has anyone bought (or sold) a horse that...

[clairefeekerry1]

turned out to be totally different from original description/what it was like with old owners? just wondering really how often it happens...i.e horse sold as suitable for novice etc etc, genuinely is but changes in new home or similar. just found been speaking to a friend who's newish horse has turned out to be a nightmare but from all accounts was sold genuinely as a all round nice horse. i also knew of someone who sold a horse as a novice ride-which it was, but was returned sometime later as it napped in new home.

 

[BBD]

Yes, he wouldn't hack out for them but did for me and they knew it because they took him out!!We talked it over and sorted it out

 

[monkeybum13]

Yes. We sold P as needing a competent rider but fine on the lead rein. He was fine with me but he would sometimes play up if cantering across a field or in a large group. We get regular emails from new owners and he is hacking out off the lead rein with a novice in company and being a little angel

 

[Nailed]

Yes. my mare was sold as good to box shoe clip farrier.. jump school.. the lot.. and shes not. but i think it has something to do with out the old owners treated her that she has the issues.

Lou x

 

[Grey_Showjumper]

yes, we sold my pony as needing a confident, capable but quiet rider (he was abused, but had a cheeky side) the boy who he was bought for was the above, and i fully believed he could suit a novice, but didn't want to risk it... hes now ridden by 5 kids ranging from 3-14 and the mum, 2 of the kids are sharers, and pony has taken them from nervous, to cantering and jumping... saw one of them at her first competition on him- SO sweet

i knew he could be like this, but didn't want to risk it what with having been abused etc. and i wasn't sure how much of this he had forgotten when it came to jumping... obviously 4 years with me helped him a lot

 

[Snowysadude]

my one has slightly, sold to me as a real confidence giver, never really put a foot wrong, bred by the owners ex girlfriend and he has known the horse for all his life, done everything etc etc etc and the guy i got him from has a very good reputation (not a dealer as such, an "importer and trainer of young horses for top level competition" (mine not being one of those)). Since i have had him he has decided he is backy in the cold so can hump, bucks when exited and has bolted the whole way home with me (proper bolt - flat out around the fields, out the fields, up the road and back on the yard in a gallop :S).

Not sure why really have rung the old owner who has said he will take him back but i dont want that and he seemed genuinley shocked. So i think that is sometimes what happens when a horse moves home mabye, afterall they are animals and he has never moved that far from home since he was born!! He has competed internationally but the problems only started (turning out was the first one) after 4 or so weeks of me getting him, when he started to settle - he hasnt bolted since though even on fast hacks and i am hoping the back is because of the cold so will go in spring! But hey i still love him.

P.S. I wouldnt class my self as a novice or beginner rider and have had horses my whole life - so its not cause i am a numpty!!

 

[indiat]

Me! Recently a fellow HHO user organised a loan of a lovely little cob for me that was bombproof for her owner and for her when she loaned her. Almost a month with me and the mare is really spooky! Lovely in every other way, but spins and canters off if she hears a car engine when we ride in the arena and is very nervous just walking around the yard. I'm not exactly Mrs Confident and I have two small children who come up to the yard with me and need to be lead around so this gorgeous, affectionate creature is going home. Now my kids hate me.

I honestly don't know if its me or the very big and busy yard we are on.

 

[HollyB66]

Speaking as a novice who has recently (6 weeks) bought a horse 'suitable for a novice', I would say that it is very easy for the horse not to behave the same as when 'seen/viewed'.

This is more likely down to the behaviour/inexperience/lack of support of the novice owners than the horse becoming a 'different animal'.

A couple of examples I can cite from my own experience are:

Spooking/rearing when taken from her new stable to the hacking area to mount - not a huge rear or mega spook - but enough to unsettle a 'novice'. We were lucky because we are based at a yard with lots of helpful liveries who suggested bringing her back into her 'safe zone' and mounting there - perfect - no problems. But without this we would never have got on her.

Barging to get through the gates in electric fences - more experienced owners explained about how to instill manners. Again without this guidance we could have ended up with a horse that was too much of a handful.

So, what I am trying to say is that the horse has come to a new place with new owners and can easily get 'mixed up' if the new owners do not have the experience/guidance to address the settling in period.

I thought I was coming into this with sufficient experience - I have been lucky with the people around me and am having a happy experience - but without their support it could have gone so wrong - and my horse is exactly what she was sold as - but she very easily could not have been if we had 'got it wrong'.

Sorry long post

 

[indiat]

True, but in my case, I've owned a horse for 10 years, am on a yard full of experienced people, and have had two lessons a week trying to get to grips with this new mare but I can't seem to instill confidence in her. Not a surprise, considering I am a little nervous myself.

 

[benson21]

Yes, i am in the middle of the nightmare as we speak!! Bought a horse from a dealer, he was sold to me as a confidence giver, good weight carrier, safe, weaves occasionally, suitable for novice and nervous riders. My confidence is now on the floor, he is not happy with me riding (i am on the larger side,) he bucks, weaves badly... need I go on! Cant get hold of the dealers, so am completely stuck!

 

[Mickeymoo]

I bought Mick as 'ready to affiliate', so I assume the idiots thought he was ready to bsja, as they gave me some feeble story that daughter had been out jumping. They did say he would 'try it on with me'. Well, rearing, napping, bucking and refusing to go in the manage the first time I rode him was what I bought! So I tried him down the road and got 200 yards before he threatened to ditch me if I made him go any further.

I honestly believe he had never worked in a manage. I later found out from an instructor I was chatting to that they had taken him for a lesson with said instructor and the whole family were terrified of him - he was a lamb to handle from the ground and just needed some schooling and boundaries set.

This was 6 years ago. In todays climate of taking people to court etc, they were lucky I didnt sue the pants off them.

 

[clairefeekerry1]

wow! sounds quite common. we sold a little sec b few years back.... he was a bit of an a*** to be honest. sold him to a professional home, who then sold him on to a RDA rider!!! he's doing amazingly well with them!! he was a right bugger with us!! strange really!

 

[spike123]

Mine was advertised as a suitable mother/daughter horse.When I viewed him he was cheeky but was an angel to ride.When I went to pick him up they warned me that he could be cheeky and not to let him get away with it,which was fine.I have owned horses for almost 20 years so wasn't bothered by that.In reality he was nervous to handle,bolshy,defensive and labelled dangerous quite quickly by all who knew him.I am so glad I persevered with him though as 18 months on he is the most loveable but cheeky character you could meet.He is still an angel to ride most of the time and on the whole is perfectly safe to handle. I think he just needed time to get to know me and trust me.He certainly has been abused in the past and has the scars to prove it,both physically and mentally and he is certainly not for a novice or a nervous person which is what I take a suitable mother/daughter share to be.

 

[indiat]

Sorry if this is off topic but does anyone beleive in chemistry? For instance, my daughter loans a little pony that had to be retired from the riding school as she was a biter and a kicker, yet has never put a foot wrong with my daughter. She never spooks and leads like an angel but can be a sod if you take her off the leading rein. Again, perfect in the menage. My daughter adores her and yet opinion is divided on the yard - people either love her or loath her. Another rider on our yard had to take back one of her horses recently. He had gone on loan to people she knew quite well and they just didn't get on with him yet his new loan home love him. Both homes were experienced - so why such a different reaction to the same horse? She knew the people he went to first very well and I'm sure they wouldn't have mistreated him. They also knew him quite well as both families compete so see each other out and about a lot.

 

[Echo Bravo]

Sometimes horses and people don't jell as the many post on here over the last few days will testify

 

[clairefeekerry1]

ye this is what i was sort of getting at. why does it work for one new home but not another even tho they may be identical in expierance etc. my old mare (now retired) was returned from several expeiranced homes for being too sharp etc... and ended up with me-child at the time and by no means confident child. ended up having the most amazing 7 years with her.

 

[Boxers]

Years ago a friend had a super jumping pony who was really fizzy and needed a strong bit - he would go sideways most of the time and jog etc - she loved all that and could handle him.

Anyway he was sold and we later saw him at a show and he was the slowest plod there. They had him in a snaffle with a plain noseband and were really struggling to get him going.

Having said that, the friend who owned him did appear to have an 'electric seat'! but we really could hardly beleive the change in him with the new people.

 

[ester]

I think it could happen quite a bit. I could sell frank to a novice, but I wouldnt. He is an absolute angel when new people ride him, took a friend out hacking who hadnt ridden for 6 years and he didnt put a foot wrong or even spook at the dustbins

it was bin day

. and generally he is a star to have about.

I wouldnt sell him to a novice as I know his quirks, he would prob start to push the boundaries, become bargey and spooky. Nothing terrible but enough to worry a less than confident rider which would then spiral downwards. It happened before I got him, it would happen again.

 

[rascal]

I sold a young mare, with us she was great, my kids used to climb all over her, we used to ride her in a snaffle, anywhere. Good in traffic and although willful not at all nasty. She spent a few weeks with a dealer, who told a pack of lies about her and sold her to a nervous novice, her desription, not mine! Horse was a loonatic, she couldnt do anything with her, bucking, bolting, rering, dangerous to hack out, totally different! Eventually she was sold to someone more experienced and confident and went back to being her old self!!

 

[Lobelia_Overhill]

yup, the horse I own now, he was sold to me as quiet etc etc, and with me he's been a maniac who spooks like the blazes and generally misbehaves when I'm riding - I bought him from the YO so it's nothing to do with settling in somewhere, or anything. I think it's got a lot to do with his being young and a competition horse, where I'm used to riding older RS horses ... we're starting to get in sync with each other now tho'

 

[turkana]

We sold a lovely pony once who was the quietest & easiest pony we'd ever had, he was actually a bit boring, so we sold him for a lot of money as he was also very flashy looking yet sutable for a novice.
In his new home he turned into the sporn of the devil,my Mum bumped into an old friend who was an instructor at the new owner's pony club so Mum asked her if she knew him & told her that he used to be ours; her friend's reply was "I wouldn't want to admit to having sold that awful pony"
I don't know what became of him in the end, something unpleasant I fear, such a shame as he was a nice boy who learned to take the pee in his home. We had no idea he had it in him to turn out like that.

 

[MagicMelon]

Ha, well I've sold a horse like that! My fab Welsh D who I sold only this year. He was a serious tester with ground manners. He knew if you lacked confidence and would walk all over you, he was a very clever horse. I had lots of confidence with him as I knew he was all show (he was never nasty or meant to be horrid) so he would only test me occassionally (was horrendous when I first got him!). I explained his behaviour in depth and was VERY picky about who I let come to see him. The first person fell in love with him, I couldnt have been more honest about him as I knew he would seriously push her in his first few weeks, to the point I told her if she wasnt happy Id take him back! He was returned within the week... I was horrified to hear he'd been really bad having bitten her several times, broken numerous lead ropes, crushed her against a wall etc. all of which he'd never done with me!! He then sold to a 14yr old girl, again with the same can-be-returned arrangement (I loved this horse to pieces so only wanted the best for him), he never came back. She's getting on great with him! Apparently he wasn't "too bad" testing the boundaries. He clearly got on with her and that's all it took. Its amazing how different horses can be with different people.

I also ended up buying a horse who was NOT as stated. In the advert it stated he was a "schoolmaster" and "super XC horse". No, he was not. He napped like hell. At home and in lessons, this horse was amazing - never refused jumping, never misbehaved but at events, he was totally different - He napped horrendously at the start of a XC and 85% of the time he would grind to a halt 1/2 round a SJ course and start napping again or he literally refused to start at all! Nothing helped. I found out later that someone had seen him as a youngster being regularily "beaten up" in a big way in the SJ ring

So basically he'd just given up with competitions. It was such a shame as he was the sweetest natured horse to be around and ride otherwise. I sold him to a hacking home where he's been happy ever since.

 

[cptrayes]

I bought a horse I was told had been trained to travel and was surprised to find that he would not load, never mind travel. After three years I still have to tie him down to super-strengthened partitions so as to stop him trying to take the windows out with his front paws.

It's quite obvious now that he was sedated when I picked him up!

 

[marmalade76]

I have been very lucky in that all the horses I have bought have all turned out to be exactly as descibed, but I sold a horse that I had done rather well on and was told six months after the sale by the new owner that the horse was dishonest and a dirty stopper. I told her that he only stopped with me when I had not ridden him right. What I really wanted to say was that he only stops 'cause you don't ride well enough!

 

[Serenity087]

I first went to see Dorey cos she was advertised as a lovely, quiet mare. And she was!
Had much fun with her.
Put her out on loan and from all accounts she was demon spawn. Got her back, and she used to go to sleep wth her head resting in my lap.

She did, however, come back ill. I sold her on as a problem horse and by all reports she was perfect.

Got her back and she's still perfect.. which is good... she's also no longer ill (WAHAY!)

I think if I sell her again I'll label her as demon spawn... then she'll be perfect

 

[maxapple]

[ QUOTE ]
I bought a horse I was told had been trained to travel and was surprised to find that he would not load, never mind travel. After three years I still have to tie him down to super-strengthened partitions so as to stop him trying to take the windows out with his front paws.

It's quite obvious now that he was sedated when I picked him up!

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow - me too!! I should have known when the horse transporter said .... 'He's been fine the whole way - even looked like he was having a nap!'

Now I have a horse that will not travel (And I have tried everything) - he's now a happy hacker and when I had to move yards last year, I had to hack 3 hours to my new yard ... on a cold December morning!

 

[Echo Bravo]

It's called a hot bot! My OH sits on them and they start jogging, and I sit on them and they go to sleep.