It's been a minute since I purchased horses from the Simon Horse Company. However... because of so many having bad experiences purchasing horses from them, I have finally decided to share my three buying experiences. My first time I purchased a wonderful registered QH mare for a fair price. Loved her. She was everything the seller said she was. My second time we purchased a nice (so we thought) registered Palamino mare for our breeding program. We won our bid, went and paid and proceeded to go out and see her again. We had also spent time with her prior to bidding. As we walked towards her, a large group of folks asked if we purchased her. We said yes. They told us that the mare was absolutely crazy when she was brought in. They could barely get her inside and one of her handlers had been bitten badly. We were in shock. So, we went over to the mare in her pen and there she was nice and quiet as could be. We looked down on the floor of her pen and there was a large fishing tackle box full of drugs. I directly went to the office told them all I knew, and they treated me like I was the problem. It was very uncomfortable. They did refund my money begrudgingly. We tried one more time. We purchased a 5-year-old registered bay QH gelding. He was well broke, and we spent a lot of time with him prior to the bidding. We again won the bid. The next day he could hardly walk on his front right leg. We had our Vet come out and told us he had some major shoulder issues. I was sick. I called Simon Horse Company, and the attitude was combative as soon as I told them was had happened. They looked up my bid and said this to me "You should know better than to buy from Pete down south!" What? Who's Pete? If they knew he was bad and drugging horses, why was he allowed there in the first place? I remained persistent and threatened legal action etc... Then the next day they called me back and said they would meet me halfway on I90 and take the horse back. They said I would receive a check for my refund. I was shocked when I received the check. It was 1/3rd of what we spent, and later I found out the horse was run through another auction where, yet another person was duped. That was it for us. Never again did we purchase from them. It did not matter to us that they did not directly drug these horses. What mattered was they knew it was happening. The horse business is a dirty, dirty business. And in most circumstances, it is at the detriment of the animal. My firm belief is that "GOOD" horse folks that know this is happening would not support this. I would like to see these sales barns to be held to a higher standard. Each buyer should have 5 days to return the horse if the horse was not as it was presented to be. I also think the barns should hold the sellers check for over 5 days, so the funds can be easily refunded to the buyer if need be. I would think that would help stop the deceit that comes from these horse jockey's that travel all over the US trying to dupe folks into buying lame horses. And in the end, benefit the horses themselves. How many end up in a kill pen, instead of at a rescue? And lastly sales barns should be held accountable for allowing sellers to come back who have proven to sell a sick or lame horse prior in their sales ring under a falsehood. We gotta start somewhere folks. As I said it's been a minute for me. But... I know more than one set of folks who have purchased a nightmare within the last year. Four horses to be exact. One has been laid to rest. It was a $6000.00 purchase. It is beyond my comprehension that this is even going on. Time to strengthen the laws. I suggest if anything like this has happened to you, you all get together and start by contacting the Minnesota Attorney General to at least start to put a dent in this pure awfulness. read more
