Hello! I hope you've all had fantastic half-month of February so far. The weather has been outstanding in California, and I have been trail riding as much as possible. Our weather has been in rather stark contrast to the Nemo survivors on the east coast!
I find that the more I am engaged and immersed in horses, the more equine legal topics I find to blog about! I have started riding a little mare more often, and thought I would introduce to you my latest equine muse, Tobiana (I know, not a very original name; Tobiana is Spanish for a tobiano (paint) colored horse).
She is a retired polo pony, though only retired because she has a mystery lameness whenever she plays field polo. We can't find any concrete physical reason why she goes lame, but she is perfectly sound as a hack horse, so voila! she has a new job.
Her mystery lameness made me think of lawsuits over lame horses.
Typically these lawsuits are by the buyers against the sellers and/or vet, alleging fraud and collusion in the sale. One lawsuit I worked on was for a horse that the buyer claimed could no longer perform at the level it was alleged to be able to perform at the time of sale. This would be a breach of implied or express warranty, plus, the buyer claims the vet and the sellers conspired to hide the horse's lameness issues.
So what about this little mare Tobiana and her mystery lameness? She has been in our family for a longtime, has been an excellent mare, and will forever be our pet. However, if I had purchased her with the expressed intent to play field polo with her, whether I would have a valid case or not would depend in part on: what the seller warranted the mare could do, the cause and timing of the lameness (whether the seller had knowledge of the mare's mystery lameness when she played field polo), and of course expert testimony regarding the existence of the mare's lameness.
I'm just glad that Tobiana is happy in her new job- after the relatively non-cushy life of polo pony, she now gets a thickly-bedded stall at night and lots of cookies- I think she is pleased with her choice. Plan on seeing a lot more of her on the blog!
Have you ever had a horse that had a mystery lameness? Perhaps he or she lightly brushes a jump pole, then feigns lameness? Such funny, and clever, creatures!
I find that the more I am engaged and immersed in horses, the more equine legal topics I find to blog about! I have started riding a little mare more often, and thought I would introduce to you my latest equine muse, Tobiana (I know, not a very original name; Tobiana is Spanish for a tobiano (paint) colored horse).
"She now gets a thickly-bedded stall at night and lots of cookies- I think she is pleased with her choice"
She is a retired polo pony, though only retired because she has a mystery lameness whenever she plays field polo. We can't find any concrete physical reason why she goes lame, but she is perfectly sound as a hack horse, so voila! she has a new job.
Her mystery lameness made me think of lawsuits over lame horses.
Typically these lawsuits are by the buyers against the sellers and/or vet, alleging fraud and collusion in the sale. One lawsuit I worked on was for a horse that the buyer claimed could no longer perform at the level it was alleged to be able to perform at the time of sale. This would be a breach of implied or express warranty, plus, the buyer claims the vet and the sellers conspired to hide the horse's lameness issues.
So what about this little mare Tobiana and her mystery lameness? She has been in our family for a longtime, has been an excellent mare, and will forever be our pet. However, if I had purchased her with the expressed intent to play field polo with her, whether I would have a valid case or not would depend in part on: what the seller warranted the mare could do, the cause and timing of the lameness (whether the seller had knowledge of the mare's mystery lameness when she played field polo), and of course expert testimony regarding the existence of the mare's lameness.
I'm just glad that Tobiana is happy in her new job- after the relatively non-cushy life of polo pony, she now gets a thickly-bedded stall at night and lots of cookies- I think she is pleased with her choice. Plan on seeing a lot more of her on the blog!
Have you ever had a horse that had a mystery lameness? Perhaps he or she lightly brushes a jump pole, then feigns lameness? Such funny, and clever, creatures!
5 comments:
There have been the odd stories of trainers selling horses that may not be up to snuff with the level of training that was promoted, but not very often. I guess the reining community is very tight and word gets around. I am not sure how you could win a case like the scenario you mentioned with Tobiana's mystery lameness. I think it would be tough because it probably couldn't be proven that the condition existed before she was sold.
I am thinking that Tobiana is a smart cookie. Perhaps her mystery lameness is because she doesn't want to play polo. :-) Looking forward to reading more about your adventures with Tobiana. :-)
haha, very true! I think she loved her polo job for awhile but was ready for a change. One of our best jumpers was a "retired" polo pony; he bucked in polo games, but was a jumping superstar. It is certainly important to make sure a horse enjoys his or her sport! (And some horses hate to be pasture pets, so we also have to make sure we match their work ethic as much as possible as well.) A happy horse is a better performing horse.
Avoiding lawsuits is key: as the seller, fairly represent the horse, as a buyer- keep your expectations reasonable and get as an extensive pre-purchase that you can or want to afford, from a trusted vet of course.
Sounds like a polo allergy to me too! ;D Got some mystery lameness going on with my horse these days...
I've been fortunate enough to find reasons why my horses have been lame, but I did ride a horse for a while that would fake being lame. That always stumped me!
I don't believe horses are smart enough to feign lamenesses. But I don't think we can always find the reason for every lameness. Even if we're rich and we can do every kind of diagnostic test. Part of the problem is they can't speak English.
A polo pony who does better jumping could have something hurting her when she does turns but not when she's moving straight or even landing. It could be one of a hundred things. But I don't see anything wrong with getting the horse comfortable enough so that you can still ride them even if you have to switch careers. Probably most horses have SOMETHING wrong with them. Probably most of us PEOPLE have things wrong but we still have to go to work and we still play. I have a horse with sidebone. We're managing him. We're even going to see how he does at barrel racing this year. But we may have to switch his career due to the turning. They have less mobility--nothing you can see with your eye but he's not 100%, so we'll see. I've had a few horses with mystery lamenesses. It drives me crazy because I always know when something's wrong but I don't know what it is and half the time the vets poo-poo me. If only they could talk....
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