed and were ready to start their new jobs for the most part. Every once in a while I would restart a horse that started out really good but then got about a month or so into the work program and decided to let me know that they just weren’t quite ready. Almost every single time it was just a case of new muscles being used and the horse saying OUCH this hurts! Most tend to get past this stage fairly quickly if you listen to them and ease them into the work but others make it quite well known that they aren't real happy.

If you think about the life of a racehorse it is easy to see why retraining them in a new way would cause them to complain a bit. For the most part, racehorses don’t get asked to soften their backs and track under from behind. They don’t do a lot of trotting either. They go out and do a little jog and then maybe a gallop or they might do a faster work. Then they get put back in the stall until they do it again the next day. There isn’t a lot of strengthening work done to create topline or build back muscles. They tend to have these overly bunched up muscled out hind ends from pushing so hard but it’s not the proper kind of pushing! I have seen some horses get very upset about being asked to soften their backs when they physically aren’t capable.

I think one of the most obvious cases was the horse I bought for myself, Lettermans Humor. After 50+ races he retired from the track at the age of 8. He was a really odd type of horse who wasn’t sure about humans but he really understood having a job. I started his retraining and at first he was pretty game to learn new things. He wanted to go in the bridle because most good racehorses that have raced a long time often carry themselves that way. However, I think what happened is that he started using muscles he didn’t know he had and he got PISSSED. He had spent years going a certain way and now I was asking him to bend, soften and use his body and he thought it was really hard and he was sore all over.

You start doing the investigative work. He had xrays of his feet, ankles and knees and they were very clean so you knew that wasn’t the culprit. He took a trip up to New Bolton and the vets there went over him really well and said okay well perhaps add some hind shoes and do some work getting him stronger over his back. He looks weak in the stifles and just a bit stiff but we don’t see anything structurally wrong with him. So hind shoes went on and I tried to keep going but he wasn’t having any of it in the ring. He bucked, kicked out, pinned his ears, wouldn’t go forward and was just grumpy. I told the program director that he was going to be a long term type of project because I couldn’t market him. I just started riding him out of the ring because he was pretty close to violent in the ring and would have been very violent if pushed. I rode him on the trails several times a week and when I wasn’t doing that I was lunging him to get him stronger over his back and let him figure out forward without a rider up. I had a lot of chiropractic work done on him as well! You sort of go well how did a horse who made $200k on the track and raced 50+ times including winning some stakes races not know how to go forward??? Well sometimes they just don’t.  They don’t have the muscles, they don’t have the understanding and when they are asked sometimes it hurts and they just shut down.

So why did I buy this cranky horse who hated flatwork and didn’t know how to go forward? Well out on the trails he gave me a feeling that let me know there was a really nice horse in there. He went forward, round, had a canter to die for and was just overall a great ride. I had hunted him, paper chased him and xc schooled him and he loved being out of the ring! I had seen him free jump and free move and he was absolutely lovely. I knew it was all in there. I just didn’t know how long it would take. I figured I liked a project and nobody else was going to take him on so I would. That horse went from hating dressage..I mean really he thought it was absolute torture…to now being in the top 5 in dressage at the local events. He is now in the ribbons each time out and he is good at flatwork. He is fancy! It just took some time.

I now have a horse following a bit of a similar path and this time it is a sales horse of mine. I am not a non-profit so the goal is to buy the really nice horses that I find on the track or elsewhere and put the initial training into them and rehome them within 90 days. I get their feet fixed, do their teeth, get their minds and bodies happy but I do start riding them fairly soon after I get them home. For most of them, this works just fine. I combine some free jumping, trail riding, light flatwork and some baby jumps to keep the work fun and interesting. I don’t crank on them and I don’t drill them. They are used to having jobs so this is just a different kind of job. However, there is always a horse or two that says they just need more than my basic program J  

Hebe’s Pride is this absolutely lovely 16.2 h 6yr with the sweetest personality. He raced around 28 times and was well managed. His legs look beautiful. He has lovely feet. His conformation is really nice! When Herbie came in he was really really slow in the ring. I am talking whip..spurs and you were still barely moving. He was tight everywhere but not lame. You could just feel the overall tightness. Even with that tightness he wanted to go naturally in the bridle and he has a nice stride. When he started out he was pleasant and tried hard for you. I had gotten him out on the trails and he was a totally different horse. Forward, soft in the bridle and really marching forward. Fancy..really fancy! He jumped logs, did ditches, water, motorcycles passing at 50mph and more. What a great brain! People had come to see him and liked him but found him to be too slow. You just couldn’t get a good read on what he was going to become so nobody took that jump into buying him. He was only about a month off the track at that point and here he was doing baby courses, w/t/c and trail riding in groups. Not bad for 30 days post track. I free jumped him and wow..just lovely. Forward, brave, scopey and just beautiful movement. I loved how he just jumped the barrel and this big black pipe we put under the jump like it was no big deal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nai5EJLH-CE&list=UU_NO5veTErq4YmhPjhD-vGw

After I made the free jump video everybody wanted to come and see him but it started to backfire. He started to get really angry about the leg and going forward. A bit of this came from buyers who came to ride him and just wanted to jam his head down and kick him. In their defense, if you wanted him to soften to the bridle you really had to kick him to get him to go forward enough to soften his back. He took it but then he got sore in his body which led to him saying I don’t want to work. I often didn’t have enough time to get on him in between to reschool him after buyers would come so he got away with some things..mainly just stopping and saying nope make me go..haha..kick me..I don’t  care…. Buyers just said forget it and let him stop. He learned that! He had just gotten worse.


Okay, time to do some investigating. Vet check was clean but had the chiropractor work on him and he was just out of whack everywhere. She said it is no wonder he is kicking out and doesn’t want to go forward. Once again there is nothing structurally wrong with him but she said all the new muscles that he is using are just causing overall body soreness. Sometimes the fancier moving the horse they more they tend to use all those muscles in places that make them go OUCH!

I had comments all over the place from buyers ranging from he is too big of a mover, he is a terrible mover, he hates work, he is too slow, he is a nice horse that needs more time, he is going to win the dressage, there are some really impressive movements and so on. Some even came back for second rides and on the first ride he would have a good day and then on the second he would be tight and not want to go forward. Even if I knew he was a totally different horse out of the ring..and that he truly loved to work because I could see it in him..I understood completely what people saw and felt. If you haven’t had experience with this stage in horses or you aren’t used to dealing with horses transitioning from the track it would be easy to say the horse just doesn’t like to work and pass him on by.  I know what he feels like out of the ring (impressive!!!) and I have seen him free jump and free move and I know what is in there. It is my job to ensure I do whatever it takes to get him happy and comfortable in his body so he can perform. As a reseller, this isn’t necessarily in my best interest because time is money but when you buy horses you are obligated to do right by them. Thankfully, I only ever buy horses that I believe I will truly enjoy riding because sometimes they do need more time and they stay around longer than you expect. I absolutely love riding Herbie and if I only trail ride him for the rest of the winter it will make me very happy (since I sold everything else in the barn!).  So what do I do with him? I just shut up and listen to him! I think that involves not riding him in the ring much at this point.

I have been lunging him to get his muscles built up and teach him to go forward into the bridle and he looks amazing! You watch him on the lunge and you just think to yourself this is one damn nice horse! Right now you don’t get what you have on the lunge or free when you are riding him but I know it is in there. I am staying up with the chiropractic and some massage. I put him on some muscle relaxers just to help him get past this stage. It’s easy to say well just give him more time off but I have been down this road before and honestly this is not much different than a person doing a couch to 5k program. If you just stop you don’t get better. The muscles are going to hurt. You hurt for a while. You need a slow conditioning program to ease into it. You may take some anti-inflammatories to help you past the worst of it. You have to listen to your body. It would be a lot easier if he could talk to me. I am really trying hard to use all my experience to listen and slowly build him up.

 I am not sure what I do in regards to marketing him or letting people see him. I am fairly frustrated with the process at the moment because I explain to people what is going on in detail and yet they really want to come to see him. Then they just end up putting him down and all the negative comments are making me cranky J It’s not the buyers fault because he is what he is right now and I know that. You can’t convince people that this is just a stage nor do you really want to do that. If you are buying a horse you want to see a horse that is showing you they are capable of doing the job you intend for them to do and he isn’t doing that right now. How long before he does? I am not sure. I think he will tell me so for now I will just keep plugging along with the lunging, trail riding and incorporate some of my tricks into teaching them to go forward in the ring. I will do everything I can to help his muscles relax and get stronger.  We had such an awesome lunging session last night. I get so pumped up and excited about working with these horses. I was so proud of him and his good work yesterday. It just makes you look forward to getting inside their heads and figuring out what makes them tick. I guess you have to enjoy this part of it to do this job but thankfully I really do!