Vetting a free horse?

[striderrider]

If you were getting a horse for free, would you bother vetting it at all? Or would you just go with the "never look a gift horse in the mouth" and hope for the best?

[horse99]

It depends on why the horse is free. If it is free because it is lame or has a problem, well you alread know it's has some issues so I probably wouldn't bother vetting it. Why pay for what you already know.

[peppysan]

Yes I agree, why is the horse free? Usually free horses have some sort of catch and that is why they are free whether it be a soundness issue or a behavioral/training issue.

[striderrider]

sorry I should have elaborated. Horse is free because it had a previous injury many years ago but is recovered and sound at this time although he has not been in work for a long time. I realize I may be taking my chances, so thus wondering if I should get a vet check to double make sure all is well.

[SamanthaSky]

It couldn't hurt to have a vet look at it and make sure it has a good chance of standing up to do what you want it to do. Otherwise you might just end up with another mouth to feed.

[peppysan]

I agree. If I was giving away a horse, and the person knew why I was giving it away I might be a bit irritated if they did a vetting. But with this day and age who knows, I don't want to be sued because I gave away a horse and later it comes back to bite me that there was something wrong with it that I didn't know about and therefor didn't disclose. I guess let them do their due diligence so they know 100% what they are getting into, free or not. It's also educational for me as the vet might point out something I was not aware of...

[striderrider]

Not looking to do grand prix lol. Just lower level dressage. Also I would never sue anyone over a horse. That's just bat shit crazy. Horses go lame and come sound all the time. If you want to have horses, that's the gamble you have to take. If I take something on, I take it on, and it's on me. period.