Horse Talk

[SelectHorseSale]

Just because a horse is too far away for you to see before you buy, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to buy the horse site unseen. A local vet can be a good resource to act as your eyes before you purchase a horse.

Once you've made the decision to buy a horse before you finalize the purchase, you may want to consider paying a vet near the horse to inspect the horse for you. Vets can not only inspect a horse for general health and soundness issues, but they can also help judge a horse's disposition. If you do take this route, hire the vet yourself. Call him/her directly and have them send the bill to you. Tell the vet exactly what tests you'd like him/her to run. Agree on pricing before the vet inspection. After the inspection call the vet and ask them about their general impression of the horse. Even if all you have the vet do is draw some blood and do a general health inspection, they'll have an idea of how a horse handles by the time they're done. A really good extra test to have a vet. run is a flex test. For this test the vet. will need to pick up each of the horse's legs several times and hold them in a fixed position for about 30 seconds each. This test not only looks for soundness issues but also tests the disposition of the horse.

Hiring a vet like this may cost you a few hundred dollars but can really pay off when you're looking at spending several thousand on your new horse.