Have You Ever Had Your Time Wasted By A Seller?

We (very stupidly) drove for about 3 hours to see an apparent paragon of virtue. Just what we needed at the time from the ad. To find a shabby horse who spooked at anything and everything with its' owner then span and bolted for home at a van! Not quite sure how I managed to hold my tongue to the extent I did when the owner started whining "but I KNOW she'd be the horse for you. She isn't normally like this. Honest"...

Did have one other bad experience with someone pretending to be a private seller who was clearly a dealer. The one she showed us was about as far from as described as it was possible more or less.

But on the whole I've found people genuine to deal with, just the odd bad apple like most areas of life.
 
Ooohhhhhhhhhh yes!!!!!

I could write a book!

There are the ones that string you along before deciding that they don't want to sell afterall, the ones that have totally mis-represented the horse, the issues surrounding vettings, the ones who don't call you back or respond to questions.......
 
I wasted someone's time once, and I felt very very bad about it. I was selling a horse on behalf of someone else - they decided they did not want her anymore, so asked me to advertise her and entertain potential buyers. I had three people lined up to see her, and the first lady who came was wonderful, exactly the right home - she offered the full asking price, and was desperately keen. I went back to the owners, who wanted more time to make up their mind - it dragged on for two weeks, and eventually the owners decided not to sell. I felt awful as the lady had travelled a long way to see the mare, and were exactly the sort of owners that I would have picked for her. That horse is now just stood in a field doing nothing - this lady wanted to do HOYS qualifiers etc with her. Such a waste/shame, and so annoyed with the owners for making me look like the bad one.
 
There has only really been one time I feel someone really wasted my time - I nearly all buy off private sellers and am honest with them and vice versa. However, I spent the entire day travelling down to see a horse in Somerset, having specifically checked BE record, rider and HEIGHT!! Said clearly I am just over 5.4 so 16.3 is max stretch for me. Horse was supposed to be 16.2. Got there, all as described but horse was a 17.2 m/w. He was a real sweetie but I physically could not get my leg round his side past his saddle. He wasn't a cheap pony (had BE form) so paying spot on money but I was cross that I had wasted the entire day when I had checked his height..
 
amymay said:
I'm not sure that this is necessarily wasting your time - just telling you that she didn't want to sell her horse to you. Big difference.

Just becasue an animal is for sale, doesn't mean to say that the seller has to sell to anyone.
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But she mentioned in her wanted ad that she was looking for a novice ride...?
 
7 years ago my mum, dad and I travelled over 2500miles around the countryside to look for my new horse, approx 15hh PC/RC ride. We had a small budget and with that we looked at 21 horses before finding the "one". All of these horses were not as their adverts stated and a few of them were so naughty they bucked me off. One "lovely mare" promptly took a chunk out of her owner's hand drawing quite a lot of blood in front of me when she was getting her out of the stable and there are so many more stories... You could look at this that we wasted 21 seller's times however, if they don't advertise correctly you can only find out by trying them.

The next time, once I had grown out of the horse we bought above we only saw a couple before we found the perfect replacement. She sounded perfect in the advert and was very nice when we went to see her. I really liked her and we decided to buy her. All was agreed and then a few days later the lady rang and said that her (pregnant) daughter was too upset to sell her. A month later we saw her in H&H for sale again for a grand less.

I must confess I hate buying horses, searching through the yards and being presented with a horse that is nothing like it's advert. We have had a little bit more luck in the last few years and recently we have been lucky and just found a lovely 4 year old.

Trials and tribulations, you do eventually get there in the end though.
 
When we were looking for a pony for D2, bearing in mind we gave the usual criteria for a novice child, including 13hh or so:

First pony was 12hh at the most and if he stood on tiptoe. Did not like being handled at all :eek:

Second pony wouldn't move into a trot at all, so D1 led until he did, then he wouldn't stop, just kept powering round. When untacked he had to be cross-tied and still tried to take a chunk out of me.

Third pony was a good 14hh plus. Finely built. Flighty. Very sensitive. Had about five sarcoids.

Fourth pony was quite nice, a bit on the small side, but okay. No rider, but I went on my own for the first viewing so that was alright. Had a melanoma the size of a grapefruit just behind his ear. They said it wasn't an issue. Not for them maybe, but it wasn't mentioned in the ad.

Fifth pony was 130 miles away, but we went because she sounded just right. She'd been ridden or lunged before we got there, then put back in the stable. They said she hadn't. She had old scar injury on her leg, which they hadn't mentioned (in the photos it looked like a big cloud of school dust). Wouldn't have minded that, but she was stiff/lame, which they said was just the school being deeper in certain spots :rolleyes:. I asked to see her ridden in all three paces before D2 got on. Child (older and bigger than D2) walked and trotted and went to dismount. I asked to see her canter. Daughter shot a look at the mother, but the mother told her to canter the pony. Poor lass. Umpteen goes round the school with no signs of stopping! D2 said, 'She can stop now' to the woman, but I thought 'no she can't - literally!'. We had taken a lightweight friend with us, so she got on. Rode her very well and popped a couple of little jumps. The woman was ecstatic with our rider. We really wanted the pony, but there were too many alarm bells ringing. Tried her up and down the lane/drive. Rang a very experienced friend, who said walk away. Our rider said lovely, but strong and not quite right at times, hard to put a finger on. D2 was in tears as loved the pony already. I told the woman that we couldn't have her, and explained that she was too strong for D2. Woman went ballistic. We left smartish.
 
Yes. Went miles to view a horse (and not a particularly cheap one) several years ago. Saw it, tried it, liked it. Had already established we were first to view etc.

Offered deposit and full price. They were not worried about deposit and we left saying we would phone to arrange vetting for the following day (as we wanted to ensure no one else came along to purchase and we had already provisionally booked our vet to go and see it).

Next day they contacted us to say they had sold the horse to someone else!

What else could we have done?!!

Having said that, we found another horse, which took us into the world of showing - so worked out pretty well for us in the end!!!
 
Yes but one on loan The owners sharer had become ill & owner didn't have the time for her.

Tried the horse & we got on well, owner was happy with my riding, she came to see our yard, invited me back to try horse on a hack all went really well. I arranged to collect her, called to confirm, no answer. Got a text(!) from owner telling me that she had just told her sharer(!!) and the sharer was devestated so she had changed her mind!

I was livid!
 
A few years ago I went to see a supposedly 'well schooled' 6 year old ISH, who was apparently ready to go out and compete in dressage, SJ'ing, pre-novice evening etc, it sounded perfect on paper and was up for almost £7K.

The horse bit me whilst being tacked up, was unbelievably green in the school, they had no one to jump it for me (the girl didn't jump, only her brother) it bucked when I took it over all of about 2ft, and then they made the excuse of it wasn't wearing it's own saddle :confused:
 
OP - The trouble with word like "Novice" is that it is open to a degree of interpretation. Some novice riders may be quite good but lack confidence others may have confidence but ride badly. What some riders find scary others don't mind so really it is a bit of trial and error on both parts.

If you were too nervous to ride it properly maybe the seller was right to be concerned in this case? Doesn't mean to say you won't eventually find something more suitable.

Good luck with your search :)
 
sussexbythesea said:
OP - The trouble with word like "Novice" is that it is open to a degree of interpretation. Some novice riders may be quite good but lack confidence others may have confidence but ride badly. What some riders find scary others don't mind so really it is a bit of trial and error on both parts.

If you were too nervous to ride it properly maybe the seller was right to be concerned in this case? Doesn't mean to say you won't eventually find something more suitable.
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Agree with this totally. I would be worried about selling a horse, however good, to someone who was too nervous to do more than walk the horse.
 
many years ago I went to see a lovely 14.2 gelding, he was as described except for the 50 or so staples in his near fore from chest to knee.... hmmmm! They had been in a couple of weeks (and yet I wassnt told on the phone!!)and the owner assured us he would be fine to ride. She was terrified tacking up, in the end I went in and finished off, then went into the menage (pitch black with 2 bulbs either end - fun in the shadows!!) and both the rider and her friend refused to ride. In the end Dad pursuaded the owner to ride - she did one lap in walk and gave him to me. In the end he was a nice responsive ride, but as I only walked and did a little trot on the straight we decided against it, found out later the horse had been in a car accident and was traffic shy (understandable) and was 'interesting' to ride outside of the menage.
Thats about the only bad experience Iv had, apart from the bolting mare described as a novice ride, and the loan gleding who must have been doped or lunged into the ground before I tried him, as he pile drove me into the grass the second I got on him when I got him home! lol!
I buy cheap and young now, and hope that they are young enough not to have been completely ruined!!
 
if i were ever to sell raff (i'm not going to) i'd probably respond to an advert where someone put 'wanted, suitable for novice rider' as Raff is most certainly suitable for a novice rider. However, he's not suitable for someone that only wants to walk... because he'd get bored very quickly.

if someone came to view him, that was too nervous to do anything other than walk then i'd (as politely as i could) say he wasn't suitable for them.

like someone else said, 'novice' is a broad term. i'd describe myself as novice, yet i've been riding for 30 years. because i'd never dream of buying a horse that is 'not novice ride'... so it does depend on how people define novice too.
 
sussexbythesea said:
OP - The trouble with word like "Novice" is that it is open to a degree of interpretation. Some novice riders may be quite good but lack confidence others may have confidence but ride badly. What some riders find scary others don't mind so really it is a bit of trial and error on both parts.

If you were too nervous to ride it properly maybe the seller was right to be concerned in this case? Doesn't mean to say you won't eventually find something more suitable.

Good luck with your search :)
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Thank you. Really well put.
 
I live in the NE of Scotland and was over the moon to find my dream horse for sale in H&H. Unfortunately, he was in Buckinghamshire so I decided to ask the seller as much as I could before driving all that way to see him. He was a 6yr old Hanoverian, dressage breeding. 17.2hh bright chestnut. The pic in the advert showed him being ridden in a fantastic frame, really active hindleg etc etc. The seller told me he had been schooled and competed and was ready to go out and compete.

I arranged for my mum to look after my 6 month old daughter and we drove the 8hrs to get there leaving at a ridiculous time of the morning in order to be there at lunchtime as agreed. We walked into the yard and saw his gorgeous face peering out over the stable door and I was in love! Found the seller in the school teaching and she got a groom to take us back round to tack him up. I was very surprised when she went into a completely different stable! It turned out, the handsome chestnut was in fact the sire!!! They had used his pic in the ad as they didn't have a good one of the gelding!

The seller came down when I complained and asked if I would try him anyway. He looked terrible. Was thin as a hatrack and had a mane and tail full of dreadlocks. He'd apparently been left out unchecked all winter and she said she was surprised he'd lost so much weight when she took his rug off after bringing him in yesterday! Our visit had been arranged for a week and she'd only brought him in from his winter turnout the day before! She said he'll look much better with tack on! I was livid! Not only was it a massive journey for us but she wanted £9k for this boy!

Oh, the groom also told us he'd been to 1 dressage comp as a 3yr old and hadn't been ridden since then!

What a monumental waste of time. Que an 8hr drive home after spending half an hour at this yard, plus I was soaked to the skin as it was pouring down during our entire discussion. Bless my OH, I thought his head might explode!
 
Found what looked and sounded like my dream horse for sale online, got in contact with the owner and discussed everything, still sounded perfect. Kept asking to come and see the horse and she said to call her Friday after 5pm. Called her then and no answer, tried several more times. Then tried again over the weekend with no luck, leaving a couple of voicemails. Woman then emailed me during the week and said she had been too busy to answer her phone. Asked to see her the following Saturday. Owner said yes this is fine. The friday beforehand she emailed me saying she was taking her off the market as she needed more schooling, even though I had told her I was looking for something green to bring on. Said she would put her back on the market the following week, so contacted her the following week to see if she was ready to be viewed as I was so interested. Never heard back from the lady and later saw on her website that she had put the horse in foal saying such a shame she's had to do this, what a wasted horse but no-one was interested in buying?!?!

Very frustrating.

Another time, knew a horse was for sale down the road from me. Got in contact with owner and arranged a date and time to view. Went down there and waited 40mins, then to get a text saying she couldn't make it!! Arranged again to see the horse, again owner never turned up. Bumped into her on the horse at a show, asked to come and view the horse and ride him at another time, she said I couldn't ride him as he might be lively. Gave up. The horse is still being advertised!!

From a seller's perspective, my friend has been trying to sell her happy hacker horse for about 8 months, has probably had over 20 different people come and view, has passed any vettings, she has taken deposits and arranged transport to new home, only to be told every single time at the last minute, change of mind/circumstances!!
 
....following on from my above post, when I did find my boy, breeder was ever-so honest. Said the worst if anything. And couldn't be more pleased with my beautiful boy!!
 
We travelled for 2 hours to see a horse that was absolutely as described. We both rode him, loved him, and we put a deposit down on him. Booked a vetting, vet asked for postcode, so I tried to contact the woman for 2 days, phone and text and just couldnt get a reply. By this time I was feeling something was a bit odd! She text me after about 3 days to say she had decided not to sell! I did at least get my deposit back!
 
Yes - very similar story to OP. Some years back I went to see a horse, and all seemed to go well. Lovely friendly sellers, the horse seemed to be as described, nice to look at and ride, if a bit green. I was very interested. It was a 6yo horse they had bred and backed themselves, so they were naturally concerned it shoud go to the right home - they told me they had turned down previous viewers who hadn't 'been right'. Perhaps alarm bells should have been ringing, but I wasn't getting ny negative vibes, so I asked if I could arrange to come back with my (well known) instructor. Of course I could, they said they would be very happy.

I spent the next 2 weeks trying to get them to agree, or even suggest, a suitable time for the second viewing to take place before taking the hint and giving up - over a year later I spotted the same horse (by now about 7yo but from the ad still green) and still for sale by the same people. I guess they just never found the right buyer for their potential superstar.
 
We went to try one, got there and it had lost a shoe and was hopping lame, "It was too late to call you to cancel......" We didn't go back to see it again.

We were buying a pony for my brother, it was all sorted, it had been shook on, we were going to take it home that same day (we were at a competition), when they sold it to someone else in the mean time. Telling a 11 year old that his new pony had just been sold to someone else wasn't fun.

Recently went to Ireland to look for a hunting horse with a freind, and they'd brought the horses in the night before (after a 6 month break!), and dragged them out and took them for a 3 hour trek in the mountains.... Freind struggled to see through the scraggy manes, fat bellies and pooped horses! In fairness all of the horses behaved immaculately considering. They were not "hunting fit" though!
 
amymay said:
I'm not sure that this is necessarily wasting your time - just telling you that she didn't want to sell her horse to you. Big difference.

Just becasue an animal is for sale, doesn't mean to say that the seller has to sell to anyone.
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Thats not what i tried to say. She replied to MY advert, stating i wanted a novice ride, then turns round saying its not a novice ride...?? why didnt she just say she didnt want to sell her to me and wanted to wait....
 
JadeyyAndLadyy said:
Thats not what i tried to say. She replied to MY advert, stating i wanted a novice ride, then turns round saying its not a novice ride...?? why didnt she just say she didnt want to sell her to me and wanted to wait....
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I agree that it's confusing - however, as others have pointed out, there's novice and then there's novice. I wonder if she thought you fell in to the latter category (as you seemed so unsure and nervous), and therefor decided that she did not wish to sell the horse to you - as you were too novice.
 
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