By Madeleine Hill
Top dressage rider and former national dressage champion Nicky Barrett (pictured, top) has won a court case involving a purchaser who wanted to return a horse three months later.
Basingstoke County Court heard on 23 November that Sheena Moore bought the five-year-old mare (not pictured) from Premiere Dressage — owned by Nicky and her husband Richard — in January 2015 through a local young horse producer called Gareth Bulley.
The horse was fully vetted and Mrs Moore tried the horse three times before purchasing it.
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In March Mrs Moore said the horse had reared with her and was not suitable as she was “a novice rider”. She asked Premiere Dressage to take the horse back and refund the full purchase price of £7,000.
When the Barretts refused, Mrs Moore sued Premiere Dressage under the Sale of Goods act claiming the horse was not fit for purpose.
District Judge David Carney found in favour of Premiere Dressage that the horse had been professionally produced and was fit for purpose.
“The horse was just a normal, small mare, not a big mover but able to do shoulder-in and half-pass etcetera,” said Nicky.
“We’ve had her since she was three and sent her to Gareth to sell. Mrs Moore came to try the horse with two different people and it had a five-stage vetting. The horse spooked during the vetting and she was asked if she wanted to go ahead and she did — she signed a written contract. I had to prove that the rear was learned behaviour since she had had the horse.”
H&H contacted Mrs Moore but had no response.
Ref: H&H 10 December, 2015