SERIOUSLY! Sometimes I see photos of ancient moldy saddles for sale from the 90s in FB groups–no padding, entirely flat, worn to bits–that make me want to say, “please throw that away and make sure it doesn’t go on the poor back of some lesson horse that some half-baked instructor doesn’t think is worth a halfway decent saddle, much less bruise the butt of some beginner rider put on said horse. $200 or whatever you’re asking for that thing isn’t worth it.”
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I threw away a saddle because I found the tree points were cracked. Saddle fitter said they could be fixed but I had no intention of keeping it. And I didn’t want it to end up on the back of a horse with someone too cheap to fix it.
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There was this ancient, beat to crap, Pessoa saddle on FB someone wanted $900 for. The cantle was torn through so the wood tree showed, one of the billets was almost ripped all the way across and the other billets were almost as bad; all dried out and cracked. She originally had it listed for $1,000. LOL
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my favorite are the ones who post “contractors/1099” and then the hours they must work. Um. . .that’s not really how labor laws work. All to avoid getting a worker’s compensation policy.
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Besides the horse I bought, I also sold one on Dreamhorse— honestly, within 48 hours! Everyone who contacted me was within 100 miles, which meant to me that buyers in my region still look to that website for horses.
As a seller on Dreamhorse, you can add videos, but first you have to upload them to youtube and mark them public… or something like that. Again, maybe I’m just old but I found the process confusing. It also cost a little more to have the video link included in the ad.
For the horse I bought, the ad mentioned there were videos, but I had to first contact the seller. I did, and he sent me several nicely done videos directly.
Agree! I am always amazed that people can’t clean their tack/blankets/even horses for an ad. “Needs cleaned” is something I read for ads around here (MD), and it is so LAZY (also: grammatically hideous, but that’s Maryland!). I am not buying a smelly blanket with some random horse’s poop on it and having it shipped to my house!
The horse ads are definitely all over the place. Some people, regardless of the price and quality of their horses, know how to do ads right, with the horse clean, trimmed, mane pulled, whatever, stood up correctly. They include either videos in the ad or a nice, easy link to a page with videos. You can get a sense of the horse, at least, and if it is worth a closer look.
And then there are the ones with a dirty, shaggy horse resting a hind leg, being hugged/stood on/ridden backwards by a kid, jumping pictures from weird angles, etc. 15k! Finish your way! Could go in any direction! Uh huh. 
Where I look is at breeders, mainly, for jumper prospects. Any breeder that hasn’t figured out how to put together a decent sales page either isn’t worth my time or I am not worth theirs, because I can’t afford their horses! The latter are the top-end, who don’t really have to advertise and can mostly sell through their network off their reputation. But even these guys have good informational websites that show off their stallions and mares. The other day I saw an ad from a breeder for a two year old horse with good lines but he had a serious roach. “Correct conformation, 20k.” Uh, no.
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There’s a horse at my barn who has a serious roach, almost cringe worthy, but my word what a nice animal! Jumps a house too and comes right back, doesn’t get hot or rushy, just a really really nice guy. There’s no way on earth anyone would say he has correct conformation.
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Exactly! This young horse may end up being everything his breeding suggests, but dang. He has a huge hump on his back! Fitting a saddle is going to be a nightmare, at the very least.
I asked her if she had a hard time finding a saddle to fit and she said it wasn’t that bad, mostly finding one to clear his shark fin withers.
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The term “unicorn” makes my teeth hurt. I cannot wait for the trend to be over.
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Hear hear
If we’re going to complain about terms that make our teeth hurt, can I put on my curmudgeon hat and vote for “coursing”? As in “Dobbin is coursing 2’ with scope for more.” I don’t think I ever heard that phrasing until the past couple of years on social media and it makes me grit my teeth when I see it.
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RIGHT! Yay for freakin Dobbin he can step over a few cavelletti without lawn darting his rider. So impressive. Good thing you made up a word you think sounds posh. 
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BARF 
. I’ve not seen that word until just now and I dearly hope I don’t start seeing it now that you’ve mentioned it.
The one that gets me is “upper level prospect” for horses who are not absolutely clearly UPPER LEVEL prospects. If it’s going to make up to a decent but not show stopping 3’ horse, that’s not an upper level prospect. That’s just a nice horse who’s got a moderate amount of athleticism.
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The use of this word in this context confuses me. Why are you lure coursing with your horse? That sport is typically practiced by dogs.
Also, in this particular context, assuming that Dobbin is over 10hh, I certainly hope Dobbin has scope for more.
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100%. Anyone who has commonsense and understanding of the sport in the US knows that the vast majority of people are not/should not be looking for UL prospects because they don’t do upper level stuff. Why would you want a horse that has the scope and heart and power, etc. to jump 1.40m if you are going to maybe do .95m?
And, why would you represent your horse as an UL prospect if it’s a nice 2’6" horse? Most people want the latter! I mean, I know the answer is that it sounds impressive and maybe could justify a higher price, but it’s pretty easy to tell if a horse has the goods to potentially make it to the UL or not!
I suppose the idea of what is upper level or not isn’t exactly set in stone. I mean, I do 1.20-ish and so 1.40m still seems pretty tall to me, but a lot of people would say 1.45m and up is UL for jumpers. There is a reseller I know who always has promising green horses but I swear every other one is listed as an UL prospect. I’ve decided that for this person the phrase means Training level (they mostly aim at the eventer market). Training level isn’t upper level to me, but I think that is what it means to them.
ETA: a good friend who events was recently horse shopping for something that she could take up at least through Novice, maybe Training. She has ridden my jumper quite a bit on the flat to practice her dressage skills, but she’s only ever jumped him over very small things, at the trot, because she knows she would get popped off over anything bigger. He’s got a huge jump and a super-charged hind end and he’s not a good choice for a lower-level rider. So, when we were talking about what she wanted in her next horse she was like: “Nice jump, but not a Steve jump. I don’t need that!” That’s someone who knows what is suitable for them and the horse she found is going to be perfect and fun and safe for her.
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Amen. I’m sort-of-shopping right now and it seems like everything “has the scope for 3’6”-4’," even ones who very clearly do not.
Related to this, I am also repeatedly amazed at how many horses have videos that do not, in any way, match the written description. It’s like two completely different horses. The sale ad will extoll the horse’s virtues as a wonderful, calm, easy, loveable, highly trained unicorn and the video shows a fire-breathing beast dashing around a course of fences, barely steerable and impossible to rate. The cognitive dissonance is killing me. LOL.
I hate horse shopping. 
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I see this all the time in the dressage world.
Your TB/QH/grade doing a big trot in the paddock does not translate to under saddle. Everyone can see your picture was taken on an angle to showcase this “uphill build.”
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I guess chasing a horse over a single 3’6 rail or through a grid that ends in 3’6" means that they are solid 3’6"-4’ horses?? That’s how I interpret 95% of the ads I see where that is stated. People who have those horses and breed for that don’t generally feel the need to spell it out.
I started asking sellers “what makes this horse an UL prospect to you?” The ones with no clue would get defensive and start listing their qualifications at me. The ones who knew what they were doing described the attitude, bravery, scope, talent, intelligence, ability to handle pressure etc that a horse would need to go to the ULs. The seller of one I bought this year didn’t say she was an UL prospect. She described everything without using that phrase, and the horse really is capable of the ULs. (maybe not w me!)
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