In addition to a criminal law practice, I’m building an equine law practice. This is where the real money might be made, and real good might be accomplished.
Each year, tens of millions of dollars are swindled from horse owners. Unlike the real estate industry – which has its share of fraud and corruption, and brokers serving as “agents” on both sides of the deal – the equine industry has very little transparency, no mandated disclosure forms, and no independent verification of price or value.
Agents, acting on behalf of the buyer or the seller, will sometimes pad the price, will sometimes simply tell the other side that the buyer is looking for a horse in such-and-such price range (which will signal to the seller to raise the price of the horse), will not disclose important health or soundness issues, and will engage in strawman purchases, where the agent buys the horse and flips it to the true buyer days later.
Because there are no mandated disclosure forms, and because so many deals are done on a handshake, the buyer may never realize she bought a horse for tens of thousands more than the seller sold the horse. The agent in the middle pockets the difference, in addition to the agent’s stated 10 or 15 percent commission.
If you’ve been around hunters, jumpers, eventing horses, or dressage horses, you know what I’m talking about.
The goal of my practice is not just to clean up a mess after the fraud has been done (which is a very difficult thing to uncover), but to stop the fraud in its tracks. I’ll be launching EquineSurety in January, 2010. In the meantime, I’m taking some lessons’ out of Phil Hodgen’s book, building out a website, starting the marketing, creating videos, building out content, and networking in the industry.
Here are the first videos…
…a series of which I’m creating, which are simple, clean, and ask provocative questions. I have a sign-up form on the website to start to collect names of interested horse owners who can later been contacted once the project is launched.
Already, I’ve gotten some good leads from Brian Brady, and indeed, if you’ve got feedback, ideas, thoughts, or contacts, I’d be thrilled to hear about them. In addition, because many of the problems in equine and horse sales are similar to problems in the residential real estate market, if you’ve got insights on that end, I’d be thrilled to hear them.
Sean Purcell says:
Damon,
I don’t know much of anything about the horse trade, but I’m damn glad Greg asked you to write here. One winner after another…
October 7, 2009 — 7:14 pm
Greg Swann says:
My feedback in one word: CarFax. The VIN system works because of compulsory reporting requirements, but this is not a necessary feature. If the CarFax idea were combined with an AKC-style of Seal of Approval, then horses with full disclosure histories should tend to do better in the market in the long run. Horses are a lot more fungible than houses, at the least.
October 7, 2009 — 9:24 pm
Sara Homan says:
I wish you much success and steel armor! The equestrian industry is a bit more difficult to penetrate.
October 8, 2009 — 4:56 am
Damon Chetson says:
Greg: That’s the analogy I use when describing it to people. There are already organizations that will register horses (for breeding purposes) and record show histories, but other information – such as soundness, health, or sales prices – are not regularly maintained.
October 8, 2009 — 6:36 am
Greg Swann says:
Here’s another idea that occurred to me, FWIW: BreederBloggers, folks who keep an eye on what their local breeders are up to. I don’t know if that could work — if there’s enough financial incentive to make it worthwhile.
October 8, 2009 — 7:03 am