H&H ads back in the day

Burnerbee

Burnerbee

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When I was a young girl (so 1980-1990 period), my aunt would give me her old read editions of H&H and I’d spend hours scouring the horses for sale ads, which were typically something like “14.2, quiet, bay mare, 7yo, done PC, no vices”. Did any of you ever buy one from such basic info? You must’ve been brave!

Edit to say: if you’re sub 35 ish you might be thinking there were pics to go with these ads. Nope, pics were reserved for the really fancy £3k + ers.
 
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Yes, as a skint naive early 20yo I responded to an advert along the lines of ‘6yo event gelding. Won PN, completed novice. Cheeky personality. Won’t pass vet. £2000.’

I tried him. I loved him. My advisor advised me to run a mile. A while later he was still unsold and they phoned me back and said I was the only person to try him who could ride him. They gave him to me free.

He stayed with me until he was pts at 21.
 
I went to see a 10yr old horse because her ad in H&H described her as a BARGAIN, and I had a very small budget. She was horrible to ride, and very visibly depressed, I felt so sorry for her I bought her, paid 2K and got the horse, two almost brand new Albion saddles and a double bridle for the price. It took time, but she ended up the most amazing horse, the first one I trained to GP and she changed my life.

eta: this would have been very late 90s, and no picture with the ad.
 
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Yep my first horse I bought in 1978. It was the twenty words section as that was the only ones that came any where near affordable for me. She was £335 and bolted when I tried her but I gave them the money there and then and collected her a day later. I had her for 21 years.
 
Yes, I bought my pony from an ad for a 5 yo pba 14.2 mare described as having outstanding paces and great potential. £750 The wrong phone number was printed but I got my dad to call the Horse and Hound office and get the right number so we were ahead of any other potential buyers. They reprinted the ad the following week with the right number but I'd already viewed.
 
I bought my daughters first proper horse from one of those ads in the late 90s. He was a failed PTP horse described as a bit green but nice paces and a good nature. He was amazing. Never really learned to do a fantastic dressage test but he was good enough as he was fast and clear xc and a nice little showjumper. No photo and no fancy description.
 
Baywonder said:
Yes, my horse of a lifetime was advertised in my local paper in the mid/late 1980's.

14.2hh Welsh D, good to shoe, clip ,traffic, box etc. £850

The second I laid eyes on him I said " I want him!"

I bought him there and then. I had him for 13 wonderful years, until he was very sadly PTS. 😞
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There’s an extremely good chance I saw the ad and decided he was the one for me too - but we lived in a 3 bed in suburbia so I’m glad he had a lovely life with you instead 🥹
 
Interestingly looking back l have bought two from H&H ads - both after seeing the ad and then doing a bit of investigating! The first was over 20 years ago and the second more recently, both were ‘why is that being advertised here?’
Both were priced realistically but sadly not cheaply, l think from people who had traditionally used H&H to advertise. Neither had a photo and they both had other people interested in them who were unable to complete the sale for valid reasons bringing the phrase ‘what’s for you won’t go by you’ to mind.
 
How I loved looking at those ads as a teenager, and dreaming! I bought my second horse, a 3yo TB mare, from an H&H ad in 1982. I think it was a very simple ad, something like ‘3 yo unbroken bay filly 16hh’ and she was running with her mother and 3 siblings across a big cattle farm, pretty feral really! She turned out to be a wonderful horse but sadly died of an aneurysm at 13, the result of red worm damage from her never being treated for her first 3 years. She was £1200.
 
I looked at a couple from H and H ads but didn't buy. The ad that stuck out for me was in a paper called diamond free ads, a big yellow paper. It's advertised everything!! There was an add for a horse that ticked all the boxes but was toi expensive. Each time the paper came out I looked for the add, the price kept coming down until I could afford to go and look. Never thought about why the horse hadn't previously sold! It's sounded perfect! I arranged to go and see on the coldest windiest day ever! I turned up and was gutted to find the horse had the biggest melanoma on its cheek, right where the bridle sat. Not mentioned in advert or on phone. I still rode horse out but fortunately didn't like riding it either!
 
Yes, 16.2 7/8 thoroughbred from the little lineage ads who was advertised as a bargain in 1992 He was actually at livery at a local showjumping competition centre that I used to go to. I knew the people quite well so I rather worked on the basis that if there was something really wrong they’d sell him to somebody else. We did quite a lot of showjumping and I think the main problem was he just worked in an arena and knew very little of life. We had some challenging hacks until he got confidence. He then went on to be my introduction to affiliated showing qualifying the national championships as a riding horse and indirectly getting me to meet the people who I got my current superstar ex-race horse through and set me on the route to qualifying horse of the year show with a show horse rather than as a show jumper.

Be a good article for horse and hound wouldn’t it !
 
Yes, two. One was a 16.1, 3 year old, TB mare, just backed. She had walked and trotted under saddle on an arena and that was that.

She went on to hunt and BS, but was never quite the horse I wanted. She was just willowey and delicate, despite being full of energy. I sold her at a BS show.

The second was a CB x TB mare, around 7 years old, Ex fieldmaster's horse. It turned out she was ex because she had drastically pulled both front tendons at Flagg Races (point to point, adjacent hunt race or some such thing) the year before. She was ace! She had a year hacking about, then a year BS, then did everything, including hunting and open team chase. A real dream horse.

I had a foal from her, and sold the pair as I had a new job that was too demanding. She would have been a lovely brood mare as she was well put together and her injury was just that, because of excess effort in one day, rather than being conformation related.

I do prefer these days of being able to see a video though.
 
Flowerofthefen said:
I looked at a couple from H and H ads but didn't buy. The ad that stuck out for me was in a paper called diamond free ads, a big yellow paper. It's advertised everything!! There was an add for a horse that ticked all the boxes but was toi expensive. Each time the paper came out I looked for the add, the price kept coming down until I could afford to go and look. Never thought about why the horse hadn't previously sold! It's sounded perfect! I arranged to go and see on the coldest windiest day ever! I turned up and was gutted to find the horse had the biggest melanoma on its cheek, right where the bridle sat. Not mentioned in advert or on phone. I still rode horse out but fortunately didn't like riding it either!
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Free ads was fab!
I bought 2 absolute diamonds from its ads and since it folded have never had the same good fortune when horse shopping
My worst buy was a very expensive H&H horse, he passed a 5 stage vetting then the following year was diagnosed with navicular and retired soon after
 
I used to devour the H&H ads in the 70s but we bought our first horse from a 1 line ad in the Yorkshire Post, dogs section(!). Bay Gelding 15hh, r&d, 12 yrs. Sister and I tried him in the afternoon after viewing a huge grey hunter whose rider had apparently taken up football. I'm not surprised, he was the most unco-operative horse I'd ever met and tbh I can't think of a less co-operative one even now, over 50 yrs later. So we bought the absolutely bombproof, kind, bay gelding with a brand new saddle and bridle for £150. We had him for 8 yrs until he had to be pts after a field accident
Our next horse, a mare was advertised in YP, too.
We also bought 3 mares from short ads in Farmers Guardian, without photos.
 
I never brought from Horse and Hound but going through the ads on a Thursday and window shopping was a constant hobby.

I have brought from the local yellow pages newspaper, the Exchange and Mart which had a load of animal adds, and most of them from the local weekly newspaper which used to have a horse section on a Friday.

My horse of a lifetime was advertised in there with a one line ad - ‘palomino gelding, 14.2h, sound, very forward going, aged.’
 
LeneHorse said:
We used to love going through the ads in the yellow paper - mainly to spot the hilarious spelling mistakes
Eg " Skew bald poney, seen and dun everything, bridal and saddel included"

I never bought anything though.
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On the flip side of looking in the yellow paper for something to buy, I also saw a wanted ad. My horse had just been diagnosed with arthritis and needed a quieter life. I was deciding what to do when I opened the paper and found a wanted ad that described my horse to a T. I rang the chap and he came and met my horse, he didn't even ride him, he just knew he wanted him. I delivered him as he was my pride and joy and I wanted to make sure he was going to a good home. The chap doted on him. He used to tack him up in dressage gear, he was also dressed smartly and he used to ride him to the local shop where they became celebrities!! He would talk to the customers whilst the horse lapped up the fuss and polo's!! He had him for several years. Sadly the chap died of cancer and not long after horse died of heart failure. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect home.
 
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