But look at their papers…

Let’s call this a lesson in buying site-unseen, or based off *pedigree.*

I’m not going to sit here and lie, I LOVE a good deal. Who doesn’t? You’re selling a 20-year-old bred mare for under $3,000? Yeah, I have a few of those. Broodmare sound only $500 yearling filly? Been there, bought that. A double Dash For Cash, Special Effort, Bully Bullion bred 6-year-old freshly off the track for $3,500 posted on Facebook that has over 500 comments 15 minutes after being posted? Yeah, snagged her in 2023. I’ve never been on a slip and slide but I can’t imagine anyone could have slid into someone’s DMs harder or faster than I did in that moment.

I have a P-P-P-P rule when purchasing horses, that is truly best suited for broodmare shopping than for performance horse shopping but sometimes I get lost in the excitement and forget a few “P’s” which is acceptable when buying breeding-sound-only stock.

PRICE. As I noted above, if you list a $500 broodmare sound only yearling, I’m not going to ask questions. (Actually in this instance I did due to her injury, probably annoyed the gal, but I wanted to make sure I could accommodate this filly). The price was the price, I didn’t bat an eye or try to save a buck, $500 venmo sent and wouldn’t you know it, I already had a horse being hauled my way so I asked the hauler if she had room for one more and venmo sent her way too.

PEDIGREE. This one is where I trip up. I LOVE pedigrees and lineages and all that nerdy crap that the everyday horse girl probably doesn’t let consume her brain. I can tell you that I have bought more horses based off pedigree than I have their performability. Although, let’s be real about that statement, since late 2023 I have bought more breeding stock than I have horses I expected to have a performance career. Was there a hope for it? Yeah. Did my $3,500 fresh-off-the-track, Facebook find of a mare disappoint under saddle? OH YEAH. Not sound AT ALL (due to no fault of hers/her bloodlines, just due to her care on the mexican track), but that’s okay because I bought her with the intention of breeding her, a dual-use mare would have been a bonus at that time.

How many mares have we bought for $9,500 that are broodmare sound only? Three for sure. Why?

• Granddaughter of Mr Jess Perry

• Daughter of Ivory James

• Granddaughter of Mr Eye Opener, out of a daughter of Ivory James

I fell for the name game. The perfect pedigree.

My “infamous” MJP mare

Moving on.

Performability. This. Is. Important. Now when shopping for a broodmare, and a broodmare only, I tend to not care about performability under saddle. I want conformationally correct, easy to catch, safe to handle broodmare-sound-only mares. These days I prefer broodmare sound only, so I don’t have guilt eating me alive that they *could* be doing more if they were sound to do so. Can they “perform” as a broodmare really is dependent on a repro exam and their panel results.

Can they perform under saddle? Whole. Different. Ballgame.

I have bought a few youngsters, 2-year-old prospects, sight unseen based off videos and pictures, but honestly only because their papers were stacked. There is a horse for every body, sometimes that person won’t be me, but I can at least get that horse into the right hands if I decide I’m not the rider for them. I have sent prospects to training and been extremely satisfied, and I’ve sent others and been underwhelmed when they returned. Its hard to judge a prospect when they’ve barely had 20 rides. You have to ask yourself if you’re willing to pay for additional training, or put in the time to train it, to get it to where you want it to be. You dictate the success of that horse once you buy it/own it.

Now I’ve also driven all the way to Grand Junction, Colorado in February, driving home in a snow storm through the mountain pass, to watch a seller ride a 5-year-old horse for me. I couldn’t test ride, or ride anything as I was recovering from a hysterectomy, but I had ZERO hesitations that I would be able to ride him once I was healed. I’m still eager about his success and can’t wait to click with him under saddle, but I’m letting a friend borrow him because he deserves to be used, have a rope thrown off of him and play pickup pony for a few rodeos this summer, see the sights before becoming “just a barrel horse” for me.

A Shadow of the Moon the day we officially met him, before the snow storm hit.

Lastly, the final “P:” PPE. Pre-purchase exam. Did you do one? I have never done a PPE on a broodmare. I haven’t, I suppose when I’m spending nearly $10,000 on one I probably should start, but I prefer my broodmares to be “budget friendly” so I highly doubt I’ll be spending $6k+ on broodies any time soon.

Did I do a PPE on my $15,000 2-year-old gelding? No. Did I do a PPE on my $25,000 at the time 14-year-old barrel mare? Nope. How about that 16.1H 5-year-old black stallion? If you guessed no, you’d be right.

• 2-year-old gelding had dual stifle OCDs and required surgery

• 14-year-old mare was severely pigeon-toed and had never been injected before, so we were fighting a losing battle with arthritis the day I bought her (but we had a couple great years!)

• The 5-year-old stallion was foundering, which we found five days after purchasing him, along with an undisclosed pastern fracture, proud flesh on his hock from a cable fencing injury.. later down the line we’d find out from people who knew him before we bought him that the previous owner knew he had kissing spine and was injecting him as a 3-year-old.

Should we have done PPEs? Yeah. 100%. I said I won’t lie, and I won’t. We made decisions to buy horses before someone else could. Primarily based on pedigree and said “to hell with the PPE.” Oh, the lessons we’ve learned the hard way, but that’s why we’re here now; to share our successes and failures so the next person can be one step ahead.

Wishing you many safe, stress-free and PPE “clean” purchases in the future!

My $35,000 stallion living his best life