Anyone bought a horse from Ireland?

wellsat

wellsat

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Although Lily hasn't sold yet I'm thinking about what I want from my next horse and where I'll look.

While I know that you can get good and bad examples of every type of horse, everyone I know with a horse that was bred in Ireland has a really nice natured, laid back horse.

I don't have a huge budget but then I know that the market isn't good at the moment so I'm hoping I should be able to get a nice horse capable of doing a BE90 without having to spend silly money. I don't mind a horse that isn't broken fully as long as its been backed and is well handled.

Is buying from Ireland a silly idea or worth it for the cost of a cheap plane ticket?

Good and bad stories appreciated.
 
PM TinyTrigger on here, shes an agent, she found me a fantastic horse earlier this year :)

I had the time of my life over in Ireland, tried loads of fab horses, would recommend it (and her ;)) to anyone.:D
 
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Well at the risk of repeating myself (I don't get paid honestly) I bought all 3 of mine from Ireland (have recently gone back down to 1 due to finances and work).

I bought through a horse finder. She lives just over an hour west of Dublin. You fill out a questionnaire and she then goes round her contacts (private homes and dealers yards) and draws up a short list. She either rides them herself or gets a trusted friend to ride them and test them in all situations (unless you are buying unbacked).

You then book cheapo ryanscare flights and go over for 1-2 days and stay in cheap b+b and she takes you round to the short list. You pick the one you like and she arranges independent 5 star vetting and transport to the UK.

She has found loads of horses for friends and friends of friends, everything from top competition sport horse to beginners ploddy cob. She often saves you money on goresbridge or cavan prices.

I would say though do not believe all the reports that you can get a horse for nothing, decent horses still cost but you get more value for money, the choice is amazing and I spent less flying to Ireland then driving round to see badly described horses. I know she may be off the road for a few weeks soon but its definitely worth sending her a mail on irishriders.net@gmail.com

I love my ish and wouldn't change him for the world
 
Bought 3 horses from ireland last november, really varied to tell the truth. All very well mannered in hand, and all kind of head shy (not good for 17.1). All found to be excellent hunters and hacking along fields, all spooked at white lines on the road to begin with (they have hardly any in ireland). Not the best schooled and all were quite dead to leg, but very keen to please and quick to lean. All love affection but you can't be to soft as they will take advantage.
Prices are extremely cheap as they have such a problem over there, one guy said he padlocked his fields not incase some stole his horses but incase they put 5 more in. Full of ISH which are a popular type at the moment and everyone is so friendly. If they don't have a horse you want they'll know someone who does. Plus driving around is very easy and scenic.
Definitely worth the plane ticket, we're thinking of going back after the winter.
Oh one last thing I thought of, Ireland has a much milder but wetter climate so the horses are a lot more harder weather wise and we found ours didn't need as many layers on or being out in the rain.
Hope that helped
 
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm not expecting to get something for nothing but I do wonder if my money will go further and I really like the temperament of the Irish horses that I know.

I'll certainly look into your suggestions when Lil sells which will hopefully be soon. OH has banned me from shopping before then :(
 
Thanks Steph. Can I ask how you went about buying your horses? Did you use an agent or are there are websites that you would recommend?
 
Just went on our own, there's a website we used which was just like an Irish horse selling sight and sifted through the hundreds, only 1 was described completely wrong, really can't remember the website but my dad found it and he has no idea about computers, will try and find it again. Rang the sellers before we left so we could make a plan of our route, was quite and experience, saw 5-15 horses a day!
 
My horse came over from Ireland a year or two before I bought her. She is nice natured with good conformation and potential but she's rather green for her age (8), not very laid back at all and can be very headshy at times. I do think there are a lot of super Irish horses though and I love Belle, she's just been some hard work (but I think will be totally worth it and I love her to bits).
 
just out of curiosity how much did the finders service charge?? transport and vetting and obviously the horse you bought. have thought about going over next year so any information would be appreciated
 
I bought my horse from Ireland, I went there because I didn't have a big budget (as in less that £2k!), and I brought a just broken 4y/o (which turned out to be 3), who is well bred (but doesn't have breeding papers :( ). My Dad knew a breeder in County Wicklow, and he showed me about 8/9 horses in 2 days (and not only his own). Spanner is definately capable of BE90, and I think she'd be a perfect JRN horse in the future. She's bold as anything, very brave and above all a saint. The easiest horse we have ever had to handle, and have around, 10x more sensible that my old mare.

Incidently I went back to the same breeder with some friends looking for a more experienced hunter, and they were shown dearer horses, but again very nice. Once I have sold Spanner I plan to go back and buy a more suitable event horse for myself (Spanner is too small really), as Jon is a really lovely guy, with some fantastic horses.

Shipping cost me £250, and John sorted absolutely everything out for me. She had the equivilant of a 5 stage vetting, which John payed for (I think).
 
Re; Steph 91 and that website.

You must have got lucky, because there is a lot of shite on there, and its really not a true reflection of the market here. A lot of people still sell through contacts and word of mouth only, and you will often find better quality horses slighty cheaper, not even advertised.

I could well imagine you could line up 15 horses off that site and have your time and trip completely wasted ... the only good thing, is I suppose, the prices are listed - so they can't jack them up when a person from a UK walks onto their yard... which is what usually happens.

There was even someone on there 2months ago, advetising a crap TB horse (who was dark bay with no markings) using MY PHOTOS of my dark bay unmarked youngster to sell their horse. They did look fairly similar, but the difference was, the horse advertised was probably off the track, was 12yrs old, and they were using photos of my 4yr old (and others, probably doing much more then the horse was capable of) to sell him!!

I reported the seller, and the adminstration of the site removed the photos but not the ad!!!! Even though it was clearly a dodgy seller.

Buying through a agent avoids that mark-up at least. Even though you have to pay the agent (a fairly nominal fee!) it ends up cheaper in the long run, and the horses you view are much less of an *unknown* as no good agent will stand by a horse if they don't know its history.
 
Both of my boys are from Ireland but my YO found them and got them imported and then I bought them from her. They were both youngsters when I bought them. I know many youngsters which have come over from Ireland, and nearly all of them have turned out to be fabulous horses. I would definitely consider having another youngster imported if I was looking to buy another horse.
 
i know very lucky with the horses, one of the horses we got from word of mouth, one i was set on before we left and was exactly as described, just a tiny bit bigger, and the third was completley wrongly described, went to see a 16hh 6yr old called cherry, turned out to be 16.3hh 9yrs old and called philipha. But with all the people miss advertising in the uk it didn't put us off
 
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