by Justin Faraoni

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: September 12, 2010

Do you want to buy your first horse? Has it been awhile since you purchased a horse? Well recently sellers have become more tricky towards buyers. The honest country boy style is usually a mask for a seller to take advantage of a buyer. I will tell you about some of the most common tricks that are not known or easily seen without an untrained eye.

Most recently tranquilizers have become a lot easier for the general public to get a hold of. The sellers will give a horse a dose of these right before you arrive. The best way to tell if a horse has been tranquilized is to look at its stance and body. Usually the horse will have its head lower then its back or very straight with its back. Another sign that a horse has been tranquilized is that its lower lip will hang down. Well you may ask how can I see how the horse reacts when it isn't on tranquilizers? That will be discussed at the end of the article.

An old trick that always seems to resurface is over working or exhausting the horse before a potential buyer shows up. You may be thinking, well I can tell if they have done this, the horse must get sweaty and all. Really what happens in this situation is that a seller works the horse very hard sometimes for many days and then right before you show up they will bath the horse and may tell you that it had been dirty and they wanted you to see it cleaned and well groomed.

The other most common trick involves veterinarian procedures. Now, a vet. or none that I deal with would intentionally do this for someone to sell the horse as sound and fit. They can do nerve blocks on a horse so that a horse doesn't feel pain in certain areas. Most of the time a buyer can not tell that this has been done. They also can rim-fire the legs and this usually will leave a scar behind. On the lower legs above the hoof it will have dot like scars. How do you get around this one? Well, ask the seller for the veterinarian records on the horse. If they are not willing and you want to go ahead and see the horse as a potential for you to own, you can tell them that you want your personal vet. to look at the horse. It is very inexpensive and considering the price you will pay for a horse, it is worth the investment.

Now back to the other tricks, tranquilizers, exhausting the horse, etc. With all of these tricks it takes investigation. You may need and I suggest meet with the seller more then once. The first time the seller can drug or exhaust the horse, but the seller needs to give you the location

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