Advice About Buying A Horse

[Lady Ravyn]

*sigh* ok, yesterday my aunt, my grandma, my mom, and i went to see about a 3-year-old belgian we were thinking of buying. when we got to the place, it was a total dive. it was a ranch i guess; there was lots of live stock, but the place was run down and not very clean. the guy said he had brought up the belgian from the fields in the back where he turned out his horses most of the time. when i first saw him, i liked what i saw. he had a sweet face, and his eyes were so friendly. even though he had been advertised as a 3-year old, when we looked at his teeth, he looked more like 2, not quite 3! and he was 16 hands (small for a belgian, but he'll grow- i'm guessing he'll be about 16.3-17 hands) he was just standing there, placidly grazing. but when i really looked him over, i saw that he had a nasty-looking wound on his left hind-foot, and his right eye was red and missing its bottom lid. we walked himaround, and he turned out to be so sweet and gentle! he was like a huge teddy bear. in the ad we had seen advertising him, the guy said that the horse was green broke and could drive double. when we asked the guy about that, he said that he had only had the belgian for 3 weeks, and they had been riding him bare-back, so didn't know how often the horse had had a saddle on him. they put one on him, though, and the guy's grandaughter rode him around in the riding ring. he didn't do anything bad and knew how to walk and trot, but doesn't know how to canter (i think). my aunt got on him next; she's and excellent english rider, and rode him in that style even though he was wearing a western saddle. she managed to get him to trot around the ring a couple times straight (he was so slow and quiet he was reluctant to move- but that's fine with me! i'm a beginner and love slow paced horses! ) after her i got on him. i think i may have confused him because he backed into the corner of the ring a couple times, but once i got my message through, he was fine. the only thing i noticed was that we would only go clockwise around the ring- so that his undamaged eye was facing out. when you walked him the other way, he'd stop until you turned him to go clockwise. so we were thinking that maybe he can't see very well out of his damaged eye. after our ride, we hosed him off (something he'd never experienced before, but he still reacted fine.) he hadn't been worked that hard in about a year- and all we'd dome was little more than walk him! while we were brushing him down, we asked about his medical stuff. the guy said that he didn't know when he'd had his last shots, but had given him a couple shots of penicilan when he first got him. he had NO COGGINS TEST DONE! and he had come from virginia originally! but he's so sweet, and he didn't even know his own name! he'd been out in the field with 100 other horses, and he probably didn't have a name until we asked the guy what his name was- the guy probably made it up! that's so sad!

*sigh* i fell for him. i want him SO BAD! i can't leave him there in that cess pit where his wound won't be looked at, his feet won't be looked at (they've got lots of cracks in them) and nobody even knew his name! i can't! i'm so upset and bummed out over this- i've been thinking about him all day. he's waaaaaaaaay over-priced for his schooling level, and to get him vetted- out will cost alot too. my question is: is it worth it? should we spend that much money to vet out something we don't even know if we'll get? what would you do? i'm so bummed out over this i had to ask someone. please tell me what you think- it's knind of important to me