Mis sold horse wwyd

[Drivingnovice]

Hi all
Wondered if you could give me some advice...
My mums friend has bought a horse for her 13 year old daughter. She paid £200 with the remaining £800 on a monthly payment plan (don't know why she did this)
Horse sold from the field. Got it home. Wormed it. Got back lady out to check it before bringing back into work and turns out it is in a lot of pain somewhere in its back (don't know detail sorry). Got vet to look and vet agreed it's in a lot of pain considering hasn't been worked for 12 months.

New owner did some digging and turns out this horse has done something in the past, again sorry I don't know what exactly but whatever it is the person that sold the horse obviously knew this.

Anyway, the point being that this horse isn't how it was advertised. Can't be brought back into work and is potentially dangerous from what I can make out...

The old owner (call her A) will not answer the phone to my mums friend (call her B).
B has written to her asking her to take horse back. A is ignoring..
A hasn't provided B with horses passport, presumably as she doesn't want B contacting previous owners and finding out history.

A has lied to B saying that horse had a full body check two months ago by her vet but B checked with vet and this didn't happen.

So B is stuck with a horse that she can't bring back into work and she can't sell as she has no passport.
She neither wants a field ornament or a brood mare, although with a back injury I doubt she'd be suitable anyway.

WWYD ...? Take it to As house and leave it there, have horse PTS...?

Views please as B is at her wits end

[IceIceIce]

At least she's not considering putting it in foal.

To be honest I doubt there's a lot she can do as far as being miss sold goes. The seller sold it from the field and I may be wrong but if she chose not to have it vetted I thinks he's stuck with it.

I'd probably put her to sleep as nd asnddvise your friend not to buy in this manner again or if she does have a vet check it over. It's always pot luck bringing a horse back into work.

I have two lovely healthy cobs but one of them I bought totally unseen. I went into it knowing that they could be dropping anything off with God knows what issue. I actually thought I would have to PTS at one point and that is IMO a risk you take buying this way.

[IceIceIce]

And advise* sorry my phones auto correct talks jibberish a lot.

[britnay]

Does she have a copy of the original advert? Was it merely advertised as sold from field or was it perhaps hinting at it being able to be brought back into work and/or suitable for a child?

Will the vet give written confirmation that the horse cannot be brought back into work?

How much money has she paid so far for the horse?
At the very least she can contact trading standards with regard to the horse being sold without a passport.

[Pixel]

It's illegal to sell a horse without a passport so the vendors have committed an offence. Maybe a future letter could mention this? Not in a blackmaily way but suggest that if the buyers do not hear from them they will have no choice but to contact the passport office as they are not prepared to have an illegal unpassported horse on their premises. That might shake them up a bit. After all there is proof of where they got the horse because of the payment plan so they will have some explaining to do and as the fine can be £5000 they might prefer to just take the horse back and refund the money.
Btw it is not actually illegal to BUY a non-passported horse although it is to then not get it a passport once it is in your possession. Your friends have already committed an offence by transporting it without a passport, although they could claim that as they hadn't paid the full amount it wasn't yet in their ownership.

[Pixel]

Of course if they wanted to sell it they could get a passport themselves, as far as I can gather from the BHS FAQ this is perfectly fine so that's a bit of a red herring, although obviously that would be morally wrong and unfair to both the horse and the new buyers and is not to be recommended!

[Floralnomad]

Surely if the seller knew these issues would arise then they would have sold the horse to someone with all the money upfront as presumably the purchaser has still only actually paid £200 . If the purchaser has no intention of paying the balance I would suggest they desist from having the horse euthanised as its not wholly their property and concentrate their efforts in getting the horse returned to the seller . Honestly makes you wonder how stupid some people are ,poor horse.

[5OBalesofHay]

What would I do? I'd realise I'd not been diligent when buying the horse. Accept that I have now probably taken responsibility for it, dont pay any more and deal with that by keeping it if right and viable for horse (ie retired). Its clearly not from a reputable seller. Id then learn a huge lesson about buying horses. There aren't cheap good ones, especially for children.

[Blackfellpony]

Sadly she didn't get it vetted and bought it from the field. It was always going to be a huge gamble especially for £1000.

A good alrounder suitable for a child I would expect to be in the region of 2.5k+

[DraughtyWindow]

The other option is to find a solicitor dealing specifically in equine matters. Or try a Legal Expenses helpline attached to their home insurance. (Remember there is a prospect of success clause though). Has the horse been fully paid for? If not, that could be a reason why the seller still has the passport? Only the legal owner can have the animal PTS.

[honeyroar]

I agree with BlackFellPony. She didnt try the horse, she didn't have it vetted, she didn't contact the vet that was supposed to have checked it over recently until afterwards. She didn't pay much for it, and then even in instalments, and she took it even though she wasn't given a passport. How many red flags did she need! Poor horse. What exactly is wrong with it?

[MrsExpo]

Just read the OP ... Does the purchaser and/or their vet know what's actually wrong with the horse and whether it can be fixed with proper care? If so, I'd tell the seller that they're keeping the balance of purchase price to offset vets bills and see what response that brings. If it's fixable, they may still end up with a rideable horse, even if it takes a while.

[PikachuSayBoo]

Not sure about horses but I do know someone who bought a dog which wasn't as advertised. Dog turned out to be nasty immediatly after been brought home and the new owner got expert opinions tha the breeder would have known this. Breeder had to refund the money. It was decided in the small claims court so thats one avenue.

[Gabilan]

You might find this useful, OP www.theequinesite.co.uk/horse/index.php/news/152-buying-and-selling-horses-your-rights-and-the-law

I wonder if the old owner even has a passport. The poor horse may be being passed from pillar to post. I'd tackle the passport issue. I'd also use a chiro or physio for the back as they tend to be better with those than vets. I think while B has the mare she has a duty of care to make sure she does what she can to get her healthy. However, in the end £1k is far too little to pay for a good horse, without taking something of a gamble. I did it, and it paid off, but he's not a horse I'd trust a teenager with.

[RatherBeRiding]

Does the purchaser and/or their vet know what's actually wrong with the horse and whether it can be fixed with proper care? If so, I'd tell the seller that they're keeping the balance of purchase price to offset vets bills and see what response that brings. If it's fixable, they may still end up with a rideable horse, even if it takes a while.

Exactly this.

[RatherBeRiding]

Oh - and never, ever, EVER buy a child's horse from the field unless you know both the horse and the seller are genuine. Very expensive lesson to learn but the one I feel sorry for in all of this is the poor horse.

[Megainstant]

Basically your friend has made every mistake possible when buying a horse.

I expect they either don't have a passport (ALARM BELLS) in which case how on earth can you see if it's been vaccinated, or they don't want to give it to you because horse is not the age they have said. I guess they can not pay the rest of the money until they have the passport at least.

[IceIceIce]

I wouldn't have bought a kids pony from the field unless I was gonna train it myself and I was confident I could train whatever bad habits she might have out of her.

This is the problem and why it's a gamble buying this way. A horse just being relaxed will hide all sorts of problems (some horses be in serious pain but because the horse has learned to live with it when they're relaxed you cant really tell. some horses will canter freely and happily around a field of its own free will but you put pressure on and it's going tells increase its stress and nd not going tell it to ignore the pain when it's in flight mode cause it's more reactive).

A horse with "behaviour problems" also won't usually display them in the field. Because it's not the horse with he problem it's the people so he problem only happens when people are handling it. o they sell it "from the field".

You get the occasional gem but if you can't handle or care for or PTS the horses that need to be PTS because they're in constant pain then buying from the field is generally a bad idea and giving it to a child to find out what it's like is just really asking for trouble.