Most horse scams follow the same few patterns.

Before you pay anything

1. See the horse in person, at the address where it lives, ideally more than once. Ride or lunge it, watch it walk and trot up, and see it caught, tacked up and loaded.
2. Never pay a deposit to “hold” a horse you haven’t seen — not by bank transfer, money transfer, gift card or crypto. A genuine seller can wait for you to visit.
3. Be wary of sellers who are “abroad” or using a shipping agent. Horses advertised cheap with a story about a move overseas and a transport company to pay are the commonest scam of all.
4. Get a vet to examine it (a five-stage pre-purchase exam for a valuable horse), chosen by you, not the seller. Ask for X-rays for anything going into work.
5. Check the passport and microchip match the horse in front of you — scan the chip. Check the passport is in the seller’s name, or that they can show they can sell it.
6. Ask about vices and history directly, and keep the answers in writing in your messages here.

Using the racing record

Where an ad shows a race record, the seller chose which horse in our database theirs is. Several horses share a name, so match the passport name, year of birth, sire and dam to the record before relying on it. If they don’t match, tell us or use “Report this ad”.

On the site

• Keep the conversation in our messages until you’ve met the seller. We flag messages that mention deposits, couriers or money transfers.
• Ratings come only from people who have messaged each other about a horse, one each way per horse.
• Anything feel wrong? Press Report this ad — a moderator will look at it.