Horses are expensive

[spotmenow]

[QUOTE=eponacelt;8251236]
My most recent favorite. The email I got about my $4000 horse for sale, asking if I would consider donating it to their (for profit) riding school, because he would have such a good home as part of someone’s lesson string.

Ummm…yeah.[/QUOTE]

I can beat that…once had a small pony for sale for $750 and a “trainer” came and had her daughter ride her because they were looking for another pony for their lesson string…pony went beautifully for her. They loved her…but then told me they didn’t have the money to buy her. So they offered me the following “deal”: they said they would be interested in taking her to use in their lesson program if I would pay for her hay/feed and farrier expenses. :eek:

Oh, and to make this great “deal” even more appealing, they told me they didn’t have an indoor at their farm so they would be shipping her a few times a week to various facilities with indoors to use for lessons. However, I was also assured that this would be an “excellent home”.

[IronwoodFarm]

I find that anyone making a low ball price offer will tell me that they offer “a good home.” Okay, are they suggesting I would ever sell the horse to a “bad home” for more money? I have turned down full price offers from people who did not strike me as suitable. My feeling is that the purchase price is the least of the expenses associated with a horse. It’s the upkeep that really gets you.

[spotmenow]

[QUOTE=IronwoodFarm;8252661]
I find that anyone making a low ball price offer will tell me that they offer “a good home.” Okay, are they suggesting I would ever sell the horse to a “bad home” for more money? I have turned down full price offers from people who did not strike me as suitable. My feeling is that the purchase price is the least of the expenses associated with a horse. It’s the upkeep that really gets you.[/QUOTE]

One dealer always ends every one of her ads with “excellent home a MUST” but then if you read her sale policies she states that horses will not be held, even with a deposit, for any reason (including a vet exam)…she will continue to show the horse until she has money in hand and that is who she will sell the horse to.

[andylover]

Omg!!!

[andylover]

I must admit I am really amazed at some of these stories that you all shared. Some are truly unreal. The warped side of me really appreciates the tongue in cheek, heavily sarcastic post that were posted.
Thanks everyone for sharing… Misery loves company and it is comforting to know there are some really crazy ass buyers out there…

[SuzieQNutter]

[QUOTE=spotmenow;8252342]
I can beat that…once had a small pony for sale for $750 and a “trainer” came and had her daughter ride her because they were looking for another pony for their lesson string…pony went beautifully for her. They loved her…but then told me they didn’t have the money to buy her. So they offered me the following “deal”: they said they would be interested in taking her to use in their lesson program if I would pay for her hay/feed and farrier expenses. :eek:

Oh, and to make this great “deal” even more appealing, they told me they didn’t have an indoor at their farm so they would be shipping her a few times a week to various facilities with indoors to use for lessons. However, I was also assured that this would be an “excellent home”. ;)[/QUOTE]

This one takes the cake! OMG

[andylover]

[QUOTE=SuzieQNutter;8252973]
This one takes the cake! OMG[/QUOTE]

I second that Suzie

[spacytracy]

I see so many of these scenarios that I end up unsubscribing to FB groups because they are so frequent.

Although, our most recent pony was purchased well below asking. A friend pointed me to the ad, but it was above my price.I hemmed and hawed and finally emailed, and one of the first things I asked was, are you negotiable on the price.

Seller replied no. I replied back, thank you so much for your time, if you decide to lower the price, please contact me. I told her that my budget was X and I didn’t want to dip into my emergency savings.

Less than a week later, she emailed me and said, what is your price range. I told her. We countered a little bit, and I said, if I come out, and like her, I will pay your final price.

I did, I loved the pony, and we settled that day. I think knowing she was going to a good home to be loved on by a little girl was worth more than the few 100’s that we were going back and forth on. In the end though, I paid a little over half of her asking price.

[RiderInTheRain]

spacytracy - if someone approached me about the small pony I have for sale right now in the way you purchased your most recent pony, I would definitely be negotiable if the situation seemed a good fit. And I’ve bought a horse in a similar situation myself and approached it in pretty much the same way you did.

What gets me are the folks who e-mail me, immediately tell me the price is too high and then try list every potential negative of my pony in order to convince me to drop it. Why would I sell a perfectly lovely animal to someone who doesn’t seem to like or respect him from the very start, regardless of how much $ they were offering? It is an approach that makes no sense to me.

That said, I think I’ve finally found some sites and groups frequented by more reasonable horse people as I’ve started to receive some non-frightening inquiries!

[OverandOnward]

Every time I catch sight of the title of this thread, all the ridiculous reasons people have told me horses shouldn’t be expensive just wash over me again. Number 1 being never ever call the vet, and number 2 is let it live on “pasture”. (There may be green branchy stuff growing in that small lot, but it is NOT pasture, and the horse’s shape tells me it is eating things but not getting nutrition.)

[QUOTE=RiderInTheRain;8253360]
… What gets me are the folks who e-mail me, immediately tell me the price is too high and then try list every potential negative of my pony in order to convince me to drop it. Why would I sell a perfectly lovely animal to someone who doesn’t seem to like or respect him from the very start, regardless of how much $ they were offering? It is an approach that makes no sense to me. …[/QUOTE]

It’s a very common tactic for buying the lower end of used cars in the classifieds. As a buyer, be the first to call and, with overwhelming verbiage, try to convince the inexperienced seller that you are doing them an amazing favor taking this piece of junk off their hands. That they have few other options and their best course of action is to sell it for what they can get, today.

This works most often in cases where the seller knows little about cars, rarely, if ever, sells a car and is already hating the experience … so why not just say ‘ok’ and have it gone. Of course the car won’t care what happens to it in the hands of a new owner.

It is very discouraging that this type of buyer also tries to do the same thing with horses for sale in the classifieds. But anything in the general public classifieds is a magnet for what I consider to be the bottom feeders.

And of course that is not the type of buyer who considers horses “expensive”. Quite likely destined for the auction or the truck. No matter what blahdyblah they say about children, grandchildren, lesson program, pasture pet, etc. Depending, of course.

[Gumby80]

Spend your money on whatever you want, everyone has different priorities. But how much money you have is not my problem, and not your horse’s problem.

It can get a bit scary being a buyer too. Especially at the cheaper end of the market. Something I’ve noticed among the lower-end ads: “MUST be gone this weekend”. Really? If you can’t afford another month of board, that doesn’t give me confidence that you’ve been maintaining the horse’s feet, teeth, shots etc. And getting all end-of-season-clearance-sale on the poor thing isn’t going to make me so excited I rush down and buy him. It’s a horse, not a TV at Best Buy on Black Friday.

Another favorite: “Price will increase with training!!!”. I mean, yes, that will tend to happen, but shouting it at me from your ad isn’t going to inspire me to snatch him up before you drag his poor ass around the local schooling show and then proclaim him to be worth 5 times as much.

That said, if you think a horse is way overpriced, why on earth would you berate the seller about it, or insist they take a low-ball offer? Who are you, the pony price police? Am I going to fall to my knees and gratefully accept your crappy offer, and your insults? Seriously, has that ever actually happened? Or are these people just the adult versions of teenagers who comment “lol ur gay” on Youtube videos?

[Txhorsedreamer]

I recently moved from a barn because of people who were either ignorant or stupid about this fact, and too prideful to know when maybe it’s time to find the horse another home. The horse was given to the lady, but the mare was old and neglected. Poor feet, teeth not cared for, and high maintenance to feed properly. The owner seemed dedicated at first and then the months passed and she started skipping trims, no routine shots that I know of, and we thought she had decreased her food after a while to cut back. I think the lady had some other expenses pop up like car and house stuff. Meanwhile, the mare’s feet would be ouchy and she also had this crazy feeding schedule of 12:00pm and 12:00am :eek: It drove everyone at the barn nuts. She couldn’t afford full care.

The horses got tight around the gate with this owner once, and when her horse kicked back at my horse, my horse bit her horse’s butt. Well unfortunately he got a pretty good chunk out of her and she ended up calling the vet to get it cleaned up/medicine. Horse was going to be fine. She had then changed her story so that my horse CHASED her mare and bit her, which is NOT characteristic of him at all and he was also previously with this same mare for MONTHS before she even owned her. It was just one of those things and really I think she could have prevented the gate crowding - whip anybody?

SIX MONTHS later, her boyfriend/boss/affair guy (she was married to someone else with a kid, SOO many things wrong with this one) approaches me at the barn and tells me that I make more money than she does and that I should pay the bill. I saw the bill and it hadn’t been paid on at ALL. Actually accrued some interest being a few bucks more than the original bill. Disgusting. It was a $300 bill y’all. At this time (and still), I was having to dish out three times that trying to diagnose and treat my horse with a hard to pin point lameness. THAT is why I only have one horse, and just recently I quit ALL Facebook pages that have pretty horses for sale because I go crazy trying to figure if I could make a second one work in full care board. NOPE!

I try not to ask below asking price if the horse is truly something I want and fairly priced. I purchase to keep for a LONG time so purchase price is negligible at best after a while as long as I can afford cash. But everyone around me (family, barn people, DH) are of the belief that unless the ad says $XXX FIRM, then if you don’t negotiate then you’re doing something wrong. I personally hate it and it feels like I am being insulting if I believe the horse is what I really want. I have had people see me as an ideal match and home, that will contact me later on offering a lower price or a deal if the horse is still available and no other ideal matches come along. I love buying from people who care where their horses go, the types that generally want the “buy back” first offer in the bill of sale.

Relate-able thread! I laughed a lot about giving the tack a good home!

[nu5ha]

I have just read this thred and have to say some people are a little crazy! I understand everyone wants a good bargain but seriously to some of these all I can say is wow!

I actually have quite a funny one to say. My uncle breeds quite a rare breed back in Russia (akhal tekes) and about 1/2 years ago he got quite an interesting inquiry from the USA I believe a lady in Texas. She was inquiring if we have any stallions for sale. We actually are not a huge stud farm it’s just a family farm (we do however have some of the best tekes out there) anyhow my uncle sent her 2 that we would be willing to sell. (we have sold to Japan, France, holland, and 1 to the U.S. ) anyhow she wanted videos any x rays a picture of his papers etc all provided including his stallion registration, show records and so on. She knew the price of the horses in the first email my uncle sent back to her. She requested a Skype session to “see” the horse. All went well. She then proceeded to give my uncle her price for the horse. Can I add that she took off about 70% of this price her reasons yes she gave us a bulit point email about it was

1. How much it would cost to ship the horse to her
2. She would need to vet check with an independent vet
3. No ones heard of these horses in the states so she wants guaranteed people would use him as a stud
4. She would need to spend $$ on re training him as his “trick” training was not acceptable
5. (My favorite ) his night wasn’t what she has in mind. But she will oversee .
   But we can have his semen frozen and shipped back to us at a discounted rate if she buys him. And we would get monthly pictures of him.

[Darkwave]

[QUOTE=OverandOnward;8253702]

It’s a very common tactic for buying the lower end of used cars in the classifieds. As a buyer, be the first to call and, with overwhelming verbiage, try to convince the inexperienced seller that you are doing them an amazing favor taking this piece of junk off their hands. That they have few other options and their best course of action is to sell it for what they can get, today.[/QUOTE]

Yup. I own a parking space in Dupont Circle in Washington DC (in DC, spaces are their own bits of real estate). It’s very easy to rent out.

My current renter contacted me about a year ago, asking me if I would consider selling it. I told her that though I was happy keeping it as a rental, I was open to selling it for the right price. I then quoted her a price.

She then responded back with a price that was significantly lower than my quote, and also lower than what I HAD PAID for it a decade previously (public knowledge, due to property records).

When I rejected her offer, and pointed out that there was no way I would consider selling it for less than I paid, especially since property values in that neighborhood have skyrocketed, she professed to be shocked, and proceeded to inform me that this was the best offer I was going to get for the spot, so I should seriously consider it.

I pointed out that it was her idea to buy it, and I didn’t care whether I sold it, so the only thing that mattered here was whether she was offering me enough, and she wasn’t.

It was amazing - it was HER idea to buy the spot, and she knew I wasn’t trying to sell it. And yet she tried to convince me she was doing me a favor by letting me sell it to her at a loss…