Describing a horse's bad points when loaning out

[Saxon_Jasmine]

Hi.

When you have advertised your horses/loaned them/let other people ride them, how have you gone about telling people the bad points?

It's obviously better to be honest, but what if you have a horse who is beautifully behaved the majority of the time, but can be difficult sometimes? Will people understand that the horse is safe, and only acts like that occasionally, or be completly put off by the bad points?

Opinions please..

 

[riding_high]

i say it how it is, if the horse has only done something bad once in the past then i will say he/she hasn't done this for x amount of time however it has done it in the past.

i'd rather be honest and have someone run away than have someone not know and get injured or do more harm to the horse.

i advertised my pony for loan/share and i said every little bad bit about him, warts an all! i now have a sharer for him and it's working out well. we've worked through all his bad points and he's now a changed little man.

 

[Ranyhyn]

I am always 100% open and honest and maybe even a little bit OTT.

The way I think of it, is, if they are too scared to even hear about it - they aren't good enough for my boy

 

[badgerdog]

I'm always totally honest. If your horse is going out on loan and potential loaners haven't been told about all the possible quirks the horse might come straight back at the first sign, and you could be viewed as dishonest.

I loaned my quirky horse out last year and told them exactly what he was capable of on his worst days (which aren't that frequent). I wanted him to go to the right home with someone who was prepared for what could happen.

As in most things I think honesty is the best policy!

 

[paddi22]

absolutely honesty is the best policy. I have a broken arm so have to have someone else ride my lad. he has issues with napping and rearing in the past, so i had to tell her. i'd always prepare people for the worst and that way they can't be caught off guard. as the other poster said, if it puts a rider off then they obviously aren't a good match for your horse

 

[abbieandfiona]

Be honest the mare i have on loan now listed in the advert that she was bad for vet suffers mites and hard to handle etc so for me thats the type of horse that i like so went to see her and have had her ever since.

 

[Saxon_Jasmine]

Thank you. I agree that honesty is the best policy. I just want to do my mare justice as most of the time she is a genuinely lovely horse. Hopefully people will see her for the horse she is, not the faults she has.