Horse Buying/Selling Gripe Thread

People think most horses in up in rescues or kill pens because they have been abused or starved.
This is how most horses end up in bad places. Benign neglect. They are useless and unsaleable because they don’t get trained or ridden, and then people get hurt because they have impossible, ignorant expectations that the horse will just do the thing that they think horses just magically do.

22 Likes

You would think people would be a touch more motivated? I reached out to a breeder to ask if they had any young horses available. A few days later I received a response that they did but the website was not up to date and they would send info “this weekend.” This farm is within a few hours of me so I was willing to make the trip to look based on bloodline info and whatever old photo they have on their phone already honestly.

However they also made sure to point out that they breed for the upper levels so their horses aren’t necessarily amateur friendly. Of course they didn’t know me but no one asking for a 3- or 4-year-old is looking for a packer … and I’ve noticed more finished horses from the breeder’s program (still under 10 years old) being resold by reputable pros as “amateur dream horse” and “quiet enough for a beginner” so it’s possible I wasn’t the one being unrealistic. Anyway I asked them to send info when they could and … absolute crickets.

4 Likes

So much this. Often “borderline” hoarder cases give rise to these horses. The horses aren’t neglected enough to be a cruelty case, but the owner keeps too many horses to ride and doesn’t have enough resources to keep the horses in healthy enough condition to work (versus just survive). Then when the owner finally sells/can’t afford the horses anymore, you end up with middle-aged horses that have minimal skills, bad ground manners, and are barely broke to ride.

5 Likes

I had a friend who bred horses who drove me nuts because she’d put a horse on the sales list with an unralistic price tag. (Yes, the horses were quality, but most had little or no show record) and then be insulted at an offer below the asking price.
Both her trainer and I would vainly try to get across the concept that accepting a reasonable offer rather than maintaining the horse for an additional 6 months was not a good business plan.

10 Likes

This is how small breeders end up with horses with minimal skills and experience piling up in their barns. Sometimes asking an inflated price can be about ego as well as money, too.

5 Likes

Gem from FB today

Safe but neurotic!

What the wut? Maybe they meant neurological? Maybe the horse looses its mind if there’s 2 blue trucks in sight? Nobody knows!

6 Likes

This thought process is not limited to your friend. And you can tell people but sometimes you can’t tell them much. Unless you have unlimited wealth you need to apply basic business skills to breeding and selling and that means marketing and market research. I see this approach over and over and I try to keep myself out of this thought pattern.

1 Like

To me that means no buck, spook, bolt and most people can ride it. But it might crib, stall walk, be herd bound, too claustrophobic to lock it in a stall, etc. I had an Arabian gelding that probably fit that description.

2 Likes

I found most of the time when sellers were stringing me along it’s because they have someone else interested in the horse and they don’t want to bother showing it concurrently. Or for some reason the horse temporarily won’t show at their best, maybe has a runny nose or took an off step and they want to give it a week or so to resolve without alarming potential buyers. Who knows really, but definitely frustrating as a buyer not to hear back.

You’d think that people selling their animals for $20k+ would be a little more inclined to talk to you. Especially when I ask when I can come out to see the horse.

I completely understand the skepticism of breeders and people with young horses who don’t want to sell an unsuitable horse to an amateur. I internally cringe when I see ads that are like “He’s only four but calm enough for an AA or junior!” Wait until he’s five and figures out where his legs are underneath him under saddle. At the same time, I shouldn’t have to do the “make your trainer call my trainer” thing or beg for information. Breeders as a whole seem to have a “take it or leave it” attitude when it comes to their horses, as in they don’t care if you come get it tomorrow or if their animal sits in their backyard for another three years. Not a great attitude for building a reputation for breeding nice horses.

1 Like

I had one of these. I wouldn’t have another.

1 Like

I had one as well. My late mare. Never homicidal and not spooky in the slightest, but woo boy was she a spicy cookie, and anxious all day long.

3 Likes

Those lip tatoos or micro chips might foil her plans !

1 Like

Mine was a gelding, but similar. Okay if you were on him and working. Otherwise, he had to know what was happening around him, everywhere, at all times. He would go on hunger strikes at shows. Constantly on high alert. Stranger danger up the wazoo. He could not handle any little change in routine-- had a breakdown if turnout or feed order was changed, if we took a different path than usual to go out/in or to the arena, tacked up a different way than the day before. Our warmup was the exact same every day.

I tried and tried to convince him life was not that serious and never got through to him. He went to a middle aged lady who had boarded at the same barn for fifteen years with the same trainer, never showed, and was a little neurotic herself. They look happy as clams together if pictures on Facebook are any indication.

@Buddy0227 It didn’t even require that much sleuthing. A single peek at her Facebook page revealed everything… why even lie, then?

4 Likes

Yeah pretty starkly actually, esp if she is claiming any particular breed. My mother used to pick up horses at auctions with no known breeding and sell them as [insert breed] crosses, so a big TB or a drafty horse might be a WBx or anything under 14h was a Welsh cross, etc.

3 Likes

I see this all the time. Im in a number of PRE/Lusi Facebook groups because it’s usually my breed of choice and people love to post their “PRE crosses.” If it’s a little fat and has a cresty neck it’s immediately an Iberian. But it has a weak loin, downhill stifle to elbow, and its shoulders are 3x the size of its hind end. Maybe it’s a friesian cross on a good day.

1 Like

I’m not shopping, but I window shop. And I wonder … I wonder why sellers don’t pose their well-groomed untacked horse on a flat hard surface against a neutral background, with their legs straight under them. I wonder where the stacked photos shot from the front and rear are. I wonder why videos are grainy and out of focus, showing a tiny horse and rider doing something down at the far end of an enormous arena when dusk is apparently falling, or else ten bloody minutes of a horse trotting round and round with its neck stretched out. Even if you are planning to lie like a rug about your horse in every particular, why not try to get buyers to think you know what you’re doing up front? I can’t fathom it.

But then my friend in her sixties, who is a fairly good rider, but neither confident nor assertive, lost her little Arab mare to colic a few months ago and went horse shopping. Against the advice of every single friend she had, she bought a frickin unhandled five year old mustang off the range. “It’s always been a dream of mine” she explains.

I can only roll my eyes.

7 Likes

Its really hard to find a ground person and sometimes something is better than nothing.

Sometimes the most random things sells.
Sometimes people want to see progress
Sometimes random.bombproofing
But really its not easy to coordinate perfect help perfect timing perfect weather and perfect horse.

Of course sellers want it perfect, but that why its sometimes not.

3 Likes

I dunno. If I was selling something I was hoping to get thousands of dollars for, I think I’d invest a bit of effort into it. Almost anyone can produce a useful conformation photo of a clean horse, you just need patience and a phone camera. Video is harder, and frankly if I couldn’t create a good one I wouldn’t post one at all. A pathetically amateurish video is worse than nothing, in my opinion. It just makes both you and your horse look bad.

Sometimes the most random thing sells, but much more often, a thoughtful clear presentation helps a lot more.

9 Likes

I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just trying to explain why it sometimes happens. Horses cost money every day so sometimes something is better than nothing. That video at the end of the day when the Sun is setting is probably because the seller could only have to help to take video from a client who had a lesson after work, so they are chasing daylight trying to get it in. The video is probably shaking from far away because the client probably doesn’t know how to take video and are just doing a quick favor for the seller. Is it correct and ideal? Absolutely not however sometimes when you are doing horses all day long it is the best that you can put together for that time and for that day. You can always make another video with a sun is shining the footing is dry and the pretty closer on and the horses being perfect.

2 Likes