Am i being messed around?

[[131452]]

There is a dealer with a good reputation not that far from me. Every time I call she has nothing to sell and is waiting for next delivery etc. Everything on her website is sold apparently. The horse she said was sold a week or so ago is currently the only horse on her website.

I last spoke to her a few days ago and same story- no I haven't got anything, everything is sold.

So today she posts on her fb page a horse that i think would suit me and within minutes I'm on the phone to her. After an hour she replies to my message and says there's already a viewing for tomorrow morning, a time I had asked to come view. I asked how long she had had the horse and she said about a month.
Yet a few days ago she had nothing to sell ?

So I'm now wondering if she was lying a few days ago and just doesn't want to sell to me, or is she lying about how long she has had this horse? She could have said a few days ago that she has this horse that will be ready in a few days.

Either way I feel like I may be messed around with and perhaps she just doesn't want to sell to me for some reason or another.

What does this sound like to others ?

 

[Winters100]

I agree, sounds as if she does not want to sell to you. Could you just ask her directly if there us a reason?

 

[TheMule]

It sounds like something you've said has put her off wanting to sell to you.

 

[[131452]]

I agree, sounds as if she does not want to sell to you. Could you just ask her directly if there us a reason?

I've been tempted to just ask her.
Maybe she knows from my Facebook posts that you can't get a sick or lame horse past me ?
But on the other hand when people ask for recommendations for a dealer I tend to mention her and her good reputation.
I won't be bothering with her now though.
I'm sure I'll find someone else to take my money eventually.

 

[Gingerwitch]

Really sorry to say but has someone put some poison down, or are you a little too local? Also what is your reputation like, I do know of someone who nobody within a 50 mile radius would sell too. She broke every horse she had and was not a nice person.
Are you a tyre kicker ? Or have the rep that you are ? Are you on a bad yard or do they not like your instructor ? I am not saying you are anything like any of the above but
There would appear to be something ?

 

[[131452]]

Really sorry to say but has someone put some poison down, or are you a little too local? Also what is your reputation like, I do know of someone who nobody within a 50 mile radius would sell too. She broke every horse she had and was not a nice person.
Are you a tyre kicker ? Or have the rep that you are ? Are you on a bad yard or do they not like your instructor ? I am not saying you are anything like any of the above but
There would appear to be something ?

Well i was sold a sick horse by another dealer and the horse was PTS 8 months later. The next horse broke my back.
I'm certainly no joy rider, she's probably 1.5 hours away from me.
I've spent nearly 20 grand on vet bills over the past few years so it's not like you can say that i neglect my horses, which until now have been on full livery.
She may be friends with some people I don't really care for so could be something like that but if that's the problem I'd rather give my money to someone more professional.


I have been unashamed of my view that dealers have been cashing in on the current horse buying frenzy and selling to someone over the phone isn't really putting the horse's welfare first. Perhaps she thinks this applies to her.

But in any case I won't bother with her now.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

OP, you are not in the SE are you?

 

[meleeka]

I think she’s probably done a bit of digging on fb and decided you could cause her trouble.

 

[[131452]]

I'm now feeling a bit paranoid about it , hoping to view a private sale at the weekend but seller hasn't agreed to a time, and now I'm wondering if they've already sold the horse or don't want yo sell to me etc. ☹

 

[[131452]]

OP, you are not in the SE are you?

No I'm not.

 

[[131452]]

I think she’s probably done a bit of digging on fb and decided you could cause her trouble.

Trouble in what way? That she couldn't get away with selling me a dodgy horse?
Any horse i buy will be vetted by my vet, unlike the cowboy who vetted the one that had to be PTS.

 

[doodle]

For whatever reason she doesn’t want to sell. Just forget her and move on, don’t give it any more energy.

 

[Gingerwitch]

I'm now feeling a bit paranoid about it , hoping to view a private sale at the weekend but seller hasn't agreed to a time, and now I'm wondering if they've already sold the horse or don't want yo sell to me etc. ☹

Don't take it to heart, you cannot be liked by everyone, but the old adage if do business with people you like. Do sorry to hear of your accident by the way

 

[meleeka]

Trouble in what way? That she couldn't get away with selling me a dodgy horse?
Any horse i buy will be vetted by my vet, unlike the cowboy who vetted the one that had to be PTS.

Probably yes, or that you’d find something to complain about. Either way, you’d be better spending your money with someone who didn’t have anything to worry about.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I'm now feeling a bit paranoid about it , hoping to view a private sale at the weekend but seller hasn't agreed to a time, and now I'm wondering if they've already sold the horse or don't want yo sell to me etc. ☹

Well, to mitigate, ensure any social media accounts are securely locked down.

Been helping a friend find a good loan home for one of hers, prior to purchasing a bigger one for daughter. It was quite frankly horrifying looking at (stalking) some potential loanees.
She was inundated despite said equine having a couple of quirks so was prepared to sift through a good number. Much of what had been said by some, was in complete contrast to recent social media posts.
I'm not saying you OP might have anything 'odd' out there as I don't know you, but ensure any selling stalkers see what you want them to see.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

The reason why doesn't really matter though does it? You feel she has, or is, being dishonest with you so on that basis alone I would be looking elsewhere. One little lie always leads to other massively more important ones when dealing in horses IMO.

 

[[131452]]

I am active on fb and certainly was when recovering from my accident as had nothing better to do , but all you would find out about me with relation to horses is that I have very high standards of care, whatever my horses have ever needed , they have got, and that I'd rather have the vet out and it be nothing than not call the vet and have the horse suffer. So if anyone felt that my care was in any way lacking I'd be offended by that.

The private seller did say she is very busy so hopefully it's nothing personal but this whole thing with this dealer has left me feeling a bit strange about things

 

[[131452]]

The reason why doesn't really matter though does it? You feel she has, or is, being dishonest with you so on that basis alone I would be looking elsewhere. One little lie always leads to other massively more important ones when dealing in horses IMO.

That is a good point. What else does she lie about then ? ?

I'm at the moment not so keen on dealers anyway and have found private sellers a lot more pleasant and easier to deal with.

 

[Equi]

Maybe she didn’t have the horse to sell until that point. I know plenty of dealers who bring a horse in but will only sell when they think it’s ready. So technically it’s not for sale until it’s for sale.

 

[canteron]

if a dealer has a reasonable reputation, then at the moment they are selling horses so quickly they really can't keep up with the amount of messages/willing buyers they get when they put a horse up. I really wouldn't take it too personally, but you could always ask her if she has any problem selling to you (put it in a non confrontation way such as, do you vet your buyers and what do you need so that you would be confident to sell to me?) For example they may prefer private homes, not livery, who knows?

Although she has a good reputation, I think you need to be looking a bit wider and not rely on her. At the end she can only be as good as the horses she can find, and dealers are having to work hard to find horses. I am going to suggest a little bit of patience as this is a such a sellers market, you are going to have to work so much harder to find the perfect horse, maybe if you can hang on till Autumn/Winter you will have more luck.

I can understand you need to be careful after your experience. Do you have a trainer? Sometimes they can put up 'wanted' ads on their fb profiles and will help sort through any replies to find a suitable horse , but you would have to pay them for this service.

Good luck

 

[JoannaC]

She might just be inundated with people wanting horses. There is a dealer near me with a good reputation whose horses are pretty much always sold unseen and she literally gets hundreds of messages and you have to be pretty quick. She sells all over the country. I did try to go and see a horse and had a tentative arrangement to go and view as she is only 20 mins from me. Next thing I saw on the website it was sold and she never got back to me to let me know but I think it's just impossible to keep up with so many people.

 

[MiniMilton]

Unless the dealer is pretending to have the horse 1 month as it sounds better than saying I sell on horses within 24 hrs.
Either way walk away and find another reputable dealer. Very annoying.

 

[[131452]]

Unless the dealer is pretending to have the horse 1 month as it sounds better than saying I sell on horses within 24 hrs.
Either way walk away and find another reputable dealer. Very annoying.

I agree, saying she's had it for a month is probably not true.

 

[fusspot]

Please don’t take it personally.I have a client looking with not a huge budget but ok.One dealer was selling a nice horse and had advertised saying they were overrun so was taking offers on them.This one was within her budget range.When we contacted her to say how much she had to spend...we got a message saying the horse was sold and didn’t have anything for that budget.Because It was the lower end of what she was wanting she wasn’t interested...horse was showing as not sold.
We advertised what she was looking for...one woman messaged us details...when we asked to view she didn’t reply...10 days later she messaged saying the horse was still available as she had been time wasted 3x by one woman not showing.My client asked to view 4 days later as very interested...no reply!
Please do not take it personally and I would definetly try and see privately as hopefully a lot less likely to mess you around.I wouldn’t even give this person the time of day even if they contact you again.Good luck in your search.

 

[Myloubylou]

My experience with dealers is they won’t respond to messages you have to speak to them in person. My expectation was they would contact me if they had anything suitable come in but that wasn’t the case as you’d see types of horses you were after advertised. Ended up buying privately.

 

[Trouper]

I think life is still very up and down for most people at the moment - and now we have added holidays into the mix. The price of horses is also just silly so, for me, I would stop looking until the autumn. When children go back to school and some sort of routine re-asserts itself (along with approaching winter) I think the reality check will kick in and you will have a more realistic pool to fish in.

 

[FlyingCircus]

Are you looking for horses suitable to your frame/weight?

It may be uncomfortable for people to say sorry you're too big. So they may avoid it by dancing around the handbags.

 

[PatchyBabyHorse]

Are you looking for horses suitable to your frame/weight?

It may be uncomfortable for people to say sorry you're too big. So they may avoid it by dancing around the handbags.

Interesting point. I had this with a few people when I was selling a pony recently. I obviously couldn’t just tell them they were too heavy, so I just fobbed them off.

Not saying this is the issue with you OP just saying there could be various reasons. But whatever it is, she doesn’t want to sell you a horse so just move on.

 

[[131452]]

I'm 5ft7 and 10.5 stone so it's unlikely to be my weight lol. I'd say this dealer is chubbier than me ??
But it's a good point. I'm willing to spend up to 7 grand so it's not a question of money either.
I suspect that she knows that I won't put up with any issues , lamenesses , undeclared quirks etc and I suspect these horses mostly come from Ireland and she sells them very quickly so probably can't be confident about saying if they have quirks or not.
I've now caught her in a lie so I won't be wasting my time on her. She's the second well regarded dealer that I've caught out. Either they've always been a bit loose with facts or this current frenzy has made them greedy.
It's their loss.

 

[MuffettMischief]

I wish people would stop assuming that all dealers are just cashing in. Some may well be but most aren’t. I have a couple to buy and sell from Ireland, always lovely horses and let me tell you they are costing me a huge amount more than they were last year so of course prices are higher than what they were a year ago! Good, Straight Irish horses Have ALWAYS been more expensive and even more so now as the really nice ones are few and far between and getting harder and harder to source