I am helping a friend who is shopping for a lesson horse. She is looking at a couple horses for sale at Sallyeshorses.com
Only found a couple of threads here, but I don’t trust my coth search skills.
So far, most of what I have found is negative.
Anybody out there have any experience?
My experiences are from a few years ago so keep this in mind. And when buying from any horse dealer its a good idea to have a PPE and be alert to anything that might seem odd. Most dealers don’t really know their horses well and can tell you very a little about their histories. I wouldn’t recommend sending a beginner out there to buy a horse but someone with a few years experience and some horse sense could find a nice horse.
I had a friend buy 3 horses from Sallye years ago and all three were great horses. Nothing fancy, but good local show level horses.
I also worked at a lesson barn where we purchased a few horses from Sallye over the years. A couple of us would go and try them out and select the ones that seemed to fit what we needed. We had two that didn’t work out… one mare gave us a surprise foal a few months later. And we had another that went ballistic, and really couldn’t handle being a lesson horse. We took him back and traded him for another more suitable horse.
Best of luck with the search!
Bumping for the morning crowd…
Basically what is above. Nothing glaringly bad. She is a horse trader so take whatever you’re told about any given horse with a grain of salt and do your homework, as in ride it several times. She has been horsetrading for at least 20 years and used to do TBs. I would vet and pull a blood sample on anything you’re serious about. I think she buys from auctions, puts a little riding on the horses she picks up and then resells. Best of luck.
She is a horsetrader, and she has been doing it well over twenty years (as stated above) - more like (and admitted by her) forty years. She used to be called “Pony Express Horses.” Then she became “Sallye’s Horses.” She had a sale barn/auction barn in Covington before that got closed. Interested parties might want to request GDA open records requests on “Pony Express Horses” and “Sallye Forrester” before buying a horse. Her ads are most recognizable because standard conformation shots are never taken. Photos are taken from the hip to the head.
If anyone is interested in buying a horse from there, bring a vet with you and an experienced rider or trainer (if you are not one yourself.) Have the vet draw blood and perform a PPE the day you see the horse…not days after.
She doesn’t just buy from auctions. She scours Craigslist for people desperate to sell their horses, and then she takes them and sells them. There were two horses I checked out last year for a friend from another seller. The friend was told that “Sallye was coming on Friday to buy them both for $1000 if they didn’t sell.” These were two registered horses - NICE horses. The friend bought the one. Sallye bought the other for $500 and had her for sale on her website the next day for $1500.
While I am sure you can find some decent horses there, she is a horse trader through-and-through. If that doesn’t bother you…or the fact that the person may have just picked up the horse the night before and to take everything you’re told with a grain of salt, have at it.
If I was ever in the market to buy another horse, I would not go to Sallye.
PM sent.
I remember her old butt to the front pics in Stable Mates years ago. You didn’t even have to look at the contact information because you knew it was one of her ads as soon as you saw it.
Does anyone know what happened to the Pony Express? I know it changed hands a few times…
Thanks everybody for your input. I wondered about the weird angle of the photos too! Especially the plain bays and chestnuts with no body chrome. I thought she was trying to hide facial markings to muddy up horse ID. I saw the same horse name and photo advertised 18 months ago as 15.2 QHxArab and on the website now as a 14.2 Arab.
Thanks also for the PMs. Fortunately, my friend is an experienced horsewoman and has her eyes wide open!
God, she’s still around!?!?!?!
The first barn where I boarded C&C did a lot of business with Sally when she was east of Atlanta. Was it Covington or Conyers? That BO had a big lesson program for beginners and bought a lot of horses from Sally. The horses were quiet lesson horses. I think she and her daughter (didn’t she have a daughter who worked with her?) moved to north of Atlanta some years ago. I know one time she had a famous grey event horse for sale, but it sold before anyone I know had a chance to go try it out.
I don’t think she is any different than a lot of BOs and “trainers” around here who used to go buy a horse for 1,000 to 5,000 and then flip it to a client for 10,000 to 20,000 right away. Other than that Sally dealt in a larger volume of horses. Buying any horse is chancey at best. You can buy from someone whoim you know and get a horse with lots of problems, or buy at an auction and get a gem. It’s all a crap shoot. If I were near Sally’s and she had a horse I was interested in, I’d have a PPE done and then decide if I wanted the horse. Any horse can go lame the next day. Like the people here who a few years ago bought a horse, flipped by a “trainer,” for 20,000 and ended up in a month or two with an unsound horse. I won’t mention which horse board that “trainer” belongs to.
[QUOTE=cloudyandcallie;7931742]
The first barn where I boarded C&C did a lot of business with Sally when she was east of Atlanta. Was it Covington or Conyers? That BO had a big lesson program for beginners and bought a lot of horses from Sally. The horses were quiet lesson horses. I think she and her daughter (didn’t she have a daughter who worked with her?) moved to north of Atlanta some years ago. [/QUOTE]
Sallye had Pony Express Horse Sales in Covington that she operated with her son. Her new farm (or maybe it was an original farm, 2nd location) is now in Buford, Georgia.
Persons interested in the business dealings of Sallye’s Horses / Pony Express need only do an internet search for “Sallye Forrester.” The consensus is the same.
And before she was at Pony Express, she was over off of Hwy 278/Covington Hwy area of Decatur/Stone Mountain/Lithonia area (I think it was) and traded mostly in TBs. I remember her having one I was interested in and when I asked about placing a deposit to hold it pending a vet check, she absolutely refused. So I have steered clear of her since.
Oh yes, I forgot about her plastering her horses on Stablemates. Be careful as everyone has stated. She sold some terribly lame horses that weren’t lame when tried, but ended up lame later.
Had a friend buy from her many years ago and the horse was much older than she was told but other than that was as represented.
Personally I would avoid her.
A lady I used to know who boarded at same barn as I back in early 2000’s bought a few horses from Sallye, all thoroughbreds. This was back when she was still out in Covington at the old Pony Express auction location. The mare was advertised and sold as pregnant (don’t ask me why the lady actually wanted a mare that was in foal with unknown breeding), but when she had vet check to see how far along pregnancy was-- surprise! Not even in foal, just had a big hay belly. She had also picked up a nice looking gelding that ended up having chronic inflammation in one of his hocks. Turns out he had serious OCD, and a lot of the cartilege in the joint never turned to bone as he matured.
She wanted to take these 2 back, and I offered to go with her to give moral support in requesting her money back. Sallye absolutely would not give a refund, trades only. The only thing I opined that was worth trading for (and lady did take) was a different TB gelding that ended up being an absolute gem to handle and ride, albeit a little greener in training. The thing that stands out most in my mind, however, was when we followed her back to her office to complete paperwork, was the number of Banamine bottles laying around. There is no doubt in my mind she was using it to mask problems with horses. I have no clue if she is still doing these kinds of tricks, but I wouldn’t be surprised. It certainly convinced me to never personally do business with her. Caveat emptor!
Re: Banamine
My DH is the horse medicine expert and he isn’t here, but to my knowledge we only use it if the horse has a fever or is colicing. Could it mask lameness?
[QUOTE=OveroHunter;7933212]
Re: Banamine
My DH is the horse medicine expert and he isn’t here, but to my knowledge we only use it if the horse has a fever or is colicing. Could it mask lameness?[/QUOTE]
It’s an NSAID. It reduces pain, so depending on the type/level of pain-- Banamine can help. If the lameness is pain related, Banamine might help/mask it some.
I didn’t count the bottles, but I remember there must’ve been close to a dozen bottles laying around (which boggled my mind at the time). I still can’t think of a reason why someone would have that many on hand, period; unless you’re a vet. I do know the first gelding with the OCD was sound when the lady originally tried him, with no swelling evident. He was sound in the pasture after she brought him to the barn. It wasn’t until she started riding him that the hock flared up and would get very swollen, and he’d be lame, of course.
[QUOTE=Real Rush;7933333]
I didn’t count the bottles, but I remember there must’ve been close to a dozen bottles laying around (which boggled my mind at the time). I still can’t think of a reason why someone would have that many on hand, period; unless you’re a vet. I do know the first gelding with the OCD was sound when the lady originally tried him, with no swelling evident. He was sound in the pasture after she brought him to the barn. It wasn’t until she started riding him that the hock flared up and would get very swollen, and he’d be lame, of course.[/QUOTE]
Wow, DH manages his mother’s dude ranch and they have around 200 horses on over 400 acres (yeah I know, it’s a huge number) and we only have maybe 2 or 3 bottles at a time… However we have the vet on speed dial and they’re usually out at least once a week for something.
I have known Sallye for over 25 years and have done business with her three times. She and I showed at the same horse shows for quite some time and I knew her well. She’s in the business to sell you a horse. Always try the horses more than one time if you are looking for something more than a casual trail horse. Always take your vet to do the vet check, take an experienced friend or a trainer who knows as much or more than you do so that you get a qualified opinion when evaluating her horses. Sallye and I have had a long and decent relationship - I’ve pastured boarded a horse for her, we’ve shown at the same horse shows for many years, we have mutual friends, but as with any buying scenario - BUYER BEWARE. In other words, you cannot be too careful.
CAVEAT EMPTOR (did I spell that correctly?)
Either way, ditto all above about being a super smart shopper…when I lived in the Upstate of SC eons ago, we drove down a couple of times to look at a few critters she had…yes, she could turn up some stuff we could work with but we went into it with eyes wide open and years of experience dealing with dealers.
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