Dealer or private seller?

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doodle

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Who did you buy your horse from? Positive or negative experience?
Robin- private, positive
Tom - small dealer, small negative in what he wasn't the horse for me as greener than expected but not mis sold as such.
Soli - small dealer, positive
Minto - private, had ridden him for a year and was a a huge positive.
 
Totally depends on the dealer. Any of the good ones won't sell you anything unsuitable, as they depend on their good name. Lots of people don't say exactly what they want, or they think that they are better than they actually are when giving the list of things they want in a horse. And a lot of private sellers are economical with the truth, personally, I would prefer a good dealer, at least you have some come back. Most of the dealers I know will take the horse back if it doesn't suit.
 
Jasper - private sale - negative in that he didn't load when they said he did, I work on the issue and resolved it.
Juno - large dealer - negative - not properly backed/not as described
Luna - large dealer/breeder - positive - horse is exactly what it states on the tin - would recommend and absolutely buy another horse from them.
 
Both my current horses came from dealers. The experience with both dealers wasn't brilliant I have to say however the first horse has turned out lovely and my latest one I'm pleased with so far (only had him a few days so time will tell).

In the past I've bought from (or tried to buy from) private sellers and all those horses turned out to have problems (e.g. Dales X with shivers; Arab with bone spavin in both hocks; Warmblood with tendency to jump out of fields and damage himself etc.) so these horses are no longer with me.
 
I've had continuous nightmares with dealers. That being said, both private seller and dealer are capable of misleading you and only telling half a truth, so it's more to do with whether you put research into it. I'll definitely be going to a breeder next time.
 
My first horse came from a private seller - she was as described, they were very generous and agreed a trial period before purchase so I could try her in a few situations their set up couldn't facilitate. Was very happy. My next horse came from a dealer. I'm also happy with that experience and purchase. I'd been looking privately for several months and found too many were not as described. I was getting fed up of being lied to, horses not as described and in one case thrown off then kicked in the leg to boot - an accident granted but still having treatment 8 months on and sellers never once got in touch to ask if I was ok afterwards which makes me very suspicious of past behaviour. And of course "oh, he's never done that before... what did you do?" I did a lot of homework on dealers and got in touch with 2-3, two of which I'd have been happy to buy from. I think it's a case of good and bad in everything really.
 
Soph was a private sale, although the girl is now a dealer but wasn't at the time. My Dad knew her Grandad and it went from there... worst purchase ever but 7 years later she's happily retired living the life of riley!

Dora was also a private sale but from my YO.

I don't go far for my horses, or look for them :lol: they just appear and I take pity. That's the right reason to buy a horse... isn't it?
 
Horse 1 - Pro selling via 3rd party dealer. Negative, but my own naive fault.
Horse 2 - Pro agent/producer on behalf of owner. Positive.
Horse 3 - Direct from breeder. Negative, but pot luck, no fault of breeder
Horse 4 - Private. Gamble buy unseen. Wouldn't repeat but wasn't disasterous.
Horse 5 - Private. Positive
Horse 6 - Dealer posing private. Semi negative, I suspect I was had.
Horse 7 - Direct from breeder. Positive.
Horse 8 - Dealer. Positive.
Horse 9 - Private. Positive so far
 
The absolute worst are dealers who pretend to sell privately. Won't go near them! And you CAN tell, it's so obvious. When one of them tells you it's a heart-breaking sale of a much loved family pet and the other lets slip they bought him from a dealer a month ago with bucking issues that they're 'fixing' and selling on ;-)
 
Sophire said:
I don't go far for my horses, or look for them :lol: they just appear and I take pity. That's the right reason to buy a horse... isn't it?
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:D :D :D yeah sure!
Last one I picked up, it was clear that SOMEONE had to take her, and I liked her ears, so might as well be me :o (private - could have been a disaster - I knew I was getting a problem horse but wasn't quite prepared for the extent of it!)

Never bought a horse from a dealer, all of mine have been private sales. and dear old Millie isn't mine anyway after 13 years on loan...
 
Never bought from a dealer, not for any reason in particular and probably would use a dealer in the future.
All my horses have been through word of mouth, and for all of them I've ridden or loaned them before for a while. I was quiet lucky in that sense.

My new horse was from a private seller. I got half a jumbled story about her and the rest I've had to work out along the way after speaking to past owners. However this has been fine with me, I wanted a project and now I have a lovely little pony who is coming along very nicely with patience. She cost me next to nothing and has proved herself to be very kind and willing so far :)
 
Ive never bought from a dealer, always been private. I bought one from a breeder, but otherwise just regular private owners. I wouldnt discount a dealer as such if they had a good reputation but usually they sell ready-to-go jobs and Ive always tended to buy young unbacked / very green types. Depends what you're looking for I guess.
 
Dealer - good and bad. Good in that he is just what I wanted. Bad in that he has foot problems so we only got to do what I wanted for 18 months before it went wrong.

I've since found out (this was before days of mass internet usage and he wasn't in my area so nobody I spoke to had heard of him) that he was a bit of a dodgy dealer. Would hover around sales and pick up the nice horses that failed the vet then would bring them home and either field rest them for long enough that the problem wasn't immediately apparent (but would undoubtedly return) or would bute them up for vettings. I strongly suspect the former happened to my boy as he was there a good few months but he's such a sweetie I can't imagine anyone who saw him wouldn't have bought him. He fine to hack and on the flat but just couldn't stand up to regular jumping.

I would be much more careful these days, partly as I've learned my lesson and partly as the tools for recommendations/stay away warnings etc are available to me now, but I wouldn't avoid dealers due to my experience.
 
horse 1: dealer - mostly positive - as described but didn't jump as they said (small course stated but she was scared of poles)
horse 2: dealer - positive - as described would by from again
 
milliepops said:
:D :D :D yeah sure!
Last one I picked up, it was clear that SOMEONE had to take her, and I liked her ears, so might as well be me :o (private - could have been a disaster - I knew I was getting a problem horse but wasn't quite prepared for the extent of it!)

Never bought a horse from a dealer, all of mine have been private sales. and dear old Millie isn't mine anyway after 13 years on loan...
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Both of ours were rejects after people had owned them only for a few weeks at the rough diy yard down the road. Callys owner had split up with her boyfriend, run out of money and lost her car so somewhat abandoned the horse after 8 weeks. She wasn't what we wanted but we had stables and hadn't found anything we did.

Frank was love at first sight just after someone else had bought him :eek3: thenhe got a dangerous on the roads label (really not) and was back on the market as the first of 8 she bought that summer
 
ester said:
Frank was love at first sight just after someone else had bought him :eek3: thenhe got a dangerous on the roads label (really not) and was back on the market as the first of 8 she bought that summer
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'twas meant to be :wink3:

I always think Millie was meant to be mine, I watched her go out on loan and instantly regretted it, so when that went wrong and she came back it felt like my 2nd chance. Sometimes they just fall into your lap, don't they? :)
 
thegreenergrass said:
The absolute worst are dealers who pretend to sell privately. Won't go near them! And you CAN tell, it's so obvious. When one of them tells you it's a heart-breaking sale of a much loved family pet and the other lets slip they bought him from a dealer a month ago with bucking issues that they're 'fixing' and selling on ;-)
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This happened to me a few years ago and I was extremely naive to it. I went to see a Gelderland who was exercised next to a train track (a train went past as he was being exercised) and we discovered the horse had been doped to high heavens.
 
Tip. When enquiring about a horse for sale always say/write 'I'm enquiring about the horse you have for sale'. No other details. Then if they are a dealer, they will be forced to ask 'which one?' or 'where did you see the ad?'.

I've bought many times from dealers and private sales and only once had any problem that was due to the seller. I picked up a horse that I was told travelled fine and he was clearly drugged. As we loaded him they explained that he was quiet because they had worked him that morning. The horse was sold, why on earth would you ? It turned out that he exploded when travelling and he trashed my lorry completely before I worked out how to control him. The dealer definitely knew and I later found out that his full brother, sold by the same dealer, was exactly the same !


My worst experience was when I took on a foot rehab for free, and only when he was delivered did she tell me that he was always hacked out in a market harborough (draw reins). After jumping imaginary fences out on hacks when not allowed to go home as fast as he wanted, trying to run backwards off the arena, then jumping into a wire fence out hunting, followed by turning himself on his back in the lorry in his effort to escape, so I had to call the fire brigade, I offered the owner to keep him as long as needed for her to find him somewhere to retire him to. She told me to put him down, and murmured 'I always thought there was something other than his feet going on'. Thanks. Perhaps you should have told me that before I took him on?
 
Jennie951 said:
This happened to me a few years ago and I was extremely naive to it. I went to see a Gelderland who was exercised next to a train track (a train went past as he was being exercised) and we discovered the horse had been doped to high heavens.
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North West near the M6?


I know where that was! A friend took me to view the horse she was going to buy. It was clearly lame every time it went round a corner. They said it wore off with exercise and was nothing. I told them to get the navicular sorted out. It was fine with the trains though!

The friend agreed to buy a mare there instead. When the vet went to get a blood sample, everyone disappeared. He couldn't even get near it with a needle.

Not a great dealer, that one.

Another one between Macclesfield and Knutsford can't be trusted and has a criminal record. He sold a friend a six year old Irish mare who was clearly a lot younger and had a vet certificate that certainly wasn't hers and a passport that probably wasn't either.

And another friend has a really good horse, bought from a dealer over Northwich way who has been prosecuted for selling horses with fake papers.
 
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I bought her from my yard owner after having Dusty on loan for a few weeks. The yard owner was helping me buy and a yard close by always has some for sale and that yard owner agreed for mine to take her on trial for a couple of weeks.

Shannon my Dad's horse was from a private seller, her and Dusty were best mates back at the DIY and we knew and trusted the owner.
 
As a small time breeder, I find when I do sell one, the buyers like the provenance of the horse. I always take photos/videos from first born, and also of both parents, and people can relate much better to that. Any horses that i have bought from a breeder have been nice people, and not spoilt. A BIG bonus!
 
Both can be brilliant, and both can be as dodgy as a dodgy thing. If you can find a decent dealer, then I'd say go with them; IME private sellers are often very mendacious indeed. I have been a breeder, a small time dealer, and a private seller and have NEVER lied about a horse, although I've come across many, many buyers who've been seriously deluded or even clinically insane.....
 
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