Back to horse prices and negotiations: I’ll jump in here.
One of my students asked me to help her find a new horse – I put out five ISO ads on Facebook, fielded all of the offers and sellers PMs - many of the horses were completely inappropriate and not even related to the requirements of the ISO! But that’s another subject.
Anyway, she finally found pretty much the Perfect Horse - he was advertised as 7 years old, had been bought out of a field off of Craigslist three years prior. I contacted the original buyers who were well known trainers, local to my area, and picked their brain(s) about him.
He appeared to be pretty much “as advertised”: great brain, nice mover, really low mileage because he was just hanging out in a field when they found him. He had been to two or three competitions, was a school horse as well as being worked with by the trainer, and had an incredible temperament – loved to hack out, sensible and sweet, and pretty bombproof. Also sensitive and forward thinking! Barefoot, cute as a button, very nice jumper.
The PPE unearthed a few minor findings – a bit of hock arthritis, remnants of bone spurs in the pasterns, maybe OCD as a youngster?
But!, the vets also determined that he was 10 years old, not 7; the main vet actually brought in another vet to consult and confirm this.
The buyer had waited her whole life for her own horse after supporting her daughter’s horse dreams from elementary school through her teenage years with ponies - and being a “horse, mom“ - and then when she finally bought her own horse, he wound up being intractably lame and had to be given to a therapeutic riding center where he was ridden only at a walk. She really wanted something on the younger side because this was to be her “last horse”.
(Obviously, there are no guarantees when it comes to horses!)
Anyway, as great as this horse was, with his history and low competition mileage I thought he was a bit overpriced at 25K. After the age revelation and the minor PPE findings, the buyer wanted to negotiate the price - but the seller would only come down $1000. She is a young pro trying to make a name for herself, but I felt like she should’ve knocked a little bit more off the price under the circumstances. The buyer bought him for 24K and has been very happy with him since then – but I thought it would just add this story to the thread.
