Horsequest, horsemart, others?

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zoon

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I have a 3yo pony that I have decided to sell. As much as I adore him, he just hasn’t grown to the expected height and I am too big to back him.

I have never advertised a horse before; the two I have sold previously both went via word of mouth to friends of friends. But this guy is an awkward size at 13.2 so too small for anyone I know and I am trying to decide what websites to advertise him on.

There is a huge different in cost between horsequest and horsemart - is horsequest worth the extra money for a pony with a relatively low value? I think I have priced him correctly given his size and the time of year - he is well put together and a very nicely marked spotty that is chunky enough for a small adult, but I don’t want to price him too low as I’d like to deter the dealers after a quick buck (although I know there are dealers out there who would start him very nicely and find him a good home, I would prefer a private sale). Is horsequest going to attract more views from the type of buyer I’m after?
 
He’s a stocky little cob x appaloosa. Lovely looking pony, moves nicely for his breeding, but isn’t going to make a top competition pony. He will make a super allrounder for a small adult or a childs pony in the future.

So I was thinking maybe horsequest will have buyers looking for a competition type instead?
 
I bought our chunky cob from Horsemart - at the time we weren't fussed about breeding and wanted him mainly for hacking. He's turned out to be a good allrounder and loved his hunting but wasn't well-schooled and generally hated arena work. He was sensibly priced for what he was, what he'd done and what he was likely to do. We got him when he was 4 and he's now 25.

My wonderful Connie - sadly no longer with us - we saw on Horsequest. He was advertised as exceptionally well bred, had hunted, done dressage, SJ...a real schoolmaster. The price reflected this. We had him from age 8 to 21 and he was an absolute gem and worth every penny.

When I think about these two different selling platforms I think this sort of sums it up for me...as Cowpony has said, Horsequest tends to be more expensive.
But both platforms get good levels of engagement.

Your post caught my eye because my current pony is a little cob x Appy and he is totally wonderful - such a clever thing, small streak of cheekiness but will try his heart out. I bought him as a home-bred youngster from a family I knew who were involved in the hunt. There are lots of people looking for great allrounders.
 
I bought him as a weanling for myself. He was expected to make 14.2, but unfortunately for me I don’t think he will make it. Im really upset about it, but he’s a smashing pony with a great attitude to life and I like the thought of him being enjoyed to his full potential by someone else rather than being a companion with me. I think he’d be a super pony club or riding club pony
 
Horsemart is a cheap option so maybe I’ll give that a go and see what happens.

Need to rope it he husband in to help me take some good photos this weekend first
 
Horsemart attracts lower priced horses (in my opinion) whereas you get more sporty type horses on HQ.
There is also Whickr which is H&H own site.
 
I have only bought and sold two ponies, but over the past couple of years have seen half a dozen or so friends going through the process (as all our kids have grown out of the 12-13hhs and moved onto 14-14.2). Everybody seemed to spend a lot of time on HM and HQ (and I agree HQ in particular seems to be more focused towards higher priced competition ponies etc.) and in the end all sales have been through Whickr. These are for 'normal' nice, fun, good all-rounders, non-flashy non-world-beating ponies.
 
millitiger said:
Horsemart is horribly clunky to search on and not mobile friendly.

Always Horsequest for me when buying or browsing
Click to expand...
Yes you flick through two pages if on HM and you open one of the ads you like, when you close it you have to load up the pages and scroll all the way through again. I hate it.
 
millitiger said:
Horsemart is horribly clunky to search on and not mobile friendly.

Always Horsequest for me when buying or browsing
Click to expand...

Agree it’s awful. The search function brings up totally irrelevant stuff and ads that are no longer active.

I bought both of my last two off ads in HorseQuest. One is a DWB 6yrs ago and one Welsh D x Arab x Irish draft last year. Both higher end 4 figures. The DWB would probably have been low to mid 5 figures post Covid.

I did look at NFED a lot and another one is H&H which I think is now Whickr
 
Birker2020 said:
Horsemart attracts lower priced horses (in my opinion) whereas you get more sporty type horses on HQ.
There is also Whickr which is H&H own site.
Click to expand...
But for some bizarre reason, you cannot filter / search by BREED, on Whickr (altho previously could, using the old Horse&Hound site) - madness, they’ve got to be really missing a trick from breeders offering for sale.
 
Previous horses I have bought through Horsemart, they were happy hackers and young ponies for my daughter and were on the lower end of our budget. Current horse I got through Horsequest, she is a competition horse though and i paid a fair bit for her.

My daughter has currently been looking and we didn’t bother with Horsemart, set up alerts for Horsequest and looked on Social Media. She did however import from abroad but did want a specific breed/type.

Good luck, hope you find the perfect home for your pony who sounds wonderful 🤩
 
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