Client vs. Horse Professional- The Ethical Standoff We Ought to Talk About

I thought this blog was interesting and may help some understand the tough spot veterinarians often find themselves in during pre-purchase examinations.

Client vs. Horse Professional- The Ethical Standoff We Ought to Talk About:
By Brittany
I often think about ethics in the horse business. Usually it is an exercise in frustration, and so I try to avoid it. However, this week a Facebook post got me started, and I couldn’t let it drop. A good (and honest) trainer had once again been cheated by a client.
I think, so much of the time, the general public believes that when it comes to unethical business practices, the horse professional is naturally to blame. The profession has a long history (literally hundreds of years) of horse traders being known and even sometimes revered for their unethical business practices. Here are two paragraphs from Wikapedia that I found interesting.
“In the original sense, Horse trading is the buying and selling of horses, also called ‘Horse Dealing.’ Due to the difficulties in evaluating the merits of a horse offered for sale, the selling of horses offered great opportunities for dishonesty. It was expected that horse sellers would capitalize on these opportunities and so those who dealt in horses gained a reputation for shady business practices.”
“As standards for ethical business declined in the U.S. in the Gilded Age, the activities of horse traders came increasingly to be seen as the natural and, in part, desirable product of a competitive market rather than as symptoms of the moral depravity of horse traders. In an 1893 New York Times editorial criticizing a proposed law to make it illegal for a newspaper to falsely state its circulation figures, the author declared that ‘if the lying were stopped by law, the business of horse trading would come to an end, and the country taverns and groceries in the Winter season would be deprived even of the limited eventfulness which they now enjoy.”
While I’ve certainly seen my share of dishonest horse traders, the majority of horse professionals that I know are honest, hard-working folks. In fact, in terms of ethics, or the lack thereof, the tables have turned quite a bit. Over the last decade or two and particularly since the recession, it is often the client’s ethics that are questionable.
I recall one of the last sales I made prior to retiring. I was selling a horse within the barn. I was representing both parties and have always believed that full disclosure was the best policy. (It is now the law in many states.) If memory serves, I had a full price offer on the horse and all that was necessary to complete the sale was for the seller to release the vet records.
I’d known the horse for many years and could see no logical reason for the owner not to release the records. The horse had no lameness issues and had only had one mild bout of colic during the 2 -3 year period that they had owned him. Also, the owner prided themselves on their good family values. So, what happened next still astounds me. When I asked her to release the records, she was furious with me. She claimed I was not representing her best interests. I tried to explain that full disclosure benefited both parties and was ethically the right thing to do. She would have none of it.
Because the buyer trusted me, I got the sale completed but not without a cost. Because of the tension that now existed between the buyer and seller, both parties left the barn. The financial consequences I paid for my ethics were substantial. Luckily, this happened prior to the recession. Nowadays, a choice like this could put a horse professional out of business.
This leaves me with a question rather than an answer and so I will pose it to you, dear reader:
As professionals, we have a fiduciary responsibility to represent our client’s best interests, but where do you draw the line between faithful representation and compromising your own value system? Remember, both are important.
Members and Future Members of Equestrian Professional.com: One of the most important benefits of being a member of EP is that we understand how different the horse business is from mainstream businesses. Our members gain access to a proven system and collection of tools and resources specifically for professional equestrians that help you to unify your equestrian career and business goals so that you are able to build both a successful career and a profitable business.



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3. Equestrian Professional’s Horse Business Hotline Buzzing With Questions About Equine Syndicates, Horse Leases and Client Relations