Sight unseen

Whether due to lockdown, location or time, some riders make the daunting decision to buy a horse without first seeing it in the flesh. Andrea Oakes talks to those who have first-hand experience

- Andrea Oakes

“WE call him the gazelephant,” laughs Ellis Simister, whose pandemic purchase Cornetto turned out to be rather larger than expected. “We thought we were buying a 16hh working hunter stamp, nothing too flamboyant, who might event at low level. What turned up was a just-under 17hh beast who is built like an elephant but leaps like a gazelle.”

Ellis is one of the many who bought a horse “sight unseen” during the first lockdown last year. Happily, hers is a success story, but parting with your money without first seeing a horse in the flesh is not without risk – as Ellis knows first-hand.

“We regularly buy Connemara ponies unseen from Ireland,” she explains. “We’ve been pretty lucky, but we have discovered some mismatches on arrival. I would never buy another without a vetting; one pony turned up with his front teeth missing and was also unsound and windsucked. The sellers told me to keep riding him and he would come right.”

While Ellis admits that buying unseen is not for the faint-hearted, she feels she has the experience and facilities to work through most issues.

“It’s a massive risk and you certainly need to prepare yourself for the worst,” says Ellis, who had planned to view Cornetto, a recently backed Cornet Obolensky gelding, but the lockdown kicked in. “I love the challenge with the ponies, but a horse is another matter.

“Cornetto is without doubt the furthest from what my ‘perfect’ horse would be on paper, but he’s amazing – a blessing in disguise,” she adds. “We’ve given the ride to Scottish producer Kirsty Aird, to unleash his full potential.”

Chad-Tavis Rowson is also well aware that a hasty buy can backfire.