# Should I Buy This Horse? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 17, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266 "2010-01-17T02:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/81 "2010-01-26T13:35:23Z")
Heh… yup, sounds like Ms Nakota has things well in hand. Good! When ya gona ride her? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/82 "2010-01-26T15:37:14Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > **EddyTeddyFreddy** - [Look at this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFtRd8AUVSk) 17-month old colt by [Thatcher](http://www.centaurfarms.com/stallions/thatcher.html). The colt is beautiful. But I love the dog racing with it in the background! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/83 "2010-01-26T15:43:23Z")
> [@Surly\_Chick](#): > > The colt is beautiful. But I love the dog racing with it in the background! Ha! Yes. Did you notice around the 2 minute mark when the colt found some fuzzy tuft of dead grass in the dirt, picked it up, and walked around flipping it? What a bizarre strip that colt has, eh? Looks as if whoever was running the paintbrush down his nose got their elbow jogged at a crucial moment. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/84 "2010-01-26T17:24:22Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > What a bizarre strip that colt has, eh? Looks as if whoever was running the paintbrush down his nose got their elbow jogged at a crucial moment. Looks like drunken lane painting to me. He’s still gorgeous - it gives him character. Makes me want a horse of my own but I relocate overseas every three years so I guess I’m going to have to wait til I retire. I own a place with enough room and zoned for it in Maine but would have to build a barn/fence/etc. Guess I should start saving my money now… ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/85 "2010-01-29T01:30:24Z")
I showed Nakota’s pictures to my vet tonight. He was extremely enthusiastic about my breeding her. He thought she was beautiful. I asked him about AI, and he said his partner would do it, and when I asked how much she’d charge he said, “she works cheap. And you can tell I said so.” So I’m seriously considering it. I figure I’ve already saved $1000 by talking her price down to $1500. StG ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/86 "2010-01-29T14:43:17Z")
Oh YAY!!! Now THAT will be an exciting thread to follow! All the way from the stallion hunt thru birth and beyond! _With_ lots of pictures of course. 😃 And the foal’s registered name can be… The Straight Dope! (or maybe not) ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/87 "2010-01-29T15:42:51Z")
> [@PapSett](#): > > (or maybe not) Yeah. The poor thing would inevitably be called Dopey. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/88 "2010-01-29T15:47:13Z")
How about Nakota Cecil(ia)? ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/89 "2010-01-29T16:11:53Z")
How about “Long Floating Trot”? The Trakehner Assoc is having a stallion service auction. [Look at these studs](http://atassauction.com/Auction/search_results.asp) and tell me what you think. I don’t know how high they’ll end up, but it doesn’t look they have many bids yet. StG ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/90 "2010-01-29T16:17:51Z")
Are you familiar with the Chronicle of the Horse online forums? They would be interested in hearing your story, I’m sure, and LOVE to play matchmaker for high-quality mares and stallions! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/91 "2010-01-29T16:28:58Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > How about “Long Floating Trot”? > > The Trakehner Assoc is having a stallion service auction. [Look at these studs](http://atassauction.com/Auction/search_results.asp) and tell me what you think. I don’t know how high they’ll end up, but it doesn’t look they have many bids yet. > > StG Wow. Don’t have time to really study them, but no-bids (minimum $500) I like at first glance: Fandango – gorgeous, and he events Pavarotti – another eventer Tanzeln is gorgeous Prelude By Mozart if only for the name 😉 Ichi-Ban’s foals are claimed to have exceptionally good minds Asher for gray-on-gray and quiet temperament ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/92 "2010-01-29T16:44:02Z")
**Avarie** - I’ve never been there, but I’ll have to check it out. I’m such a stick in the mud about the websites I go to. I could use a new diversion. **EddyTeddyFreddy** - A sane and quiet disposition is very important to me. All of these studs are beautiful, but frankly, I’m getting older and the ground doesn’t get any softer when you hit it. I liked Asher, Donaufurst, ichi-Ban, Magritte and Hennessey, but I haven’t had time to research at all. StG ---
**Author:** ![BottledBlondJeanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@BottledBlondJeanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BottledBlondJeanie)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/93 "2010-01-30T19:16:51Z")
St. Germain, good on you for likely rescuing a horse whose fate could have been horrible. She looks to be a lovely horse with good lines, but I am disappointed in you and in anyone else goading you to breed her. Google fuglyhorseoftheday, check out local auctions. Amazingly pedigreed quarter horses and warmbloods are being shipped to Mexico for meat. I just rescued a great 5 year old quarter horse out of Smart Little Lena and a great mare because he was gelded and wasn’t a great cutter. Got him for $500 right before being loaded in the trailer for Mexico. I know you know your horses and know you rescue, but please reconsider, enjoy her and stop sounding like a backyard breeder. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/94 "2010-01-31T00:07:23Z")
**BottledBlondJeanie** - I strongly resent your “backyard breeder” implications. I have no intention (as stated above) of breeding her indiscriminately, or breeding her to sell her baby. I presently have 7 rescued animals. In my 48 years, I’ve never caused the birth of any animal, and saved far more than my fair share of them. And if I want to breed this mare, I will. You can’t save every animal, and you make it sound like my bringing another horse into the world, a horse for my own personal use, that I’m abandoning some other horse to the killers. Using that rational, every parent who chose to give birth to their own child is denying life to a third-world orphan. StG ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/95 "2010-01-31T01:58:46Z")
Heck, even FHOTD supports people who know what they’re doing and have intelligent plans for the foal in breeding superior specimens with bloodlines, conformation, and achievements to justify passing on their genes. Given all that we know about this mare, she is a prime candidate to reproduce her kind and if anything improve the quality of horses on this Earth, not degrade it. ---
**Author:** ![BottledBlondJeanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@BottledBlondJeanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BottledBlondJeanie)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/96 "2010-01-31T10:09:39Z")
St. Germain, I apologize for my intemperate post. It probably did not come across well, but I know you rescue and are a “forever horse” person and I wanted to qualify with that. I knew a great many thoroughbreds and older horses were going to slaughter but had no idea what the economy has done to horse sales. It broke my heart that registered horses, horses that were someone’s dream cross, young and could not only pass a vet check but were really well trained were going to Mexico. I took it out on you. A friend with new back problems has a warmblood with years of dressage training and she can’t even give her away to a good place right now. ☹ Nakota is a gorgeous mare but at her age I think I might let her just rest, but you aren’t a backyard breeder and sure sound like you’ll do it right. No doubt you’ll pick the right stud and not breed for flashy color and blue eyes. 😉 Can we just put a little caveat on here for folks who might not know what can happen with bad breeding and the plight of good horses? I hope your foal will be everything you want. And yes, pictures please! ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/97 "2010-02-10T16:47:07Z")
Update: Nakota’s seller has been unable to produce her papers. She said she had them in June, after Nakota’s last foal was born, but can’t find them. She thught all she’d have to do is write to the American Trakehner Association, pay a fee and get a new set. But the ATA requires that she provide photos of the mare from all four sides (no problem), plus a bill of sale for every person she’s been owned by up through the last registered owner, which was in 2002, and pay $100. She’s assuring me that she had the papers, and that Nakota is who she says she is, but is unable or unwilling to jump through all those hoops. There’s always chance that the seller will find the papers eventually. She’s willing to take her back, but I don’t want to let her go. Should I just go ahead with the sale and possible the breeding ([this is the horse I’m considering breeding her to](http://atassauction.com/Auction/item_detail.asp?ItemID=74)), or should I back out? Or keep the mare and not breed her? It’s not likely that I’ll ever want to part with the foal, but having it’s papers would make it a lot easier if I did, or if I wanted to someday show him. Nothing’s as easy as it seems… StG ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/98 "2010-02-10T16:58:49Z")
I don’t think registration has any effect on showing, except in certain breed shows, which really aren’t very prevalent in the Trahkehner breed. If you like, her keep her, but I would ask a discount because without the papers she’s just a very nice grade mare. (The orig asking price was delusional, now you know the owner did not have registration papers in hand). You can decide about breeding later. Also, I would call the ATA and confirm that everything she told you about getting new papers is actually true. The whole thing sounds a bit shady. Also find out if the mare can be re-inspected by the registry. BTW, I LOVE the stud you picked he is STUNNING I don’t know if I’ve seen a more perfect horse. I thought some of the others, lovely in their own right, were too short-coupled for your mare. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/99 "2010-02-10T17:14:50Z")
**Hello Again** - The seller thought she could just write away for a new copy of her registration papers. It was I, looking at the ATA website, that showed her this: > [@](#): > > \*\*Q: What if my horse’s papers have been lost or destroyed and I need them to sell the horse or enter a horse show? \*\* > > A: The office can send a Xerox of your horse’s papers for temporary use if you think you may find the original. If you are certain that the original is destroyed or will never be found, you may request a duplicate registration certificate. To do this, you will need 4 current photographs of your horse showing the left, right, front, and rear views of the entire horse. Send the photographs along with a certified statement explaining how the papers came to be lost of destroyed and promising to turn them in for cancellation if they are ever found, a fee of $100 and a duplicate certificate will be processed. Since duplicates also require the signature of the Chairman of Registration it will take several weeks to receive your new certificate. If there has also been a change in ownership, the certified statement of loss must come from the person who lost the registration certificate and you will need a bill of sale or several showing an unbroken chain of ownership from the owner listed in our records to you. Now, she should be able to be identified by DNA, and that’s relatively cheap, but I don’t know if that has any bearing on getting her papers. It doesn’t look like it does. I guess its’ a good thing that the ATA doesn’t just blindly sent out registration papers to anyone who asks. There could be a lot of fraud that way. I probably wouldn’t ask her to come down on the price. $1500 wasn’t much to begin with. And I think Donaufurst has about the best conformation I’ve ever seen. He’s just beautiful. StG ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266/100 "2010-02-10T18:57:57Z")
I would be tempted to ask her to reduce the price because the previous owner didn’t provide everything that was tacit in the sales agreement - you bought what was advertised as a registered mare, and now the registration papers won’t be included with her. Changing the terms of a sale usually results in some concessions from both sides. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-buy-this-horse/525266.md?page=6)