Just musing - why it this horse still for sale?

[Redlei44]

I’ve been stalking a very cool (-seeming) horse on BigEq for quite a while now - I can’t remember exactly, but seems like the horse has been listed for maybe a year at this point. Very good ad with photos and several videos. Horse is actively jumping/competing at >3’6”. Well behaved and scopey in videos. Common breed and color, gelding, very desirable height, very desirable age. Very well priced for a >3’6” horse, especially if it’s as am-friendly as described. Currently marketed as jumper but appears that it could easily cross into the other two rings at the local/regional level. Slightly out of the way location.

So would you be suspicious if you were shopping? Do you assume it doesn’t vet well? Do you assume the ad is not accurate?

I’m not shopping yet, but hope to be in the next year or two, so this is just an educational exercise for me. (TBH, I love the horse and would be asking my trainer to make contact either way to see what’s what.)

[Jo]

If it’s marketed below value and isn’t snatched up, I would assume vetting issues. JMHO.

[Against_All_Odds1]

The horse I bought is still listed for sale on BigEq but is home with me. Some people are lazy about taking down ads.Or keep them up so people inquire and they say “sorry sold but I have XYZ for sale”

[ajfager]

Not having seen the horse, I wouldn’t automatically assume there’s a reason he hasn’t sold other than the right buyer hasn’t come along yet, but I think it’s fair to be cautious.

Some reasons I can think the horse hasn’t sold:

• just coincidence? Maybe unlikely, but still possible.
• fails PPE
• hasn’t meshed well with potential buyers
• requires specific/expensive care that’s a turnoff to buyers (like expensive shoeing/regular injections)
• current owner has a bad reputation as a seller or is difficult to work with
• might be some terms on the seller contract that people don’t want to agree to
• current owner might just be picky about who they sell to
• is already sold, but the ad is still up

[Elouise]

Besides all the answers above…(which I agree with)

Your quote: “Currently marketed as jumper but appears that it could easily cross into the other two rings at the local/regional level. Slightly out of the way location.”

If it is being marketed as a jumper and it’s not in a convenient location…bingo. Also, as we know in this day and age, trainers like to buy and sell with trainers they know. If it’s being marketed by an ‘unknown’ trainer, it may not be getting the traffic that other horses might.

I know a trainer with a nice hunter, good show record, well priced with a few (minor) negatives and they rarely get anyone to even talk to them about it; let alone sit on it.

So to answer your question, might be something big, might be something small, might be something silly or it might not be anything.

[Madison]

@Elouise

So to answer your question, might be something big, might be something small, might be something silly or it might not be anything.

Agree with this. Out of the way location is a big hurdle right now. When I was shopping earlier this year, we liked a horse that was in a hard to get to location, and it was a complete non-starter because we really had no time or easy way to go try it.

There was also a horse listed on BigEq that we liked that the trainer was totally non-responsive to questions and when she did finally respond, she completely failed to follow through on sending any video. I don’t know why they even bothered to list the horse if that’s how they were going to handle inquiries!

So it could be vetting issues, but it also could be a whole host of other reasons. And sometimes it is just bad timing/bad luck. There was an awesome horse at my barn who had been for sale for a while, nothing wrong with him, good record, and no one could understand why he took so long to sell, but he did. It worked out great, because he ended up going to a kid in the barn and they make a terrific team and are racking up great results, but none of us ever did really come up with a good reason why he didn’t get snapped up sooner!

[mmeqcenter]

In addition to all the excellent points others listed - based on personal experience, I notice that a LOT of buyers are currently going the route of posting an ISO post on Facebook, and only looking at horses that people respond with. Buyers don’t appear to be spending the time to actually search out for sale ads much these days. So if this horse’s seller has only posted the For Sale ads and isn’t going around commenting on ISO posts, they just may not have gotten a lot of traffic looking at its ad(s).
When I was selling one on consignment two years ago, I’m comfortable saying that 99% of the leads that lead to test rides were a result of ME hunting down ISO ads and initiating contact with the buyers. Which took a lot of time and effort.

So to answer your final questions - no, I wouldn’t assume anything nefarious, and would not hesitate to inquire.

[four2farm]

Just because an owner wants a horse sold, does not mean the trainer does. Some trainers will list a horse, not answer or not follow through with interested parties. In the meantime they are working another deal, using the horse, etc. Then after months of collecting board. The owner gets fed up and agrees to lease or lowball.

My hubby has a customer who had a nice Eq horse. Paid 85k, daughter had some success, daughter went to college. Horse went up for sale, solid, safe, sound. Stayed on the market for 9 months, paid training board to keep him at the top of his game. They got stories of failed PPE’s, now all the sudden horse acting up. Owner goes to fundraiser, meets old friend. Finds out that she wanted horse for her daughter but he was " off". So owner gets some friends to start calling and he is “leased” , “unsound”, “under contract”. So, after a pretty ugly deal where the trainer tells her he is basically washed up, has failed several PPE’s ( which owner cannot get copies of because they are property of the prospective buyer). Owner calls the Insurance Company. They find nothing wrong. Trainer throws a hissy, makes a lowball offer. Owner then donates him to a Equestrian Program for a hefty tax deduction. They do a Complete soundness exam and horse passes. The owners are still getting feedback from old barnmates and Trainer has attempted to buy horse from the University.

He may be just a very nice horse that the owner wants to cash out of, but the Trainer has not been able find an in house bank roll for.

[OnDeck]

More and more people will only buy via connections. That makes it very hard to sell a horse if you are not a typical sales barn (which a “slightly out of the way” location probably isn’t). I know many good horses who have been on the market for months and once they were sent to a barn that focuses specifically on sales they sold very quickly.

[vxf111]

Coronavirus makes “out of the way location” much more of a problem for a lot of buyers than in pre-COVID times.