Spinoff from my previous post. Had a trainer look at pony and said they would take him to their barn for training…
They want to put him in their lesson program while I pay full board and they will take 20% commission on the sales price. Does this sound right? They would get lesson fees from students, money from me for board and a commission, that is over $1500 a month cash to them without having to do much work plus the money from his sale. Sound right?
Didn’t read your previous thread. Does pony need training?
You can consign horses for sale with trainers. You pay board + training, and trainer then represents horse for you and charges a commission. And will likely charge buyer commission as well.
If horse is in trainer’s barn, but not requiring training… AND trainer is using horse for lessons, then you should get a reduction in boarding fee. And you pay a commission.
If you want to represent your own horse and board at this person’s barn, you pay for advertising, send out any video requests as well as make the videos, ride horse for prospective buyers, and weed out the tire kickers from the serious from the seriously deranged. You pay only the board.
If the pony was only getting ridden by trainer than that’s one thing. However if they’re planning to use it for lessons than you should be getting a reduced board. The commission will be there no matter what if the trainer is selling the horse for you.
That kind of arrangement does not give the trainer very much motivation to arrange a sale and lose the free use of a moneymaker. 
Is it a true lesson program or a working student lesson program? When I was a WS we would get sale horses in and typically the WS would ride the various sale horses in our daily lesson. The trainer only rode horses that were in for him to compete. While the skill level of the WS varied (there were ~10 of us!) all of us were at a minimum competent low level riders and several were competent upper level riders. Typically sales horses would be consistently ridden by 1-2 WS during their stay to keep consistency and always ridden under the eye of one of the trainers (even if not an active lesson, schooling sessions were ridden while trainer was in the arena either riding themselves or training a client so that advice could be given if imperative).
Now if this lesson program is a regular “schoolie” lesson program in which your horse will be ridden by all different people of all different skill levels - then no way should you be paying training board + commission. Should be reduced board + commission. To me that isn’t training, it’s risk of ruining.
If trainer is using lessons, with competent kid or working student, to offset training fees you’d otherwise have to pay, then it sounds like an ok deal. I would still expect them to market pony and try to get it sold, not just have it for someone in their barn to ride with the board paid for.
If this is the pony that was getting heavy? spooking? rushing? then some training rides seems like a good idea; possibly this way, you wouldn’t have to pay for training. Unless you think 20% commission should cover that?
If trainer wants pony for lesson string…then they could buy pony from you? or reduce board. or even “free” lease, where you wouldn’t pay anything, except commission when pony sells. But this also does not seem like best way to get pony sold, unless they have someone in mind already. In which case, I feel like everyone could skip the lesson program part and they can try the pony.
sounds like an excellent deal for the trainer, not so much for you
What is the pony’s value? and what level of connections does the trainer have to offer to obtain the highest best price for pony?
On the surface the “deal” is pretty much one sided, but if trainer has this five star track record of working with ponies of a very high dollar class then the deal might favor you.
Pony is in the $10K range. I don’t know the trainers but they came highly recommended. Just found out it would be the same 1 or 2 teens riding him daily while in lessons with trainer. Pony is too small for the average adult. Seems okay for short term, but I’m still not sure. How do you all sell your horses?
The ones we sold were sold to people who had watched the ponies/horses in competitions and knew what the animal could do… not much else, they usually had already ridden the animal before or been beaten so many times by it that they wanted it
You need to know more about just what credentials this trainer has other than “comes highly recommended”. What level of success has he had with ponies like yours?
It almost too late in the year for a Christmas Pony to be purchased so your guy might not find a buyer until Spring … so you have it at the barn for six months spending over $6,000… now pony is only netting $4,000
Trainer connections and horse shows, mainly. Trainer connections can be a huge advantage, and part of how they earn their commission. Word of mouth to potential buyers. Tell people you know about pony. Put videos up. Advertise wherever you can. Trainer with good connections can do that to a targeted group and maybe wade through fewer unsuitable buyers.
Does trainer have good reputation and connections for selling? Would you otherwise pay her to train your horses? ie, is her not-charging you training fee of value to you?
Would you prefer to pay both board and training and have pony only ridden by pro? Do you think having those teens ride pony will increase pony’s likelihood of getting sold or becoming an easier ride?
Have you asked other trainers’ opinion and what their sales arrangement are?
Have you asked this trainer if they have any other options? Would you lease the pony, so you’re our from under its bills, but it may take longer to sell? If trainer likes this pony, will they make you an offer for it? 10k is not an insubstantial amount of money, but you can quickly go through that same amount in board/training and other bills.
Confused here, is this the $10K pony?
Super green and unpredictable pony is not working out. Kid is in love and heartbroken, but pony has to go. He is on a lease to own from a friend who is aware of the trouble we are having. I’m upset with myself for choosing the wrong pony and breaking my kid’s heart and disappointing my friend.
Pony is lovely and sweet but very unpredictable which means my very capable girl can’t handle him on her own anymore. My own horse needs to be worked 6 days a week and I work full time. I’m completely exhausted and upset with myself.
I guess I’m just posting this for commiseration… feeling horrible about the situation.
If it’s the same one where is the value?
So there is always more to any story…
If that is the same pony… “free” training, ie just paying for board and 20% commission, but no training/show fees seems like a decent arrangement, provided trainer is on it about selling and not just having another pony for students to ride. And provided you can afford the board and want to spend some money to get pony (re?)trained to bring it up to a 10K pony.
Think of it this way, if you would not pay 10K now for the pony “as is” for your kid, why would another parent?
Yes, same pony. Problems started when we took him out of a jumping program at previous barn. He needs to work, a lot , and I am too exhausted to get on him each time before my daughter rides. Price I quoted came from a trainer who said $5K now and $10K when he is showing possibly more after show season. He has won champ and reserve champ at local shows this year. Meeting with a second trainer next week for a second opinion.
Bottom line is he needs more work than we can give him and a kid who wants to compete!
I have seen a program or two arranged this way… and for the most part they don’t move horses fast AT ALL. There isn’t really a lot of motivation for trainer to actively market and SELL when someone else is footing the bills and providing them with a lesson horse to use, thereby allowing them to teach (and earn) more without spending a dime.
If trainer is too big for pony and won’t even be putting rides on once in a while, I would definitely pass.
If you can sell it for $5k tomorrow, do it! Otherwise you will spend more than that getting the 10k price.
Wait, if he is on lease-to-own, can’t you just send him back? Do you even have the ability to be the one selling? Usually, a lease-to-own deal still has an option to purchase; it’s just that what you pay into the lease fee is considered when setting the ultimate purchase price at the end.
Can’t send him back, owner is making all final decisions. I feel guilty for taking on pony and now changing my mind so trying to find solutions…
If owner is making all final decisions, wouldn’t they be the one to pay for pony’s board/training until it sells? Or, rather, why aren’t they the ones paying for pony’s board/training – I mean, you don’t have to answer here, but it’s certainly something I would think about!
I think it’s very nice of you to help out, but generally, lease-to-own is a risk that the owner takes on, that leasee won’t buy pony in the end and they’ll end up with it again. For the amount of time you’ve had the pony, they haven’t had to pay for its upkeep and have made some $$ off his lease fee to you. And if they choose $$trainer, are you stuck paying that cost?
Anyway, if you (and pony owner? whatever arrangement you have with them seems more fraught/one-sided than potential agreement with any trainer, at this point) want to get out from under the pony, I’d take the 5k, if it’s a real offer. Otherwise you could be putting that much or more into it in the next few months to get it re-trained and sold. And no guarantees it will get 10k or stay sound or any number of other things horses can do.
If he needs a lot of work, both to be retrained and to maintain his rideability, then IMO trading training fees for good quality lesson riders (mini-pony-pros essentially) is not so bad. as long as trainer is still working very much on selling him.
You said in your other thread that the owner was offered $12k, tell the owner to call that buyer up and sell. You’re leasing the pony, tell your friend the lease didn’t work out, the pony is going to hurt your child and let the owner know when she should be there to receive the pony off the trailer.
It also sounds like your kiddo should stay in a lesson program and skip ownership for now, since you have already sent 2 ponies back that didn’t work out.
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