Should I still loan her?

Hi I'm new here.

I've been riding for over 20 years and have owned horses through that time. I had a break for about 5 years and then decided I wanted to get another horse. Unfortunately I can't afford to buy one so I opted to loan.
I loaned a lovely 16.3 tb gelding called Billy 7 weeks ago. Unfortunately his owner was not honest with me and it turned out he had all kinds of problems. We were hacking out one day and he bolted and bucked like a bronko, I came off, was knocked unconscious and suffered really bad concussion for 3 weeks. Billy went back to his owner.

For the last 2 weeks I have been searching for another horse to loan, I have ridden 6, 5 of those were awful and had too many problems to list, however I have fallen in love with a 16.3 tb mare called Bally, she is 17 (which initially put me off). I have ridden her 3 times and she is super, the exact temperament I was after, fizzy but sensible, forward going and on her toes but really light in the mouth. She has done a bit of everything and is still really fit.

I decided I would have a 2 stage vetting done just for my peace of mind.
The vet advised me not to loan her as she was lame in her near hind. I couldn't see it and I certainly wasn't aware of it from riding her. I'm obviously gutted as I think she is wonderful.

The question is should I loan her. If the lameness caused problems I would return her to the owner.

Do I go for a horse that is lame, although it does seem to affect her performance (I only want to hack out and occasionally pop her over a few jumps) but her temperament is exactly what I want or do I go for a completely sound horse that might have a bad temperament.

????

Ellie

Thats a tough call. I think if the vet has given her a no-go, you should pass on her. You may end up doing her more harm even just doing easy riding. Is there anything that can be done to get her sound again?

Talk to the owner about it, jumping would prob be out, do an initial one month loan and see how she is, she might be on bute or something

Did the vet tell you why he thought the horse was lame or if he thought it might be something that could be corrected, a pulled muscle or bowed tendon? If you took her and could give her a lay off or something that would bring her to rights I might still go for it. Or say if it was something that corrective shoeing could help or whatever?

Seriously, if a vet advised me against it, I'd listen. Try and look at more horses, and if you can't find one, you can always come back to her.

When the vet said the horse was lame, did they explain why? There's a variety of things that cause lameness in a horse - some are easy fixes, others are not. A bad shoeing or a bruise is an easy fix. Having surgery to remove bone chips is a bit more complicated. Flat work is fine for some lame horses, while it's not fine for others. Jumping is a big no-no with any lame horse in my opinion... especially when you're not sure of what's causing the lameness. You can do a lot more damage by jumping a lame horse. Remember, think of the horse first... not yourself and what you want to do with it.