I don't know how close your friend is to this horse, but having bought two horses in the last three years, I quickly learned to weed out candidates on the phone. Save yourself a drive over. Of course they can lie, but once they figure out you know a little bit about horses (and I REALLY mean just a little bit - I'm certainly no expert), they generally don't bother since they know you'll see the problems right away. So I try to keep them on the phone for a while... even just chatting about things that don't matter to me, just because I can find out more. I ask about health, routine, hooves, ground manners, vices, my list of questions is long! Sometimes they'll try the "buy it today or I'm selling it to someone else" tactic. Which will also cause me to walk away.
So, your friend wants a project horse to train as a barrel racer. I assume then, that he/she has a lot of experience and knowledge and can pick out a good project horse. Hopefully not someone inexperienced just looking for a cheap horse "to grow with".
I looked at the ad. Sweet horse! 400$??? Red flags all over the place. There is something very wrong here. Like I said, I would call them and ask tons of questions. If something seems to good to be true...
So, your friend wants a project horse to train as a barrel racer. I assume then, that he/she has a lot of experience and knowledge and can pick out a good project horse. Hopefully not someone inexperienced just looking for a cheap horse "to grow with".
I looked at the ad. Sweet horse! 400$??? Red flags all over the place. There is something very wrong here. Like I said, I would call them and ask tons of questions. If something seems to good to be true...
