What happens when you buy a horse?

[nonny]

I have seen a horse that i am very interested to buy, he is about a 3 hour drive from my home so waht do i do about deposits, paying for him and how does passport reregistration work? do i get the passport after paying a deposit?
I do alraedy own a horse but i bought him from a dealer before the times of passports and the likes, i just bought him for cash there and then, and have never taken part in a private sale, and am therefore requesting jewels of wisdom from you fellow DGers.

Cheers

Nons x

[gordo]

I would tell them asap that you want him and agree price if necessary. Will you be getting the vet out? Please do cos sellers (however sweet) can be fibbers about the health of their neds. I would agree deposit and get receipt agreeing that, pending the vets approval, you will be buying for x amount. If horse fails and you pull out you may well lose deposit (not sure how this works) but if all well, i would pay balance on collection of horse and passport. Make sure you study the passport to verify it is the horse it says it is!! However, people are still people and there is no guarantee till the horse is in your stable that any agreement will be honoured as I am sure you will be told on here. If this horse is 'the one' then I truly wish you the best of luck. If you get a 'feeling' that somethings not right then listen and pull out!

[touchstone]

I suppose it all depends on your arrangement with the seller. I usually leave a deposit and pay in full when I collect the horse along with the passport as the horse is then in your ownership. Good luck with your new acquisition!

[gordo]

I have never gone the whole 'agreement in writing' route as I am trusting and never spent HUGE amounts of money. But I have heard stories of people being badly let down and I can only imagine how upsetting this must be. Do what feels right.

[nonny]

thanks gordo, and touchstone. I was thinking aong those lines but wanted to hear from someone else that i wasnt being dumb! i do hope he is the right horse, i havent thought about a vet just yet - i have never used one before and the horse is not too much money - not that i am made of it but a vetting seems very expensive, i will also have to get a vet local to him as mine would never travel that far how does that work out??
sorry to gabble on.
chhers.

Nons x

[jen1]

well im a bit more forth rght,if i liked the horse id ask the direct question ,"do you think this horse would fail a vetting for the purpose i was buying it,,?and if it did would they negoitiate
the price then,if it gets sold form under you then it wasnt ment to be and the next 1 could be even better, i saved £1000,doing that our barney was up for £3800, 3 years ago i asked the dealer if he would put his money where his mouth was,i tend not to ask any questions to there faces only on the phone to determine i would lke to view,,as to me buying someone elses horse is just that till you get into (you and horsey)your own way of being,plus any owner cant lie to your face(the proof is in the eating as they say), you just have to find out as much as you can from doing the things you need to know if that makes sense, ie dont ask what its like in traffic,ask if you can take it to a busy spot ect, but then you would have asked all the questions on the phone regarding that kind of stuff ,good luck any way and make sure you take a knowlagable persom with you 4 eyes better than 2

[fin]

Call out the equine practice nearest to the horse, and try to make sure it's not the one the owner uses. It's best to be there for the vetting (although I didn't) so you can get specific questions answered. Mine cost about £200 I think.

Whether you give a deposit or not is something you can agree with the seller--I didn't when I bought mine. If the horse fails the vetting though you should get it back, but to be honest if you're going to get the ned vetted the seller might take that as proof of serious intentions and not ask for any deposit at all.

Do you have transport? It cost me £250 to transport my ned five hours via a commercial horse carrier....if you do that the seller will have to give the driver the horse's passport, otherwise they'll be breaking the law.

Have fun!

[Liz]

If you don't nkow the horse or the sellers, then my advice would be to get the horse vetted - especially if he is a cheapie! It may cost a bit but could well prevent your pocket being hit later with unexpected vet/trainer bills.

[julia]

When you've tried the horse and decided that he's what you want, tell the seller that you wish to buy him. They will tell you whether they want a deposit pending the outcome of the vetting. That will probably depend on how many other people they have who are interested in the horse. If you pay a deposit, get a receipt which should be worded along the lines of:

'Received from 'nonny' a deposit of £x in respect of the purchase of the 14.2hh bay gelding known as 'Fred'. The deposit is taken subject to a veterinary examination which may include x-rays and blood tests. Should the horse fail the vetting the deposit will be returned in full. If the horse passes the vetting the balance of £x is to be paid by (date)'.

The receipt should be dated and signed by both you and the seller.

I was looking for a horse to buy last summer, and each time I went to see a likely horse I took with me a pre-typed receipt so that all that had to be done was to fill in the details should the horse be the right one. When you're standing in a yard, excited about a horse, you don't always have pen, paper and the right wording to hand! I had two copies, one for me and one for the seller. When you pay the balance of the purchase price get a receipt for that too. You should be given the passport and any other papers when you pay the balance.

I had a five stage vetting done on the horse I wanted to buy. You can find an equine vet through the yellow pages, or I found that the sellers are usually very helpful in giving you the names and numbers of equine vets in their area. A five stage vetting costs about £200. If you don't think that this is necessary, you might prefer to have a two stage vetting done - I think that's about £100. Companies to transport your horse for you can also be found via yellow pages or by asking the seller.

For anyone looking to buy a horse, who hasn't done it before, I can recommend a really helpful book. It's called 'How to buy the right horse' by Carolyn Henderson and Lynn Russell.

Good luck nonny!

[mudlark]

good advice. getting anything in writing tends to concentrate minds! and I would add, look (if you haven't already) at the thread asking for help with recovery of a large amount of money on a deal gone wrong, and take that advice on board as well. If you go ahead with the final purchase after vetting, how about including on the receipt a description of what the horse is being sold as - eg 'jumping horse suitable for competition', 'bombproof hack' etc as this may strengthen your hand if the horse turns out to have problems you didn't know about when you bought. Just a thought - I'm not a lawyer!

[pip]

Also look up the thread (today) about getting some money back, legal advice, and read the post from Lucitiana about deposits, etc. Not trying to alarm you, but better safe than sorry.
I have driven miles to look at horses and then they haven't matched descriptions at all.

DO NOT ACCEPT THE HORSE IF HE DOES NOT HAVE PASSPORT, PAPERS, ETC. It is illegal to sell a horse without a passport. If you go ahead and buy it, do not pick it up unless it has a passport, do not rely on "it is in the post" it is unlikely that you will see it and you will have to pay for a new one. The old one might also show you that the horse is not the age stated by the seller!

[jinglejoys]

What a great "basic" question nonny-thanks for asking it.
Not much help myself as I still don't know and I find the post very helpful.All mine have been bought out of market except for Malaga and I bought him unseen from Spain off the internet (Whatwver you do "don't do as I do-do as I say"" as my riding mistress told me at school having just told us of for having our hands in our pockets ;D)

[julia]

Passports aren't always very helpful. When I decided to buy my horse I asked the seller if I could see her passport. I was rather taken aback to find that there was no indication whatsoever of her age or date of birth!!! I could see that she was pretty much the age the seller said she was so when I had her vetted I asked the vet to give as close an idea of her age as he was able to. Fortunately his estimate was the same as the age I was told.

Should I ever sell her in the future I guess I will have to rely on that vet report and possibly the records of my equine dentist to prove her age.

Similarly when I applied for a passport for the horse we had on loan last year, the vet who completed the form didn't seem bothered about being too precise about details. When he got to the bit about height he glanced at her and said 'she looks about 13.2'. She was actually 14.3 and I had to show him her exisiting record card to convince him to put that down on the form!

[charlie]

you regret it, lol C

[donna]

We went to view a 15.2hh 7 year old(according to their vet) who turned out to be a 14.2hh 4 year old!