Bargain hunting – buying sight unseen

[fordtraktor]

I have bought a lot of horses sight unseen, including all 4 of my current ones. I have never regretted it. I’ve sold several of them, for various reasons, but I had fun on them for a while.

In fact, I have 2 really awesome young horses right now I bought sight unseen. My mare just did her second show, was champion in our division and qualified for regional championships based on her scores. So far we have done 10 dressage tests with scores from 65 (including 2 errors by me, facepalm)-73.5. I bought her on an online KWPN breeder’s auction from an excellent breeder. My other young horse I bought from Jess Redman, sight unseen. I just sold him and he is going to a new home this week, as I can’t afford to show them both as much as I would like, but he’s lovely and talented and has a super mind and I would be really happy to keep him if I didn’t have the mare.

In fact, the last horse I regretted was the only one I’ve bought in the last 20 years I actually saw in person.

As an ammy with kids, I would have zero qualms saying I would pay to have a trainer restart any of mine, and it wouldn’t be a red flag at all. I have zero interest in being bucked off. My mare came home what I and my dressage trainer would call a bit balky, which resolved when she learned about going forward into contact. She has never reared or bucked after coming home from cowboy school. She’s got an amazing brain and is so workmanlike. I tend to pay someone to sit on them first, even if I am REALLY sure they aren’t going to be naughty because I have a job and family and would prefer to pay a pro to figure it out.

When budget shopping, you have to make compromises. I usually make those compromises by buying young horses sight unseen. I tend to only buy something fancy enough I think I can resel itl pretty easily if it doesn’t work out. Yeah, sometimes I lose money on them, but the same can easily happen if I ride them once or twice too!

If you are the kind of person that simply cannot sell a horse that isn’t what you want, buying sight unseen, or even without a trial, is not a good idea!

[Arlomine]

I have bought several horses sight unseen. I believe all of them worked out, some of them were not long-term.
Upon reading your situation, my comment is that if she has agreed to hop on that horse if you come to look at them, then she can agree to make a short video of her riding him. Someone could just go point a phone at her.

Ask for for uncut video of the whole shebang from grooming to dismounted. You can do that with WhatsApp.

Also, make sure you have it in writing (txt or email): you asking her if the horse has ever bucked, reared, or if anyone has ever fallen off of the horse. People are much more likely to lie if it’s not in writing.

In this day of technology, there Is absolutely no reason to buy a horse it out see if video of it it’s job.

[Jleegriffith]

I buy over 100+ tb’s sight unseen a year for resale purposes. I have a very strict criteria and honestly it very rarely goes wrong but that is easier when I am not specifically buy a horse that I must love. I actually tend to buy more the types that I know will sell well vs what I like to ride.

What I can say is that anybody buying for resale should ask for recent pictures and recent video. The horses that I got burned on were horses that just didn’t end up looking like their pictures or the pictures/videos must have been old. I have also got burned many times by people selling horses for “other trainers.” I prefer not to deal with listing services because they aren’t the owner of the horse and when things go wrong you have no recourse.

I prefer mine not to be restarted because I hate the way most people start horses especially tb’s so it is just preferable that they aren’t started.

I have seen too many people photoshopping and using some very enhanced photos and the horse that gets off the trailer is anything but the horse you thought you may get.

[vxf111]

@Jleegriffith

I buy over 100+ tb’s sight unseen a year for resale purposes. I have a very strict criteria and honestly it very rarely goes wrong but that is easier when I am not specifically buy a horse that I must love. I actually tend to buy more the types that I know will sell well vs what I like to ride.

What I can say is that anybody buying for resale should ask for recent pictures and recent video. The horses that I got burned on were horses that just didn’t end up looking like their pictures or the pictures/videos must have been old. I have also got burned many times by people selling horses for “other trainers.” I prefer not to deal with listing services because they aren’t the owner of the horse and when things go wrong you have no recourse.

I prefer mine not to be restarted because I hate the way most people start horses especially tb’s so it is just preferable that they aren’t started.

I have seen too many people photoshopping and using some very enhanced photos and the horse that gets off the trailer is anything but the horse you thought you may get.

Curious what other people do wrong restarting OTTBs

[gertie06]

@Jaq

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts

So the update is that I’ve decided not to pursue this horse any further, for various reasons, not just the unknowns of buying a young out of work horse off a video

Smart you.

Over the course of my riding career, I’ve probably been to look at 100 horses. More often than not, the horse wasn’t what I expected from the video. Sometimes it was flat-out dishonesty on the sellers’ part. But sometimes it looked like my ride…and it just wasn’t. For that reason, and because I’m an amateur who boards her horses, I will never buy off video.

For those of you who have no regrets about horses not bought…you’re lucky. There was one I should’ve bought, but I chickened out because of the price tag. That was almost 20 years ago and I still think about her.

[Amber_C]

What would you all is say your top dollar buying off videos? There are some lovely horses over seas, even in Ontario and such, but I don’t have the time to travel, especially with this virus right now. With that being said, horses are going for cheaper in some areas because of it.

I do know, as someone who has sold horses sight unseen, that you should ask for any and everything. With my horses, I set up daily facetime calls for people. They can watch the horse come out of the stall, the horse get tacked and bathed, and the horse be ridden if I have someone to film it. If somebody will not give you any and everything on the horse, specially if it’s something in their power, it’s a huge red flag. I’ve seen people not want to do recent videos, facetimes, and I usually say a big NO to that.