Buying direct from Ireland...??

I have, you can pm with questions if you like. I have IDxCob 16.2hh Applaoosa 4 year old. Bought unseen off internet. The way things are going with him now it looks like it was the best decision I made in years. He was very cheap, for what he is. He is very sound and would pass a vetting, he is also eye catching, conformationally correct, and a lovely fellow. Maybe I just got lucky...........
 
I have bought all 3 of mine from Ireland using a horse finder over there. She is based in the midlands about an hour 1/4 away from Dublin. You fill in a questionnaire and she will go round reliable producers and breeders pre checking. When you go out there she takes you round the short list. She saves money on buyers premium if you were thinking of buying through Goresbridge or Cavan.

She has found me a sport horse, a happy hacker cob and a hunting pony. She has found horses for friends and acquaintances from serious competition horses (oh to have the budget) right down to my ploddy cob for my OH to learn on.

The great thing is she will check it will do (or not do) in a pre viewing trial the things that you want and sort out an independent vet and transport over here once you have decided.

You get access to yards you wouldn't know about as they don't sell direct to the UK market.

I have sold my 2 ponies this year to downsize as I am going into full livery but still have my sports horse and wouldn't hesitate to use her again. Her email is irishriders.net@gmail.com

The only problem you will have is picking between all the great horses
 
Hi,
I have just had my horse two weeks from ireland, had a call from am irish man saying he had a untouched 3 year old coloured maxi cob, and could send him that day, didn't really know the man, so was a little unsure as I didn't want to part with any money before seeing the horse and getting a vetting done,
Anyway he called me on the thursday horse was with me on the sat vetting was done by my vets on the wednesday passed and payed money on the Friday,
He is the best horse ever, very easy.
 
figgy said:
Hi,
I have just had my horse two weeks from ireland, had a call from am irish man saying he had a untouched 3 year old coloured maxi cob, and could send him that day, didn't really know the man, so was a little unsure as I didn't want to part with any money before seeing the horse and getting a vetting done,
Anyway he called me on the thursday horse was with me on the sat vetting was done by my vets on the wednesday passed and payed money on the Friday,
He is the best horse ever, very easy.
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Goodness me that sounds risky, even to me. I had months of communication and photos and videos before I bought my boy. Even then he turned out far better looking than anticipated.
 
figgy said:
Hi,
I have just had my horse two weeks from ireland, had a call from am irish man saying he had a untouched 3 year old coloured maxi cob, and could send him that day, didn't really know the man, so was a little unsure as I didn't want to part with any money before seeing the horse and getting a vetting done,
Anyway he called me on the thursday horse was with me on the sat vetting was done by my vets on the wednesday passed and payed money on the Friday,
He is the best horse ever, very easy.
Click to expand...

superwibble said:
I have bought all 3 of mine from Ireland using a horse finder over there. She is based in the midlands about an hour 1/4 away from Dublin. You fill in a questionnaire and she will go round reliable producers and breeders pre checking. When you go out there she takes you round the short list. She saves money on buyers premium if you were thinking of buying through Goresbridge or Cavan.

She has found me a sport horse, a happy hacker cob and a hunting pony. She has found horses for friends and acquaintances from serious competition horses (oh to have the budget) right down to my ploddy cob for my OH to learn on.

The great thing is she will check it will do (or not do) in a pre viewing trial the things that you want and sort out an independent vet and transport over here once you have decided.

You get access to yards you wouldn't know about as they don't sell direct to the UK market.

I have sold my 2 ponies this year to downsize as I am going into full livery but still have my sports horse and wouldn't hesitate to use her again. Her email is irishriders.net@gmail.com

The only problem you will have is picking between all the great horses
Click to expand...

All well and good, but by how much does that bump up the price? What did you pay?
I needed cheap and good. Anyone can get "good" at a price!
 
Very risky , I called him back first of all and said no but something in me said yes as I didn't have anything to lose as he sent money with him to send him back if I didn't like him or failed vetting. So gland I went with my gut.
 
I bought all my ponies from the Gorsebridge sales! Its brilliant you really get to see the horses and if you buy one your ferry crossing is free! I'd recommend it for ponies but I've never bought my horses from there.
 
Storminateacup said:
All well and good, but by how much does that bump up the price? What did you pay?
I needed cheap and good. Anyone can get "good" at a price!
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It doesn't really, anything from youngstock to good low level allrounders, are half the price (or less!) then they would be in the UK, the more quality/advanced the horse, the gap between the prices starts closing, but you are talking about getting up to 4/5k horses before that happens.

But then you save on your vetting etc You could get vetting and transport for the price of a UK vetting if you go through the right agent.

Flights you can get for a tenner.

It depends on what you want.
 
I brought my youngster back in March from over there, using the same contacts as superwibble did. Cannot fault the service I received and my horse is just absolutely superb and totally what I wanted. He wasn't cheap but I honestly don't think I could of found this horse in the UK and even if I managed to it wouldn't be for sale :)
 
I bought direct from a very genuine dealer. However the transport company were very very unpsrofessional and the welfare of horses on the lorry with mine were severely compromised. 2 ended up on iv fluids with severe dehydration and mine had a facial crest fracture. Now it appears they havent put it through the books and are refusing to give me a receipt. If they dont get me one - I will threaten to inform the tax office - they also kept my horse for 5 days without telling me they had even picked her up - and only gave me 20minutes notice when she was arriving despite telling me 25hrs earlier that they had no idea when she would get over. Anyone who decides to buy from ireland - PM me for transport compnay to avoid.
 
using a horse finder can save you money.

Had I walked onto some of the yardson my own their prices would have been different already.

J knows her contacts really well and is there to make sure you don't pay over the top for a horse. She has recommended I walk away from one horse before and I thank her for that.

Clearly she doesn't work for free and you will have to email her but I can say that I paid less to transport here than I have done to transport across the mainland before.I also didn't have to worry about vettings etc (and I get the works including xrays on my sports horse thanks to a previous bad experience)

Why don't you email her or PM me with any questions. She isn't hard sale (in fact she is too soft sometimes trying to help people) and you haven't got anything to lose by asking.
 
superwibble said:
using a horse finder can save you money.

Had I walked onto some of the yardson my own their prices would have been different already.

J knows her contacts really well and is there to make sure you don't pay over the top for a horse. She has recommended I walk away from one horse before and I thank her for that.

Clearly she doesn't work for free and you will have to email her but I can say that I paid less to transport here than I have done to transport across the mainland before.I also didn't have to worry about vettings etc (and I get the works including xrays on my sports horse thanks to a previous bad experience)

Why don't you email her or PM me with any questions. She isn't hard sale (in fact she is too soft sometimes trying to help people) and you haven't got anything to lose by asking.
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Sounds like a good way to go, I think I may have just been lucky, but Glenruby had some serious problems with her transporters. My transporter was not great either, they made no stops and watered on route , and my horse being laid back and fairly solid seemed to cope ok, but I do shudder to think what misery I put him through for those 22 hours on the box. I do not think they were DEFRA registered either. So I and my horse were lucky, ( and he still goes in the horsebox too!)
There are some lovely bargains in Ireland so if you can get one using supperwibbles contact and its cost effective then I would choose her in hindsight.
 
Storminateacup said:
Sounds like a good way to go, I think I may have just been lucky, but Glenruby had some serious problems with her transporters. My transporter was not great either, they made no stops and watered on route , and my horse being laid back and fairly solid seemed to cope ok, but I do shudder to think what misery I put him through for those 22 hours on the box. I do not think they were DEFRA registered either. So I and my horse were lucky, ( and he still goes in the horsebox too!)
There are some lovely bargains in Ireland so if you can get one using supperwibbles contact and its cost effective then I would choose her in hindsight.
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Re; Transport... we don't have 'DEFRA' here, so it would be unlikely that they are registered?
I think with transport, you get what you pay for.

You can get transport from 150/200euro, door to door ... up to 500 euro for single horse transport (in fancy lorries) and anything in between, so it really does vary.

Last transporter I know that transported a friends horse over to the UK, stopped just an hour from her yard (the destination) to rest the horse as he felt they were getting tired, and that was only middle of the range pricewise I believe.

I think alot of it also depends on what you do with the horse when you get it.

I know yards in the UK have strict rules about horses going into quarantine stables and the like on arrival.... and TBH, thats really not practical, not for a horse thats not used to long journeys like that. They need to be put out into a field to stretch their legs, pref with company (so they can settle and get over any stress) etc

As with everything, there are good and bad, reputable dealers, transporters and the reputable agents who use them.
 
Would definately help using an irish buyer. i didnt use one but a friend of ours has horses and he got me a few to see. From what he said alot of horses sold in Ireland are by word of mouth and not even advertised. When I went to one yard they said if I was coming from england on my own they'd be trying for double the price!
We picked him up ourselves, cost about £800 there and back, but it meant I knew what he had eated, if he'd had water and we stopped twice for him to graze- horrible leaving them on the ferry though!
 
Thanks for all the replies. My horse is sold subject to vetting this coming week, so I will put a plan into action once it's finalised all being well.
 
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