Drugged Horse

[HOSS]

I am shopping for another horse. The spotted saddle horse I just bought a month or so ago has taken up with my wife and ignores me so I thought I would look for "my" horse. Around here I have been warned to beware of horses that are for sale with the tag of "dead broke" or "big baby". Sometimes the seller will juice him up on ACE and he will do whatever you want while you are looking / riding. After you get him home and the drugs wear off he goes nuts, bites, kicks and won't let you saddle or ride him. Since I have never seen a drugged horse what signs should I look for?

Thanks

 

[kaneranch]

Pretty easy to tell. Most drugged horses have the same qualities that a drugged human has the biggest thing is look into there eyes. Thanks KaneRanch

 

[MillIronQH]

When you are horse hunting ALWAYS insist on a pre purchase exam by a vet of your choosing. Have the vet check for soundness and do a blood work up also teeth for condition and to confirm age.

Also if you can get the seller to agree take the horse on a trial basis for a week. If the seller won't agree then I'd keep looking. This will give any drugs in it's system time to wear off and also to see how the horse will act in a strange enviorment.Z

 

[tukie]

Eyes are the big thing, but also watch him walk, they tend to sway a tiny bit, or the rhythm is just off, they don't want to move out and their eyes have a dreamy look so that they don't focus on you....If you find a horse like that and he isn't drugged, you don't want him anyway...lol.
T.

 

[clampitt]

Not necessarly there are some now that last longer than 30 days.They will look and ride fine.This is an art now.You better know who you are dealing with and as was mentioned a vet exam will show up in the blood work.I have had it done to me.It is blood pressure med.that are used.Not tranqualizers.If they know what they are doing can make a ravin idiot ride nice.Course I'm not near as smart as everbody else.The key is KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH.

 

[spinandslide]

I am shopping for another horse. The spotted saddle horse I just bought a month or so ago has taken up with my wife and ignores me so I thought I would look for "my" horse. Around here I have been warned to beware of horses that are for sale with the tag of "dead broke" or "big baby". Sometimes the seller will juice him up on ACE and he will do whatever you want while you are looking / riding. After you get him home and the drugs wear off he goes nuts, bites, kicks and won't let you saddle or ride him. Since I have never seen a drugged horse what signs should I look for?

Thanks

Glassed over looking eyes, droopy lips and geldings will be..umm..exposing themselves.

I reccomend a pre-purchase exam to buyers, even on horses Im selling that have never taken a lame step, that way they know exactly what is going on inside the animal. Also be aware, very few horses, esp. older horses will vet 100% sound. In those cases, its a matter of what you can live with(gets stiff on wet or cool days, requires joint injections every year,suppliments,ect)

On trial periods, I do not allow them..period. Im not trying to hide anything and encourage the potentiall buyer to come out as many times as they like to ride and interact with the horse.

WAY to many things can happen on a trial..in a week, a welltrained, wellfed horse could come back to me lame, crazy, and thin..then where do I stand? Ive offered trial periods in certain circumstances(a student of my trainer's, buyer keeps their animal at a reputable trainer's stable whom I know will ride correctly)

People tend to pity buyers and think sellers are all evil horse traders drugging horses and selling them to people. Not so..Ive been sqrewed royally by buyers in the past, so it goes both ways.

JMHO
Sarah

 

[oscar p]

If the owner of the horse wont let you carry it on a couple of local trail rides, or have it on a two week trial, You dont need the horse, He is hiding something.

 

[ATovet35]

I dont let my horses go on a trial basis. I done that once and got back a lame horse. Telling if a horse is aced is real hard. People have that down to an art. Make sure that you go to a horse trader that is well known. I know that I offer a 30 day exchange on my horses. If there is something that they fine wrong with them I will exchance them out or find them another. Always show unepectedly. Never be on time. I always show up real early.

 

[TCFC]

I personally wouldn't want to send a horse away on a trial... if an owner is willing to, all the power to them. The only time I was ever offered a horse on a trial was when there WAS something obviously wrong with the horse when I tried him out, but the owner wanted me to buy the horse, and said I could take him for a month and see if the problem resolved itself. (I sent the horse back at the end of the month )

Too much can happen in a trial situation. I encouraged people to come out and ride the horse as much as they wanted, I gave them the option of coming out to a dirty horse out in the field so they could catch the horse themselves, groom it, tack it up, and warm it up themselves. I would have been more than willing to take them out on a trail ride with the horse if they wanted, but there is far too much liability in sending a horse away with someone on a trial - too much can happen. If the horse is under my care, I at least have some amount of control over what happens to them, besides the normal accident proneness of most horses. If someone was to take the horse on trial, and it were to come back lame, I would be out a lot of money, and with a lot of vet bills to deal with.

With the last mare I bought, I went out to ride her several times, and one of those times had the owner trailer the horse to another stable so I could try her out in an unfamiliar environment to see how she acted, but the owner was present and in control of how I handled the horse and what I did with her.

And the moral of my soapbox rant is - just because someone won't let you have a trial, doesn't mean they are hiding something.

And as far as drugged horses go - they are, as people said, "dopey" looking. Constantly looking asleep and relaxed - moreso than a normal laid back horse (droopy lips, ears not perked forward) and if it is a gelding - they will tend to drop. Especially if you are looking at a stallion, but for any male horse for that matter, if they are "exposing" themselves, looking droopy and listless, the warning bells should go off.

TCFC

 

[Mike Franklin]

Here we're in a buyers market. Hay is sky high. If the seller won't work with me I can just go find another seller.
I do wonder what the going price is on a drug scan? I'd like to sit down with a Prosecuting Attorney and see if we couldn't come up with a Criminal Charge.

 

[earthwrx]

Personally, If I'm buying, I talk to the seller personally. By that I mean the one that rode the horse. If it was a kid's horse talk to the kid. They can be pretty clever but you can usually tell when they are up to something. And realistically, grown ups are just big kids with lots of practice. So if a guy is going on about great this horse is, why is he selling it? If he's got to many like most folks do try to imagine how good the ones are that he's keeping. Take a look around the farm see what else he has. I talked to a woman once for half an hour about a cow horse she had. She wouldn't budge on the price. Told me how great the horse handled. We finally decided to ride him around the barn yard a bit. Now I've never roped or anything like that, but I've rode quite few. Wouldn't you expect a cow horse to know something about backing up a, at least in some fashion. I asked her what kind of que she used to make him back up. She told me, I tried several times. The best I got was the horse never blew up. We left she still has her "cow" horse. Your fisrt impression is usually the right one. Think long. Think Wong.

 

[Stepper]

HOSS

The horse does not have to be drugged to make him a entirely different riding horse. You can take a bad mannered horse with all kinds of bad habits and put about a 10 to 12 mile ride on it before letting a buyer prospect try him out and he will preform real well.

But their are alot of different types of drugs you can give a horse for different problems. One common drug is buhute( i am probably spelling that wrong) that is a pain killer. If a horse has say arthritis you can buhute it and hide some of its discomfront for a while. Then their is a drug that my wife uses on a couple of her horses that get nervous when they enter a arena to make a run on barrel patterns. Depending on the amount of that you give the horse you can not tell the horse has been given anything. It is more like a seditative. To much of it will make the horse almost go to sleep while standing there. But given the right amount it is as com as a mild mannered reporter until the drug wears off.

Then you can get the horses who have joint problems who has to have their hocks, & stiffles injected with steriods. Thoes injections can make a horse who limps run like the wind until it is time for another round of injections. But then that deppends on the severity of damage it has to its stiffle, hocks etc....,

I tell you what you need to do. 8) You need to come try a couple of horses that i personally broke to take on Elk hunts. They are great trail horses and i have used them to work cows with. Then you dont have to worry about getting took. ;-)

We will take and put them to any test you want to before you write the check. We can take them to a rodeo, ride them through the grand entry. Put them on any trail ride you want. They will cross any creek, river you want to take them across. Just drop me a pm. 8)