Agreed! And, bending over backwards to facilitate a looker…that could be the first step down that long road to slaughter. For me, it’s more than getting $. I’d think anyone who cares for their horse seeks the BEST possible buyer. Heck, i’d not send a horse to a place without thoroughly investigating, including references!, his/her new home. I’d google-earth them, i’d do criminal record search, i’d speak with their veterinarian and their farrier…etc.
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I only sell weanlings. I’m really clear about what I have to offer, the price and the terms. I do not sell in utero foals. I only will sell a foal when it is on the ground and healthy, and with the express understanding that the foal will stay with me at no charge until weaning. Every year starting in late winter, I get lots of foal inquiries. I respond to everyone and put them on a list with their preferences on gender. I work in serial order. A foal is born, I go to the first person of whatever gender choice matches. Typically my foals start arriving from April - August.
All I do is email to see if there is interest. No response…,move on. Several people who said they wanted a foal have had life interruptions; a wedding, a sick relative, a job change. I don’t care because I don’t want any foal to go to a home where it will be an inconvenience. Life happens and it is okay. I’m only out the time I spent talking or emailing.
I do require buyers to come out and see the foal. The only exception I would make is for a breeder that I know already. I don’t promise anyone a foal. You can pass on a foal, but I am not going to wait to have more foals for you to choose from. It is not first pick of all foals, it is do you want this foal? No, okay I will move on to the next person. You can get back in line for the next foal if you want.
I have 6 foals to sell this season; three arrived and three to go. Three sold and people waiting on the three to come. It does help that I have an uncommon breed that has maybe 120 foals each year and adult prices have gone through the roof. It also helps that I have plenty of room to keep youngsters past weaning. So I am only so motivated.
I don’t get many tire kickers, but I do get people who really want an adult trained horse and are hoping I might have one stashed on my farm that I will sell. Nope, just foals.
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I had a horse for sale and he bruised his sole the day before a PPE.
Prospective buyer backed out, and I took him off the market till he recovered.
Prospective buyer then called, asked if he was still for sale.
Yes.
Well, how about if you bring him to her house, and he can still be for sale, but she can ride him in the meantime?
I told her I would be happy to bring him to her house for her to ride so long as she handed me the cash.
Two days later, a mother and child came, rode, pulled out a wad of bills, and bought the horse with no PPE.
A week after that, original prospect called and got her panties in a wad because he was no longer available.
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IMO. It’s ok to window shop. It’s not ok to ask for additional video and then ghost.
That means I do not like your horse, it looks lame or its being ridden so badly I can’t evaluate it and don’t want to tell you directly. If I’m going to drive a few hours I want to see video of it moving first and not with a bad rider who picks at it so I can’t see how it moves. Video is easy to take and send just send it, or better yet post good video in the ad.
I buy a lot and will often ask people what day works for them because I am trying to group horses together so minimize driving. Then I will get back to them. If they give me an attitude or are unreasonable about their schedule then I just won’t bother. Lots of horses out there. I just passed on looking at a quite nice mare because the seller had her with a trainer who was a) rude and b) only available one weekend out of 3 in June- at 8am on a sunday. The horse is 2.5 hours away. Lol, no.
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It takes two seconds to say “I don’t think it’s a match, thanks and good luck with the sale.” Ghosting is not ok. Period.
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Why do you care so much? If you send a video and they don’t get back to you within 24 hours, they are not interested in the horse. You are not owed something for sending a video of a horse you are selling, they are not your friends.
Also if it is happening a lot then you should look ask someone to look at your ad and your video to see why people are losing interest. But realistically I will look at many many videos before I spend half a day trying a horse.
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I don’t care, you can do whatever you want. But not replying at all is rude, no matter what excuses you’d like to make for it.
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I wonder if all the vagueness when someone is not interested in a horse–“maybe later” or not responding at all–is due to the fact that sellers occasionally take it very personally if someone says “no.”
All of the people in this thread seem, well, sane, but on some Facebook groups, I’ve seen sellers post horses that are completely the opposite of what the ISO ad is looking for (mare versus gelding, too green, too old, too tall or too small) and when the original poster says, “no thank you,” very politely, the commentator tries to argue, “my mare isn’t mareish/ this is the quietest five-year-old you’ll ever ride/ he takes up A LOT of leg.” Sometimes really combatively, as if they’re going to kidnap the person posting the ad and force them to try the horse! 
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I just ignore that stuff. My obligation is to politely decline, that’s it. 
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Eh, it’s not dating—it’s a potential business transaction. Based on my experiences buying/selling I don’t think the current mores require a “thanks but no thanks” type of closure statement. I’m not a professional seller but the last two times I sold horses I got 50+ inquiries on each. You can’t get emotionally invested in any one buyer to the point that you expect them to keep replying or take it personally if they don’t. I don’t believe anyone is truly interested until I get a deposit or the vet’s confirmation that a PPE is scheduled. I certainly don’t expect everyone who messages me to eventually declare that they’re no longer interested. Frankly unless their message is moving the transaction forward it’s just a time-sink for me anyway. I have limited time and energy for selling and I’d rather save it for people who are still interested. To me it’s nothing personal on either end, though I know some people do take it that way.
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I recently helped find a horse for a younger gal. I posted an ISO ad. For every horse that I inquired further on, if it wasn’t the one I responded “thank you, but it’s not a match, good luck”. FWIW, every single seller responded back in a positive way. They didn’t ignore my message. I think that says they appreciated it, but I’m assuming.
Which is where the topic came up where some people thought that asking for video when they were not interested in actually buying the horse was ok. It’s not. If you’re not interested, read the ad and move on. Engaging the seller when you have zero intention of buying is BS.
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Yep that’s fair. But I don’t think it’s fair to assume that everyone who inquires and then doesn’t buy the horse was never seriously interested / was a tire kicker. Not saying you think this but I’ve seen some seller rants about it. It’s entirely possible that the seller’s answers or follow-up photos/videos revealed that the horse (or seller!) was not a match, or a better horse came along in the meantime, or the buyer genuinely had a chance of circumstances. To lump everyone into the “tire kicker” category is unfair and is setting sellers up for resentment. Now the people who admit they ask for video etc when they wouldn’t buy the horse no matter what it shows…yeah, obnoxious! I also must have missed the thread where people here said that was okay though.
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From that thread:
And it continues from there, not necessarily solely about asking for video to “keep tabs on the market”.
Don’t disrupt anything in your own life until you get a firm date and appointment time from someone.
“Later this week”. Is not an appointment…
That means we are looking at other horses and if we don’t like them we will get back with you.
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I’ll be in touch means I’ll never call again. We’d like to see him/her later this week means you’ll probably never hear from me again.
You live your life and the truly interested person will make it work.
The one thing that I did once and regret was an out-of-town couple, H&H, you were passing through and wanted to see a pony, Boo. I already had a local person, M, coming the next day who was really excited. I felt bad for M so I told her that H&H just called and are coming through today to look at Boo. M said I want to see him too so I said you can come at the same time but that’s the best I can do. It happened that H&H were the better fit but M was more invested and excited and H&H felt pressured abd maybe kinda bad about it so M bought Boo on the spot. Months later she was unhappy with Boo and complained that I MADE her buy him. I just wish I’d let it be what it was. Maybe neither of them would have bought Boo but I created a pressure that didn’t feel right in the long run.
Once someone is actually scheduled I will ping them in some way, however they want to be reached, to make sure they are still on. I do this day of. No different than someone coming to buy a saddle or a couch.
No one reads ads, so just created an email that you can send out X 4000 times with all of the information. No need to re-write it 4000 times. MAYBE I add at the beginning a very specific answer like 'yes, I did show him at ABC in the rain last Spring! wasn’t that a crazy day? He did well for me despite the mud and we placed well (insert data). Then there’s the rest of the blob of email about that horse.
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Honestly, asking the interested party to call to set up the time would be one way to ward off tire kickers.
When I was shopping, I had one seller tell me she had so many tire-kickers she would only discuss details of the horse over the phone. I liked the horse a lot and called immediately, but if I had been less interested that would have turned me off.
Same thing with my current horse. As soon as the seller expressed availability to discuss on the phone, I called immediately because I knew he would go fast.
If someone can’t be bothered to pick up the phone and call, I would be skeptical they are going to bother to show up to try the horse…
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It is not that some people can not be bothered to pick up the phone and call…it is that some people find phone calls to be an anxiety inducing thing and in this day they thankfully do not have to make many phone calls anymore.
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Also agree with this. I was selling a mustang mare who lived outside with just a small shelter and the potential buyer made an offer. I inquired about where she would be living and said it would be in a stall and since it was winter, the only turnout would be in the arena while they cleaned her stall. So what? 10 minutes a day for a horse that currently lived out 24/7/365? I turned them down, said she would go bonkers with that schedule. I’m glad I did too because she lives with the best family now whose adult rider absolutely loves her to the moon and back.
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You realize both can be true, right? And I would bet that the amount of people who would not call to set up a time to see a horse because they are not seriously interested far outweighs the amount of people who would not call because it is anxiety inducing. You’re comparing a large population of tire-kickers to a very specific population of “people who are both seriously interested in one specific horse and also have anxiety about phone calls.” It is also completely reasonable for a seller to want to talk to someone on the phone before giving them their address and allowing them to come sit on their horse.
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I was not comparing anyone with anything. I was just stating how not being willing to call =/= always being a tire kicker.
If I was horse shopping and a horse I really liked had a phone only situation I would likely ask a friend to call for me.
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