A novice's experiences of buying a horse, an ongoing report...

vallin said:
Can't find the details of the horses for sale at Narramore (found the fb page but no obvious information on there), feel free to pm me links though :)
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Can definately reccomend narramore stud, bought mine from them as a foal and he is fab.
Won at county level showing in hand and under saddle, been dressed up for RC Quadrille, absolutely bombproof to hack, jumps well, and now doing BD, being were placed at the winter champs last week, and on the inter-county teams.
His full brother was bought by a professional event rider and was placed at Novice as a six year old.

Super trainable and talented horses!
 
vallin said:
Update!

Horse 6 - 15.3, warmblood, mare. Now this is an interesting one, if possibly a brief update. Before Christmas I was effectively sharing a horse on my yard, riding her 2/3 time a week for the owner, doing a bit of schooling/bringing on. No money exchanging hands, but needless to say I was putting quite a lot of work into the horse. After Christmas I stopped riding the horse, not quite sure how it happened, but owner had a bad experience with the horse at a clinic and then decided she wanted to do it on her own, which in all honesty was fine with me as I was beginning to get a bit irked by putting all the effort in and not be able to take the horse out (classic sharer dilemma! ;) ). More recently I have been riding the horse a bit, just every now and then when the owner is away. Now, I get on very well with the mare, however she does have a bit of an attitude and can be rather stubborn/opinionated. Whilst I was away she refused to load for the owner and then dumped her twice. Needless to say, not a happy owner. We had discussed the possibility of me buying her before but my price was too low (she paid £4000 for the horse 18 months ago and I offered her £2000), fast forward to yesterday and she asked me again if I would like to buy the mare for £3500 no tack. Having had Horse 3 fail the vetting and being able to feel myself become a little disillusioned by the whole process I can honestly say I was seriously tempted - I know the horse, I know she moves nicely and can jump, I'm aware of her (many) flaws and am confident that I can deal with them...but...after buying tack she would end up being £1000/£1500 over budget, she is a classic, heavy set warmblood and therefore not naturally built for eventing, and it would be a constant battle to get her fit enough for BE80, never mind the PN level I am hoping to be doing a few years down the line. I suspect, therefore, that I will have to say no and just continue doing little bits with her when the owner is away, which is a shame as she has a lot of potential, I just feel she would be more suited to RC/SJ/Dressage, than eventing :( :(

Any who, onwards and upward! (I hope!)
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I saw quite a few thick set warmbloods (& cobby types too) compete at BE90 recently. I Definitly wouldn't be out off that she is a chunkier type. There a lot to be said for horses with a bit of substance :)
 
Thanks for all the replies! I don't want to post a pic of her as she's not advertised any where and it's not my place to put pics on the internet, but she's similar stamp to this chap, http://www.rollingridgestables.com/Caliente.html and slightly over at the knee, long and low in the neck and a bit downhill.

It's not so much that I don't think she could do it, she certainly good enough jumping wise and paces wise, I just worry that there will be so much fittening (sp!) work involved to get her round inside the time, that it will take its toll on her joints and after all the problems with Frenchie I'm somewhat paranoid about a repeat!

Hmmm, maybe I'll have another think.

@TPO - If she would take 2K for her then I'd buy her and just have some fun doing RC things for a year or so and get some more competition experience, but I just feel that 3.5K is a lot of money for something that I'm potentially going to be limiting my options with if that makes sense?

@Zizz - they only had either young stock or a 16.3hh which is too big for me :(
 
If 2k is an option then if just tell the mare owner that and if she wants to sell her to you for that then you're sorted and if not you've not lost anything.

Good luck whatever you decide :)
 
I know better the devil you know but you don't sound that excited by this mare. If you liked her that much she would have been your first choice?
We are house hunting at the moment, another tedious experience. OH and I getting a bit fed up considered putting an offer in on our rented house. We live here, it works, it's OK there are aspects we like. However it's not really what we want...
So what I am trying to say I think is it might be best to keep looking instead of settling for 2nd best just because it's easy?!
 
Firewell said:
I know better the devil you know but you don't sound that excited by this mare. If you liked her that much she would have been your first choice?
We are house hunting at the moment, another tedious experience. OH and I getting a bit fed up considered putting an offer in on our rented house. We live here, it works, it's OK there are aspects we like. However it's not really what we want...
So what I am trying to say I think is it might be best to keep looking instead of settling for 2nd best just because it's easy?!
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That's exactly what I'm thinking, plus the owner is only selling if I buy her (don't ask!) so she's not going any where if I change my mind :) Hopefully have two lined up to go and see on monday (the seller is on holiday till Sunday so can't confirm), a bit out of budget but might be worth it ...

1. http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/clas...g/smart-eventer-hunter-teamchaser-424291.html
2. http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/clas...stunning-16h-bay-mare-5yrs-by-the-423188.html
 
Hope you find the right one soon OP - can't believe that somebody actually has a farm called Super Duper Farm!!! (second horse)
 
Thanks TarrSteps. My only concern is that she's a lot cheaper than they're usual prices but I assume that's because shes a sales livery rather than one they've imported. The first horse is also at livery on their yard which makes viewing easier :)
 
vallin said:
Thanks TarrSteps. My only concern is that she's a lot cheaper than they're usual prices but I assume that's because shes a sales livery rather than one they've imported. The first horse is also at livery on their yard which makes viewing easier :)
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Just ask the questions, I'm sure they'll be straight with you. (Although people often complain that dealers and agents aren't "honest" I find more often the buyers haven't asked the pertinent questions!) It could be as simple as the bills are monting and the owners want to move on, it could be a consideration in the horse you may or may not be okay with. Never hurts to have the conversation.
 
I bought my mare from there last year. The farm was named at the request of the owner's daughter who has Downs Syndrome which is why it is a bit unconventional but it is a lovely place :) Anyway, my mare is a lovely horse and any issues I have had with her were the result of me asking her at age 8 to stop being a showjumper and try her hand at flat work so she could event :). I found Mark to be very straightforward to work with and even the vet commented on how good he was at the vetting - eg he trotted them up freely etc. He is a pro at the end of the day and it is worth bearing in mind that they will always ride "differently" to an amateur but as long as you go in with eyes wide open then I certainly wouldn't discount anything from him...:)
 
Ok, sounds like it's definitely worth a visit to the yard, will ring mark when he's back from Marbella on Sunday (had a brief chat with him yesterday but didn't want to interrupt his holiday!)
 
and I am only 20/30 mins away so if you are desperate - happy to come and just be another set of eyes. Definitely not an expert but can be moral support although I work full time in London so would have to work around that...:)
 
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Update! Haven't managed to get hold of mark to see the two above but did find another horse to go see which was...interesting....

Horse 7: 16hh, holsteiner, 6yo, brought from a dealer 4 months ago but owner needed a confidence giver, not a young warmblood. Know the girls instructor so spoke to her about the horse and her words were it will be a big project, if you're buying it offer her a rock bottom price, but if you can manage it, it moves nicely. General impression I got from speaking to the seller and someone I know on the seller's yard was that the horse was nappy, would spin, bunny hop, but nothing dangerous both hacking and in the school (as far as one can say). Interestingly, it apparently tended nap on the way home rather than going away from the yard.

So anyway, A was off work so she came with. First impression were good, well put together, affectionate in the box, trotted up nice and calmly. Seller was very quite and seemed quite saddened by having to sell him, but also quite scared of the horse, she didn't want to ride him so A offered, she's a much better and moe confident rider than I am, and more likely to be able to cope if anything dramatic happened. She got on and in less than 30 seconds the horse had planted and bunny hopped. She pushed him on and he had a few more stops, did a bit of work, stopped again, bunny hops got a bit more dramatic as well as him adding an interesting plunge manoeuvre onto the end. Any time she asked him to work into the left rein he basically held two fingers up and said no thank you. By this point I'd already realised he wasn't go to be the horse for me and A confirmed this by saying that I wasn't to get on him. She said she was going to work him a bit more (she doesn't like to leave on a horse on a bad note) but the owner said she would rather she got off as she didn't want A getting hurt. A had a bit more of a chat with the owner and turned out that he had properly stood up with her on Saturday and that she had been a little liberal with the truth when describing his behaviour *sigh*, although apparently Saturday and today were the worst he's been (presumably because he was pushed on both occasions).

So yes, definitely not the horse for me, and was very glad to have A there! I will owe her a lot of chocolate by the time we finally find me a horse!

Hopefully will get hold of Mark tomorrow and be able to see the horses above this weekend.

Over and out!


Ps. Here's hoping, he looks nice but yard policy says no known cribbers :(
 
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Ok, so let me prefix this update by saying I am a) a bit of a space cadet on occasions and b) was about to throw all of my toys out the pram last week for reasons largely un-horse related which made my cognitive abilities even less than normal. Soooo....

Horse 8: 16.1, bay, mare, by Sambertino...or so I thought. Two weeks ago I posted a link to a Sambertino mare. Last Monday I finally managed to get hold of Mark, who works at the sales yard, to discuss the horse. Well, she sounded perfect, exactly what I was after and for a price I could afford. Booked in to see her, and another gelding, on Saturday morning. After kicking the OH out of bed at a time he rarely sees on a weekday, never mind a weekend, we drove the two hours down to SDF sports horses (stunning yard and lovely people if anyone is looking for livery that way). Met Mark and was shown a very nice looking bay mare, she was a bit more Irish looking than I expected, but even with the passport in my hand I didn't really think about it. Watched her trot up and then got her tacked up and his groom hoped on. It was only when she was jumping that I suddenly though, hmmmm, this horse looks a lot more established then I was expecting and has a much nicer jump than I was expecting. Me 'this is the Sambertino mare, right?', Mark 'Erm, No....' . Ah. This was in fact a significantly more expensive mare that Mark was also selling. Turns out the seller of the Sambertino mare had put Marks number on the advert without him being aware and we had both got our wires well and truly crossed! I will freely admit that Mark was far better about it than I had any right to expect given that I'd just completely wasted 20 minutes of his time. *sigh* lesson learned! make sure you're talking about the same blooming horse!

Luckily I had also arranged to see the gelding so it wasn't a totally wasted trip, and if anyone is looking for a top class RC horse let me know as I can point you in the direction of a very nice one!

Horse 9: 16.1, 6yo, gelding. Had spoken to the owner at length and he sounded like a nice chap, apparently a bit grumpy to school but loves his jumping. My only reservation was that he looked very forward in the pictures and I'm used to riding horses that are a bit backwards so would be a different riding style to my norm, not necessarily a bad thing, but worth being aware of :) Anyway, after wasting Mark's time with the mare I was very cautious of wasting any more, so it was very much a tack it up and I'll hope on type job. Luckily the horse wasn't a nutter and I had a pleasant enough ride, flatwork some-what lacking, but a cracking attitude to jumping. Hoped off after about 20 minutes. Wasn't sure. Then on the drive back I realised that, although I really wasn't sure why, this one wasn't for me :(

After seeing the gelding I treated the, now rather weary ( ;) ), OH to all-you-can-eat and then we did a bit of a reroute to see a bonus horse...however that story is going to have to wait as I don't want to get ahead of myself :D *insert cliffhanger here ;) *

Over and out!



Oh and hacked Frenchie to a local show to baby one if the yard owners TB so here is a *very* rare picture of French being allowed to leave the ground :D (sorry for quality, am currently trying to persuade the pro 'tog to let me buy digital copies for social media but no movement so far :( )

What Frenchie is pretty sure shows are for ;)
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And having a play round the clear round course :D
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The gelding is my horse. Shame he wasn't the one for you, would have been nice to keep him in the HHO family. :)
 
xspiralx said:
The gelding is my horse. Shame he wasn't the one for you, would have been nice to keep him in the HHO family. :)
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Oh is he! I had no idea :) was going to ring you today but school was mad, sorry! Fallon seemed a real sweety, just not for me :( I hope you find him an amazing home, Mark said you had someone taking him to an XC clinic to try him?
 
vallin said:
Oh is he! I had no idea :) was going to ring you today but school was mad, sorry! Fallon seemed a real sweety, just not for me :( I hope you find him an amazing home, Mark said you had someone taking him to an XC clinic to try him?
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That's quite alright!

Yes that was yesterday, SJ instead of xc though as the ground was so wet. He behaved brilliantly, but the girl then decided his flat work wasn't progressed enough for her. Which I wish she had decided before I spent half my Sunday at a SJ clinic in the rain with him, but that's the wonderful world of selling horses!

Hopefully the right person will come along soon - he certainly wouldn't suit everyone but will be lots of fun for someone. Good luck with your search too!
 
xspiralx said:
That's quite alright!

Yes that was yesterday, SJ instead of xc though as the ground was so wet. He behaved brilliantly, but the girl then decided his flat work wasn't progressed enough for her. Which I wish she had decided before I spent half my Sunday at a SJ clinic in the rain with him, but that's the wonderful world of selling horses!

Hopefully the right person will come along soon - he certainly wouldn't suit everyone but will be lots of fun for someone. Good luck with your search too!
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That's annyoing as surely that would have been evident when she tried him at Mark's. Ho-hum! I'm sure someone will be along to have him soon :)
 
xspiralx said:
That's quite alright!

Yes that was yesterday, SJ instead of xc though as the ground was so wet. He behaved brilliantly, but the girl then decided his flat work wasn't progressed enough for her. Which I wish she had decided before I spent half my Sunday at a SJ clinic in the rain with him, but that's the wonderful world of selling horses!

Hopefully the right person will come along soon - he certainly wouldn't suit everyone but will be lots of fun for someone. Good luck with your search too!
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Hi Spiral - would you pm me re your gelding pls?. Have a friend looking and she's a bit disappointed by horses not being sound, or not as described, so a nice genuine hho horse might make a nice change!
 
Update!

Horse 10 - 16hh, 7yo, sports horse, mare. I was actually planning on having a couple of weeks off horse shopping, however glancing through the ads on HHO I saw this mare and decided she was worth changing the plan for. She's a horse that I'd nearly been to see last year, but wasn't quite ready for, however her she was again! Now, horses being resold relatively quickly always ring alarm bells, however after speaking to the seller there seemed to be a genuine reason (and I also have a friend on the sellers yard that confirmed the reasoning) so off I tootled. At this point I feel I should praise my OH a little bit, as despite just having spent the weekend in the Lake District with my family and then driven 5 hours in the car, he agreed to come with me, punk :p Arrived at the yard and met with the seller who had obviously spent the last hour scrubbing the mare clean, bless! She seemed nice and confirmed everything we'd discussed on the phone; age, experience, personality etc. Gave the horse a good grope and had a good look at the overall picture (I have realised recently that whilst I am quite thorough on the microscale, I often forget to stand back and take in the whole picture) and didn't notice anything glaringly obvious (I have also, however, realised conformation is not my strong point ;) ) so asked the seller to tack her up.

Just asked seller to do very basic walk, trot, canter and jump and horse was little tubby and I didn't want her shattered before I got on ;) Everything looked good, if a little lack lustre, so on I hopped. What can I say, I enjoyed riding her from the minute I got on, especially when I popped her over a couple of jumps and she felt really up for it without being strong :D The OH had done his job well and taken lots of videos so I had plenty of footage to review and send over to A.

Bounced some emails back and forward with A and managed to arrange a second viewing for this weekend (around Badminton ;) ) to do a bit more with her and take her for a walk down the road (her one negative is that she is apparently nappy to hack so need to establish what the sellers definition of 'nappy' is ;) )

So fingers crossed please, I rather like this one!
 
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Noooooooooooows!!!!!!!!!

Horse 10 (which is actually 11, I miscounted ;) ) part 2! A came out with me to see her and check that I hadn't missed anything. Usual checks, trot up etc. Commented that she was a bit narrow at the base, both front (more so) and back (less so) but everything else was more or less where it should be. Hopped on her without seller riding first and did some walk, trot and canter. It was a bit messy but all there in some form or another ;) I was then instructed ( ;) ) to do a bit of longer and lower work to see how she responded, as although she is round in the neck, she is very hollow across the back. She seemed physically capable of the work so not something I was particularly concerned about. A then put some jumps up and despite my noobish riding and the fences looking rather larger than I remember she looked after me and just sorted herself out, que big brownie points. I finished off by taking her for a quick walk past her stable, off the yard, and back on to the yard to see if any nappy behaviour appeared, but whilst she thought about slowing down, a quick squeeze with the leg was all that was required to get her moving forwards. Good-o!

Untacked and told the owner I'd be in touch. Fast forward a couple of hours and I have had an offer accepted subject to vetting :D So please can everybody keep everything crossed that she passes the vetting and I don't have to go back to trawling through adverts!


And to brighten up the post, here's a picture of French popping a fence for the first time in many year. I just took her to nanny a young horse but seeing as they were tiddly I thought she could have some fun too :)

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Vx
 
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Yeah sounds great and seems like you've had a good trial. Friend has been looking and it's such a bore at times! Fingers crossed for the vetting
 
Update!

I was really hoping to have exciting news and be able to fill this post with pictures of a new horse. Alas, life is not that kind to me and horse number 11 also failed the vetting. Booooo! So I am once again returning to the chalk board and still on the look out for a nice youngster to bring on for eventing, 15.2-16.3, 5-7yo, not to heavy and not to light, and relatively sane. Budget £3000-4000 pm if you know of any!
 
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