Tell me about the craziest prospective buyer you've ever dealt with

[CrowneDragon]

I have to tell one other story because it was funny, even though I was neither party in the deal.

A friend of mine was looking for a new horse, and found one to go see. She took another friend of hers with her to see the horse, who was at a nice H/J barn. She sees the horse and decides it isn’t what she’s looking for, but her friend sees a really lovely horse at the barn and inquires about him. He was supposed to be a super jumper that the barn had just acquired from a sporthorse auction, and was for sale. When she asked what they were asking the seller said something along the lines of “1-5” or something abbreviated like that. The trainer says if she is interested she is welcome to take him out, and turns them loose with the horse to go tack up, ride, jump, whatever, while she goes off to do something else (she doesn’t know these people :eek:). Friend tries the horse and loves him, says he’s a steal for $15,000 and she wants to buy him. They set up a PPE. My friend went to the barn to watch the PPE and got their first, and starts talking to the trainer/broker about the horse and comes to find out the horse is $150,000. :eek:. My friend calls the buyer, who she can see is driving up the long dirt road on her way to the barn, and tells here of the small $135,000 price difference, and she says she could see her screeching to a stop out on the road in a huge dust cloud and yelled “ARE YOU SH*TTING ME?!” so loud the broker could hear through the phone.

:lol:

[rememberthenight]

[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7664772]
I have to tell one other story because it was funny, even though I was neither party in the deal.

A friend of mine was looking for a new horse, and found one to go see. She took another friend of hers with her to see the horse, who was at a nice H/J barn. She sees the horse and decides it isn’t what she’s looking for, but her friend sees a really lovely horse at the barn and inquires about him. He was supposed to be a super jumper that the barn had just acquired from a sporthorse auction, and was for sale. When she asked what they were asking the seller said something along the lines of “1-5” or something abbreviated like that. The trainer says if she is interested she is welcome to take him out, and turns them loose with the horse to go tack up, ride, jump, whatever, while she goes off to do something else (she doesn’t know these people :eek:). Friend tries the horse and loves him, says he’s a steal for $15,000 and she wants to buy him. They set up a PPE. My friend went to the barn to watch the PPE and got their first, and starts talking to the trainer/broker about the horse and comes to find out the horse is $150,000. :eek:. My friend calls the buyer, who she can see is driving up the long dirt road on her way to the barn, and tells here of the small $135,000 price difference, and she says she could see her screeching to a stop out on the road in a huge dust cloud and yelled “ARE YOU SH*TTING ME?!” so loud the broker could hear through the phone.

:lol:[/QUOTE]

OMG! You would think that would have been clarified sooner… Though I guess I can see how it could happen.

[chestnutmarebeware]

I was boarding my girls at a PA barn while I was preparing for my move to Tennessee when I received a strange call from the BM. He asked me if Bo (my brown OTTB mare) was for sale because another of his clients thought she was soooo beautiful and they had to have her.

I was a bit taken aback because I generally don’t own horses that inspire random purchase offers from complete strangers, but I WAS moving and it would certainly be cheaper to go with two instead of three. I was torn, and when the BM asked what her price would be, I doubled the most generous price I could imagine for a super-green TB mare just a few months off the track. I figured that would end the discussion.

Nope, he called back the next day and said they wanted to try her out (it was actually the teenage daughter who would be riding). I agreed, because Bo is green, but very honest, and I had been letting a 12-y-o ride her in lessons at the previous barn.

We all meet, and I tack Bo up and they watch. They rave about how pretty she is. So far so good. I take her into the arena and get on to do a demo ride. Less than five minutes into the ride, Bo makes a substantial effort to put me on the ground (and succeeded!). Of course she had never done anything like that before, and I could see mom and daughter drifting surreptitiously toward their car as I lead my disgraced horse toward the gate, Bo acting as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

I put on my best $hit-eating grin and call “Well, thanks for coming!” and Bo smirked all the way back to her stall. I swear she realized she was in danger of going somewhere she might actually have to put in an honest day’s work…

Needless to say, she made the move to TN.

[2DogsFarm]

chestnutmare:
You reminded me of my own Personal Worst (well, nearly…)

Friend has an AndyX mare for sale.
IIRC mare was 4ish at the time & had already been trailridden (in my company) by the very novice DD of another friend.
Never put a hoof wrong.

So another novice friend of mine is looking for a horse & we go to see this mare.
Friend selling cannot ride - she is recently post-knee surgery - so I volunteer to get on & do the demo.
We are in her round pen & things are going swimmingly when I ask mare to canter. She had been dead quiet so far, so nice I was riding with barely any contact, very loose rein.
She balks, so I squeeze & she bucks.
Caught me so by surprise that I popped right off.
Mare stands sneering at me.

I got back on & did get the canter, but buyer friend & BF are now all round-eyed and backing off as if I’d just demo’ed a firebreathing bronc.
oops, sorry to have queered that sale :uhoh:.

[GypsyQ]

I had an Appendix QH filly who had been started, then sustained a stifle injury, so would not be show-ring sound. I had her advertised as a broodmare prospect or trail horse for an experienced rider. I stressed she was green.

I got an email from a couple looking for a calm horse to learn on. They had heard QHs were a calm breed and their 20 yr old Arab stallion was just too much horse for them right now.

The back and forth was something like, “This mare is still pretty green, I don’t think she’s going to be the right horse for you.”
“But QHs are so calm.”
“She is calm. But she’s not broke enough for you to learn on. I don’t think this is the right horse for you.”
“But we really want a QH.”

I stopped answering after three or four rounds.

[TheJenners]

I have my own stories I could add, but…

Let’s just say if I ever sell a horse, I’m hiding Odie in a back field first. :eek:

[cowgirljenn]

My MIL had bought her first horse (and only horse), and it turned out we’re fairly sure the horse had been drugged before purchase. She had issues, so my MIL wanted to sell her. I was honest with anyone who looked at or inquired about her (I was taking care of and riding her for MIL). So after I went through everything with one buyer, she still wanted to come look at her. She said all the right things and I thought this could maybe be a good fit.

So she gets there, I show her the horse in her paddock, and then she wanders off and looks at other horses in the boarding barn. I ask her if she would like to see the mare caught, worked on the ground, or ridden. She says, ‘Oh no! I never ride a horse on a day she doesn’t want to be ridden. And she just doesn’t want to be ridden today.’

She then proceeds to tell me how all western riders are cruel (because we all ride with horrible spurs) and how the horses at the h/j barn she boards at are all abused. They’re so sad that she must take a book of stories about wild horses to the barn and read stories to the horses. And the horses love the stories of wild horses roaming free and not being abused. And each horse has his/her favorite story.

[Coanteen]

[QUOTE=cowgirljenn;7665774]
And the horses love the stories of wild horses roaming free and not being abused. And each horse has his/her favorite story.[/QUOTE]

Fine, but which horse used to be her husband?

[rememberthenight]

Yes. I wonder that woman was related to my special-snowflake, or maybe she moved out of heartbreak!

[RxCate]

I was selling a very nice pony for a woman I was training horses for at the time.

This was in January.

I got a call from a woman who’s granddaughter is moving up and needs a fancy pony to show and move up with. I explained attributes of sale pony and a date is set for the woman to bring granddaughter out.

Date comes and oh shit, it’s a blizzard that morning. I call twice and leave voice mails in the morning that, as I can’t see past my front step, we will not be showing pony today.

Fast forward 4 hours later I get a frantic call from the pony owner that there is a strange car coming up her drive getting stuck in the snow. I immediately get a sinking feeling and go “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!” I explain to owner that I let prospective buyer no that we were ‘closed’ that day, etc.

I don’t know how this buyer got to the farm as it was literally a white-out that day. There was no way I was driving to the farm and since owner lives on premises I let her handle it.

She did end up showing the pony who was not at all prepped to be shown. Woman said some snide choice words about the pony, of course didn’t ride and was upset about this. IN A WHITE-OUT.

And somehow scooted out the driveway in her sedan.

I actually think I put a post on here about it a while ago, I’ll see if I can find the link. It was a riot. - here’s the original http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?243476-SERIOUSLY-Seller-s-Vent

[Catticus_Maximus]

I haven’t sold a horse, but I’ve had a few part boarders over the years. You can meet a lot of “interesting” people that way, too…

I had one lady come to try my TB mare who sounded like she might be a good match. I rode the mare first, then the lady got on and tried her out.

It went alright for a first ride, then the woman said, “Hey are there any other boarders here who don’t get out much, and need someone to pop on their horse once in a while? Maybe we could go hacking together!”

I got a little suspicious, and said no I didn’t know of anyone.

A day or so later, the lady left me a voicemail: “Thanks for the ride on your lovely mare but I’m really looking for a draft cross.”

You’re welcome for the free ride, lady.

[Appsolute]

It was like someone had lit a fire in her pup tent

Hahahhahah thank you… I was having a rough Monday, but now I have tears of laughter in my eyes.

[sorrelfilly721]

[QUOTE=ACP;7664656]
Caller: “Hello? That horse you got for sale? How old’s it? What color’s it? And I don’t want’a geld him, a man wants his personal riding horse to be a breedin’ stud. And he gaits, don’t he?”[/QUOTE]

This reminds me of someone who called on a filly I had advertised as “Yearling Buckskin Filly - unregistered”.

Caller: I’m calling about the horse for sale - how old is it?
Me: She is one.
Caller: So can you ride her on trails?
Me: No, she is one.
Caller: But you can ride her right.
Me: I have to go - thanks for calling.

[cowgirljenn]

[QUOTE=rememberthenight;7665803]
Yes. I wonder that woman was related to my special-snowflake, or maybe she moved out of heartbreak![/QUOTE]

They had to be related, right? That many crazy genes can’t be running around out there, can they?

[Sandy_M]

Well, these folks were crazy only in the sense of, “You’re crazy if you think I’ll let this horse go for that price!”

Honkin’ big near-leopard App eventer, 16.3, 1,450 lbs… Could go like a hunter, easily jumped 5’+ as a jumper. I was eventing him and had owned him for about four years. I began to get more seriously interested in pure dressage and that was NOT his favorite thing, though he could have been shown 2nd/3rd level at that point. So. Put him up for sale. This was early 1980s. He was 12, and I asked $6,500. This was a point and shoot horse.

Some people showed up with a quite tall for his age 12 year old boy. Kid rode the horse better than I. Got better dressage out of him. Cruised around the stable’s mini-cross-country in perfect control. Did a 3’6" stadium course on him. They REALLY got along. Everyone was smiling ear-to-ear. “Well,” say mom and pop, “we really like him and would like to arrange for a PPE, but…” “But what?” I ask. “Well, are you flexible on the price?” (Hmmmm…well, maybe $6K). “Make me an offer,” say I. “$3,000.” Say WHAT??? Now, they were looking for an EVENT horse, not a hunter, but when I said “No way. I’ll keep him before I’ll sell him for that little.,” the response was, “But he’s an Appaloosa.” 'Nuff said - I wouldn’t have sold him to them after that even if they wanted to pay the asking price. I kept him for another 9 years and gave him to a friend as a trail horse when he was 21, and she had him until he died at nearly 28.

[pj1]

[QUOTE=Bluey;7664095]
They came one afternoon and we were all in the filly’s pen, talking and they were looking her over.
She was very friendly and reached over to smell one’s arm and he hauled off and hit her in the head, hard!

The filly backed off a bit, not really impressed, but also not worried, just wondering what that was all about, is who she was.

We asked him why he hit her and he said “she bit me!”, which all of us knew she had not even touched him.
We politely asked them to go.
He called again a few days later and apologized and still wanted to buy her, but we said she was not for sale, we were going to run her ourselves after all.
He whined that we didn’t want to sell her to him because he hit her and we kept repeating we just decided to keep her.
There is no way we were going to sell him that filly.

We put her with a friend trainer, that started her and sold her to one of his clients.[/QUOTE]
When he asked was it because he hit her I’d have had to say that yes that had a lot to do with it.

[Caol_Ila]

I bought and broke in a young draft cross with a nice conformation and stellar temperament with the view of selling him as useful member of equine society, but I wasn’t able to sell him before I moved from the US to the UK with my other horse, so I put him with a pro trainer to continue his education and find a buyer.

One of the trainer’s students was very interested in the horse and wanted to buy him. Cool, everyone said. Before the PPE and before she dropped a dime on the horse, she went out and bought a load of grooming supplies. Around this time, there was also a strangles outbreak at the barn. Student took it upon herself to show up at the barn and nurse the horse, which both my mother and the trainer weren’t pleased with, as he was still our horse and no one had told her she could do this. We also didn’t want the horse PPE’d while everything at the yard, including him, had strangles because needless to say he would fail and it wasn’t fair on him. But she did it anyway, and low and behold, horse fails. Lady went bananas. She wanted to redo it the PPE for sometime after the strangles thing passed (whenever that might be), which was what she had been advised to do in the first place. Meanwhile, I am in Durham, England, and getting all this filtered through email and Skype conversations with my Mom and the trainer. My mother and trainer decided she was too crazy and that we wouldn’t sell the horse to her. The lady then wanted my mom to pay her back for the PPE and for the grooming stuff she bought. Uh, no.

The story continues. The horse ends up staying with the pro for like a year, so we decide that he’s now been in professional training for a while, he’s done some shows, he knows a lot more than he did, so lets put his price up. Plus, more expensive horses can sometimes attract more buyers. I guess people say, ‘It must be cheap for a reason; something is wrong with it!’ Strange but true. Anyway, we get a potential buyer and it all looks good. But somehow, crazy lady from before finds all this out – I think by some unlucky coincidence, she knew the newest potential buyer – and gets in contact with this person to say, “They’re selling that horse to you for $7000? I almost bought him for $5000!” (or whatever the numbers were). New buyer goes nuts, says they’re being ripped off. We explain that it’s a young horse in training so value goes up as it gets trained and horse is a lot more trained now than he was then, has a show record, blah, blah, blah. Lose that sale. Eventually we sold the horse to someone in another state.

[GypsyQ]

This one was not too crazy, just a case of “Black Stallion Syndrome”. When I got pregnant, I considered selling my older gelding to cut down on numbers. A man came to see him and horse was wonderful. Man was an advanced beginner, pushing 60. Horse was upper teens, been there done that. Safe, nice size fit, etc. Man calls me a few days later telling me he liked the horse, but didn’t get that “Spark” and really wanted a horse with just a bit more “spirit”.

The last thing I heard was that he bought a half-crazy young horse and the lady who sold it was giving him a deal on lessons and training. I still have the gelding. He is a perfect husband horse.

[dacasodivine]

I had a young pony/horse that I didn’t think would mature large enough for me to ride so decided to sell him.

Knowing the people that call on them, I was very clear in the add that he had never been ridden and would need training.

I am contacted by a woman looking for a pony for her child. She said her daughter had been taking lessons and the pony would be put in training until daughter could ride him then would continue lessons on the pony. Sounds good, right?

Trainer shows up and tells me she had never met these people. They called her off her add on Craigslist to come evaluate the pony. She was told pony was started and just needed to be finished. They were thinking a couple weeks of training and he would be ready for the child. LOL Trainer, with my blessing, told them he would not be suitable.

I kept the pony. He matured to 14.2 and handles my weight just fine and has turned out to be a fantastic trail horse.

[jetsmom]

[QUOTE=rememberthenight;7663981]
I had a lady come out to see a gelding I had for sale. As we are walking out to the paddock that he was staying in, she noticed the donkey that is his companion. I walked in and put the halter on my horse and turn around and the woman was cuddling with the donkey. Ok… He is adorable and sweet… And has never said no to any attention especially if there is a brief chance at a treat.

She starts to rub and massage the donkey. I mention that I have caught the horse and we can go tack him up and ride him…she says “oh, no. The donkey NEEDS a massage.” I said, “nope, pretty sure he is good. His only job is to eat, and keep the horses entertained… And he has never actually strained a muscle in his life…” AND CAN WE MOVE ON NOW!!!..

But no, she started massaging harder… Getting really into in… And honestly was making me significantly uncomfortable with how INTO it she was getting. It felt like a soft core flick in fact…

I tried to politely ask again if she was ready to look at my horse. She said “no, I don’t want to buy him, but I will buy the donkey. He was my husband in a past life.” She said it so quietly and matter of fact I didn’t even know how to respond back.

I explained that my donkey was not for sale, and I was ready for her to leave if she wasn’t interested in the horse. I nearly had to drag her out of the paddock, and she nearly fought with me over the fact that “everything is for sale!”.

I told her it was time for her to leave. She slammed her truck door and sped out of my driveway.

A few days later, my father-in-law called me and said their was a person in the paddock massaging the donkey and he wanted to know if they were allowed to be there. I was at work, and so I called the police. The police officer met her there just as I was pulling into home. He warned her she was trespassing and was not welcome to come back onto the property without permission. She tried to pull the past-life stick on him, to which he said that didn’t matter and that if it happened again I would be getting a restraining order.

Luckily I never saw her back. My donkey went to live with a friend for awhile and my horses didn’t stay in the front paddocks for a while. I put up security cameras, and new locks. I never did sell that horse- which is fine.[/QUOTE]

Maybe someone told her that her dearly departed husband was an ASS and that’s where the confusion was…