My family has always done "buybacks", but it's more laid out as "We'd really appreciate if/when you sell said horse you let us know, and if you sell the horse to someone else give them our information. If they can't keep horse for whatever reason, we'll take the horse back." Most of the time, the horses are going to be for sale for actual money anyways, so it's really not necessary for us to buy it back as its price puts it far away from the meat man. If the situation ever turned out to be different, we would buy the horse back.

It's worked pretty well for pretty much every horse we sold. We always know where they are, what they're up to. When my mom was selling horses she bred, she would often get friends of the people who bought a horse want a sibling or a horse from her, and occasionally people would just want their next horse from us. The people who bought one of mom's old retired broodmares called us years later to let us know when she passed. I think what it comes down to, really, is letting people know you care about what happens to the horse. An actual "buyback" contract isn't worth the paper its printed on.

Hummer was sold with a "buyback contract", found out from a FiSHer that he had been for sale. I got a hold of the buyer, told her again, if she couldn't keep him we'd gladly take him back and that if he was sold I would appreciate the new owners having our contact info in case they couldn't keep him..but that's about all you can do in those situations. Keep civil, and keep an eye out. I do worry about him a lot though. Hopefully a 19.1hh suck-ass is unique enough not to end up on the meat truck, but you never know.