Has anyone used this service to buy or sell a dressage horse?
Or any horse/pony for that matter.
It seems other disciplines have successfully been doing online auctions for a while.
I have sold one horse through them.
I had extensive vet bills from my filly’s 2-week stay at State’s ICU, and needed to sell the horse quickly. She was a nice mare and I was brutally honest in my description/representation of her. She did sell, but I got about 50% of what I would have asked for her selling privately. If I was not in hurry, I would not use them again, but for a quick, fairly painless process, it worked for me in that case.
I just bought my new, 5 year old Hanoverian mare through them in October. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the horse or the process of buying through them. They worked hard to make this sale happen for me when my winning bid was below this horse’s real value. She is absolutely my dream horse!
Not sure if this link will work, but a shot of my first ride on her from my instagram.
I’ve purchased 2 horses through them. One at a live auction and one one through an online one 3 years ago. The one from the online auction is a pretty nice dressage prospect. He had 2 great videos, pictures from a dressage breed show as a foal, and had full siblings that I could verify scores and future potential and a good idea of his temperament. He also had a very detailed description. I did not get a bargain price but paid a very fair market value for him. I think his breeder was very smart in his marketing and was very honest, he’s everything I thought he would be. I personally would not have paid what I did if I couldn’t have verified as much as I could and I think that is the biggest challenge w the online auctions. But they post horses before the auction starts so you do have time to contact sellers, arrange visits/test rides and vettings.
I bought a jumper-bred weanling from one of the Flashpoint breeder’s auctions. I got a lovely filly for a very good price. I adore my girl.
Flashpoint and the seller made everything so easy.
I would like to give Flashpoint a big thumbs up on how responsive they are. I sent them an email suggesting that they put the pony/horse height on the first page. Most of us have very specific needs/wants for size. I really can’t do a pony but don’t want anything over 16H.
I received an email within an hour thanking me for my suggestion and that they would look into it. I went into the website today and noticed that they had updated the current auction to show the height of the horses on the front description page. Talk about being responsive to your customers requests. Mind you this was all done over a major holiday weekend. I was very impressed.
Thanks for the feed back!
Sounds like mostly good things.
Any more comments?
I was in 4-H and in high school with the company’s owner. He has been in business for many years and is a good guy in my book.
I have bought and sold with them for coming 17 years.
Personally I preferred the live auctions- but from a business stand point it makes much more sense for them to be online.
I have bought online, but not sold as horses haven’t been bringing anywhere near their reserves.
They absolutely stand behind both buyers and sellers if any problems arise.
