I know....anytime I see any thing peculiar like that my 'Fraud Radar' starts beeping and beeping.
I didn't have the heart to say it out loud as the OP seemed so excited....I'm a wuss sometimes and I just didn't want to be a wet blanket twice in a row with the same person, LOL! I just said BE SURE GET VET EXAM BRING MORE EXPERIENCED PERSON SLEEP ON IT...
At a guess, I'd say they're trying to keep you from seeing something on the horse's legs - either how his legs are conformed (built, shaped) or that there is sign of injury or lameness on the legs.
But it says more to me - that type of place, that type of barn, they really, really do not just routinely put on wraps, not on this type of horse, and even just in general - this type of place does not use wraps.
The other thing it says to me, is they view themselves to be pretty clever at this horse selling business, AND that they assume their customers are NOT clever. Usually that comes from long experience selling iffy horses to novices.
At SOME fancy barns horses never go out to work without those nice fluffy wraps or their leg protected from ankle to knee with something - and the presence of wraps or boots means nothing (most of the time) except that is their usual practice. This is most very definitely, not that type of barn.
And - people who DO use wraps - they don't generally put them on like THAT. That job was done by someone who is - a little out of practice, let's say. That horse looks like Boris Karloff in The Mummy.
So I'd say - yes - deliberate effort to conceal something about this horse.
And yes I have seen some pretty incredible effort put into deceiving customers. And it's not isolated to big fancy barns or expensive horses, either. It's all through the industry.
Commonest is an effort to make an untrained or unsuitably nervous horse look calm - that can be as easy as just working the tar out of him for a couple days before you arrive on the scene. A lot of people don't even do that - they'll deprive the animal of water for 24 hours or - they'll just slip the horse a sedative before you arrive. If they get the amount right no one will suspect.
It's also quite common to get a professional or some bad tempered individual up on the horse and kind of slap it into shape in a couple days - punish it severely for a given bad habit, and it'll behave itself tolerably well for a couple days - til the buyer gets it home.
Sedatives are widely available and can also be used to conceal lameness as well.
Too, some horse dealers are absolute geniuses at riding the horse in a way that conceals lameness, too, they know just when to give the horse a kick in the side or pull on one rein to even up his strides temporarily.
AND --- concealing a lameness can be as simple as riding a horse on a softer surface.
LIKE SNOW.
LOL. Some types of lameness are more obvious on a harder surface - others are LESS obvious on a hard surface. It depends on the type of lameness. Some only show when the horse is turning on a small circle. Or it may ony show at the trot.
The guy who is selling he knows the tricks. The buyer does not.
Usually.
But this is why when the buyer arrives and the horse is all tacked up and ready to go and the seller 'needs to ride him over here because .... ' - well that's about the time I just start to smile and smile.
