Complaint Review: Rubin Livestock Services - Monticello New York

Very sketchy and suspicious experience. I would be extremely cautious if I was a potential buyer. I would strongly recommend inexperienced buyers to throughly review the health and physical condition of the horses. My boyfriend and I recently purchased the young quarter horse named “Holly”. We found her on the website equinenow. It was stated that the horse was 14.3 hands, no problems, starting to be trained in neck reining, and starting to do lead changes. Then with working with the horse for a couple of days we found all of that to be incorrect. To better explain of how and why we came to that conclusion, my boyfriend and I have spend our entire lives with horses. We are experienced with training and breaking young horses, fixing problem horses, taking care of horses, selling and buying horses, vet medicine, and farrier work. Of course, we don’t know everything. I am not admitting to that. But I can confidently say that we both know a lot and we know all of the “tricks” people like to use in the horse industry.

So we were looking for another young horse to train so we decided to purchase “Holly”. When I called good information was giving about the horse. And she looked like a good fit for us. But no business name like Rubin livestock services or name was given. Now considering, our job is to take care of our bosses horses and that “Holly” was 3 hours away we didn’t have enough time nor the access with the truck and trailer we use to go see her or pick her up. So we asked for transport and that was arranged. Then I also asked for more photos and a video. Which I only received videos at a distance which the horse in the video looked great. Now I completely understand and I am aware that buying a horse without seeing is very risky and not recommended. It involves trusting what the sellers has to say to be true and hoping for the best. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

But in this case, the lack of transparency and correct information caused for a not so great deal in my eyes. We waited for the transporter for a hour and was not informed that they would be late which I found that to be very unprofessional already. Then when the horse arrived it was much shorter then expected and described. The horse is really 14-14.1 hands (we personally measured with a stick). Then I was handed the coggins and came to the realization this horse was bought from a kill pen (something that wasn’t revealed and I would of really liked to know). Then once the horse was back at our farm, we better inspected it. We found that she has a extreme lack of nutrients considering the huge amount of worms this horse has, withers are completely flat, she has a inflamed knee from an old injury, and has another old injury which is a huge gash where her forelock scalp isn’t attached to her head. I made Kaitlyn aware of the injury of the gash on her head because that was my biggest concern then she said it probably happened in the trailer.

I agreed due to just first glances but with better inspection and consulting with a vet. We came to the realization this gash is a old injury but still very open injury ( it was infected). Then after she settled down for a day we decided to ride her. This horse has no idea about having a bit in her mouth, tried to buck, no idea about lead changes or even cantering on the right lead. This horse is completely green and hasn’t been ridden or handled very much at all. This horse would have been completely dangerous for anybody who doesn’t know about breaking horses. So then I started to doubt that horse was Holly so I tried to look back at the videos and they were deleted (maybe policy) but I wasn’t able to compare which now I would like too.

All in all, We still love Holly. She is a sweet, smart mare with a bad past and tons of potential that we want to keep because firstly we believe we can get her into better health and into training and secondly I would feel uncomfortable giving her back due to the fact she might fall into the wrong hands again or an inexperienced person. Buyers beware please do your research. And please be cautious because this person has been known to lie and questionably take care of horses. Should not be in bussiness or allowed to have horses.