I don't need another horse.  I have three.  Ta'ceweyi has loads of potential but it will be years before we are there.  The other two are old.  I want to go dressage/eventing and I have found a wonderful trainer.  The problem is a lack of horse. That being said, I was looking at the equisearch classifieds and found a huge prospect.  I don't want to get anything not perfect as far as soundness and conformation. 

The link to the add is: http://equisearch.equine.com/horses-for-sale/horse-ad-912436.html

Her pic: http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae170/crittergirl_photos/JanesHorses125.jpg

I have emailed the seller, well, the giver I guess since she is free, and I am falling in love. She was started lightly at three, and is only free bc she is a cribber and the economy.  After I get a response and find out more about her I will update. Please help me evaluate her!  What I am looking for is a horse that can handle dressage, jumping, and trails, and be strong enough to still do it at 20. Help please!

 

Holy huge neck, batman!  Aside from that she looks decent.  Looks like she may toe out up front.  "Perfect" doesn't exist.  Neither does "free."  Don't let "free" be too tempting as we all know the purchase price is peanuts compared to upkeep costs.  Since you do already have three horses are you financially able to give full care to another?  What about leasing a horse to ride for a couple years instead?

Solaris:

Holy huge neck, batman! 

lol, I don't know how I missed that! Maybe it is the angle.  How would that affect her movement and dressage suitability?  I'm not that good on conformation judging and from your other posts you seem to be so I trust your judgement!  I haven't found a horse to lease around me period. And if I did the price would probably equal out the cost to actually having another one, plus I have attachment issues and if I rode a horse for any length of time like that when Ta'c comes of age I couldn't just walk away, lol.  I probably won't end up getting her.  I could afford it, I do nothing except my critter stuff so I am not the average college go out and party type. Me and my boyfriend's great night is getting the pasture and water buckets cleaned early.  Free isn't what really even drew me towards her. I don't know....

 Well, I am no expert so take it all with a grain of internet interpretation, but I do enjoy learning about and looking at conformation.  The problem with a huge thick neck that ties in low to the chest like that is that if you are going to do anything that requires suppleness, flexibility and coming onto the bit, a thick heavy neck will make it hard for the horse to do that -- to go to extremes, think of a swan's neck and a pig's neck -- which one is going to be more flexible and supple?  Obviously, you don't want a swan necked horse either, but you get the picture.  Pleasure/trail horse, no problem.  Dressage/jumper -- hard.

I got an email back from the giver, who is incredibly prompt and nice, and got more of an update on her.  She is 3/4 Tb and 1/4 Dutch Warmblood.  She was bred to be a show horse(hunter).  There are other people interested in her, and I googled where she is at- it is almost 5 hours way. She seems like a good horse, and I am sure she will make someone very happy, but I feel like stuff happens for a reason and I am not supposed to get her, especially if she wouldn't be comfortable being a dressage/jumper, which is what I am looking for.

On a positvie note-  I was talking to my trainer-to-be and there is a horse for free lease that just became available. He is a handful though, and I would have to bring him to my place.  The biggest issue is that the horse belongs to another college student who only has one more year.  If I fit this horse and bond with him and we make progress I would possibly only have one year on him.

Thanks!

Sounds like the free lease is just "free training."  You put hours and training on the horse, the person gets out of college and gets a better horse back.  I would pass.

As you know, I'm also looking into either leasing or buying a horse.  I am finding a few opportunities on leasing finished horses for a small fee or leasing "for sale" horses with an option to buy.  If I were you, I'd look for these type of opportunities rather than leasing a horse that is a handful, only to have to give him back after you've put free training on him.

Solaris:

The problem with a huge thick neck that ties in low to the chest

I think the throat latch is the more specific area of the neck that you need to be concerned with being "huge" or "thick".  And a lot of times it's the mane, or lack thereof, or the shape of a horse's head and shoulder that can make a horse's neck look big. 

I probably will pass on the lease horse.  I will still go and look at him bc you never can know.  I got the feeling that buying him might be an option, but right now he is boarded at by far the best barn in my area, and the owner is in school at France, which more than likely equals a horse way out of my price range.  Still, there is no harm in looking, and it gives me an excuse to wonder around that huge barn...

I have officially decided not to go for the free mare.  She does sound like she has potential but I don't want to have to start on a fresh horse.  I have no problem developing a started horse, and my trainer-to-be prefers to finish started horses and people, but she was just a little too green.

There is a good chance I will go look at a mare this Thursday.  It is odd to me that I have always had geldings, I'm not big on mares, and both horses that have caught my eye are mares, and they also crib.  This mare that I will go look at is used english, has jumped just a little, 9, bay Thoroughbred.  The only fault (cribbing isn't that big of a deal, so not counting that) is that she is shorter than I wanted.  I am 5'9" so I wanted a tall horse, and she is 15.1 or 15.2, but the owner thinks I would fit her ok since she is built kind of appendix-y. Again no harm in looking, and I will update with pictures if she is a true option!

Unrelated: Ta'ceyewi, my colt, who I have really been hoping will get big, is starting a growing spurt!  Well, the cannon bones of his back legs have, and the rest is sure to follow.  The cannon bone is now the same length of my 16.2 hand horse, so I am crazy excited, and Ta'c is crazy funny looking right now since he is jacked up in the back.

 I went and looked at the mare yesterday.  I don't have any pictures right now, but I will update with them.  She is 15.2 possibly even 15.3, and 9 yrs old.  She is a very dark bay/faded black color, with no white markings.  She is supposed to be a registered Th, but they got her after a divorce case where one got the horse, the other got the papers, and so there is no telling.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out she is an appendix bc she is built stockier than any true thoroughbred I have ever seen.  At this point I think I may get her.  I rode her in a pen and then on a 1 1/2 hour long trail though the woods and on an open track, through bushes, small sand dune type hills(she is at the beach) and through water.  I was with 3 other horses, and she handled them leaving us way behind and leading both like a dream.  One of the horses decided to kick her so she bolted out of the way and even that she did calmly and smoothly.  She was very calm, very responsive and just generally a good mare. We met a rabbit on the trail, a snake, and spider webs.  The ONLY issue with riding her was the fact that I was riding her english, which I haven't done in several years, so any faults were all operator error.  There are some people coming to look at her this weekend, but I told her current owner I feel like things happen for a reason, and if these people get her, then I am not meant to get her.  At this point I will have to talk to my farrier, and assuming the people looking at her this weekend don't get her, I think I will as long as Jake (the farrier) doesn't see any issues either.  Thanks for all your input and I will try to post pics of her so she can be evaulated as well!

I'd never take a cribber. There's a pretty nice big appendix being given away at my barn. Cute mover, been in dressage training several months with a professional, real quiet, easy keeper, nice feet. But.. He cribs. That's it. I wouldn't take a cribber if someone paid me. and if I had a boarding operation I wouldn't allow any horses even to board at my place that cribbed. My trainer even said she wouldn't take one if she wasn't in such a dire financial situation. They tear up everything and the cribbing strap puts open welts on their necks and it makes them headshy. I hate it. We've tried everything from alternating types of cribbing straps to wrapping the straps in fleece, cotton, and wool. In the summer sand and sweat gets in there and you have open wounds. This is a terrible habit and I'd definitely think twice before taking a horse that does it. Upon further examination, I realized that you were looking at a different mare than the cribbing mare, sorry to go off on a rant!

It's ok, I appreciate all the help and advice I can get! Actually both mares crib.  I understand it is an issue, but I still think I might take a chance on this (the second mare that I rode yesterday) mare. Her collar doesn't rub.  While she will probably never stop, where she is now she is one of 20 horses used in a riding program, but since she isn't a beginner she isn't getting her mouth and training ruined bc only guides ride her.  Since she is at the beach there isn't any grass for her to eat, and she is a bigtime outcast from the herd, so she doesn't have a buddy, I think all of that combined encourages but not necessarily causes her cribbing.  If I get her she would have lots of grass, 2 obsessive horsey friends, and lots of room to roam, so she may not do it as much.  

Since the cribbing/beach living is already being talked about, has anyone everyone used Quit feed through crib stopper?  I saw it the other day and I don't understand how it works.

Also, since her living conditions would be changing, if I do get her, Bailey, what type of precautions would I need to take?  I would definitely give her metamucil(which works basically the same as sand clear) as a sand colic precaution, and give some time off for her to get used to things, but is there anything else I need to worry about getting a beach horse?

Good luck with the cribber at your barn! 

FocusCalmPatience:

the cribbing strap puts open welts on their necks

I know people who have used grazing muzzles when they are in the stall.  Their horses dont crib in the pasture so the muzzle in the stall works for them.  I actually tried that with a horse I had that was eating the wood in the stall because it had to be kept in for awhile.  She has no problems now but she is not stalled anymore.  Alot of horses develop it because they are not getting enough mental stimulation or they are stressed and unhappy. 

I'm also interested in seeing replies from people who've kept cribbers, too.  Most of the OTTBs I'm checking out are known cribbers.  

I remember reading in Equus that a lot of cribbers have ulcers, so the first step would be to put her on some kind of stomach-acid-reducer and see if that helps.

I have a friend who used a grazing muzzle on her gelding, but it didn't work. The horse figured out how to crib even with the muzzle. However, this was one of those black neoprene-like muzzles with teh holes in it. Maybe the wire ones work better.

Now, I know this sounds very extreme (it is), but that same person had the equine dentist put metal rings on her horse's teeth. (We call them his "braces" or his "grill".) I guess it doesn't hurt the horse to bite or chew, but it hurts when they try to crib. At first, this completely eliminated the problem. Then, he gradually started doing a little bit of light cribbing, so she painted his stall with Corona ointment. Now, as long as she has that ointment on everything, he doesn't crib. Weird, huh?

 I hadn't heard of the 'grill' idea, it does sound uncomfortable, but I bet he looks gangsta lol.

Well, I talked to the people, who said they want me to get her more than anyone else who has looked at her, and long story short me, my mom, my farrier and his wife will go this coming Saturday to look at her again/pick her up.  I trust my farrier and his wife, they are good friends of mine and they know a lot about horses, so even though right now my plan is to get her, if they get there and see something me and my mom missed(like some hoof problem or something), I will have to make myself walk away.  But, assuming they don't find anything either, she will be coming home on Saturday, so woohoo!  Mimi, my farrier's wife, will be judging her actual body/training, while Jake will more than likely just look at her hooves.  She is a Th, and he is an admitted disliker of that breed, and he worries about me getting another problem horse, and he sees the cribbing as a major issue, so since he is biased he will probably just go with hooves.

Here is the plan assuming I do get her- by a bag or 2 of the feed she is on, and slowly transition her onto mine, give her plenty of metamucil to try and take down the sand colic risk, pump her full of prebiotics to help with any imbalances there, give her a full week off at least to let her get settled in (it will be about a 4hr trailer ride and then way different scenery) and worm her with a mild Strongid paste, oh, and get something like Settlelex to help even out tummy acids.  Does that sound right, or should I do more, less, whatever?  I'm open to all suggestions!

Her link on equinenow is: http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-165884 though it isn't a good pic of her and doesn't have all that much info. The only pics I got when I went to look at her aren't good and have me in them, and I was wearing what I refer to as my sailer pants, which are really ugly, make me look about 20 pounds heavier, but they are so comfortably to ride in.  Anyway, they aren't good confo pics, and nobody wants to see my fat butt on her lol.