If you seek to buy a horse from a professional, ethical seller, do not even consider Five Stars Farm trainer Mary Howard.
We purchased a horse from this trainer and were assured that the horse had vetted with no problems 6 months prior at the time they purchased him. We elected to do xrays of the horse, however as the vet who performed them was a boarder at the facility, we couldn't do the rest of the prepurchase exam as it would be a conflict of interest. We elected to not do the remainder of the prepurchase exam because the horse was obviously sound to work with little radiographic findings, and the trainer and owner assured us that he had never had any issues and vetted without a problem when they purchased him. We stupidly trusted them based on their great reputation and professional appearance.in addition, Mary Howard was extremely pushy trying to finalize the sale, calling DAILY, even on the weekend of New Years eve/day trying to get my vet to review his xrays over the holiday. She left voicemails stating how ridiculous it was that my vet could not be bothered to review xrays (on her own time, on a holiday weekend!) and "what a pain in the ass" this is. When the horse arrived it became clear the first day that the horse has Shivers. When the former owner was emailed, she admitted that the horse indeed had displayed symptoms of Shivers at the time she purchased him 6 months prior, yet neither the owner nor trainer chose to disclose this information. We offered them the opportunity to take the horse back and refund our money, sparing their reputation, however they are choosing to remain unethical and we are currently working with an attorney. While the bill of sale states the horse is sold 'as is', and we are aware of our mistake in not doing a complete prepurchase, this situation is clearly fraud as we have written evidence from the owner that she had knowledge of his condition and intentionally did not disclose it. We did not see symptoms while we were test riding him, however upon daily observation is it extremely obvious and there is no possible way that Mary Howard did not have knowledge of this condition. Long story short, if you intend to buy a horse from a professional, ethical seller, do not for one moment even consider Five Stars Farm.
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