How many horses did you go to view?

[patchandloopy]

umm, my preivous horse was an impulse buy!! And my most recent horse was the second horse to veiw-although i had emailed lots and made plenty of phone calls about other horses he was the second i veiwed and i saw him twice more beofre buying him.

He was about 1hr 15mins away, in Staffordshire.

 

[slivertonics]

sid my grey tb belonged to a neighbour who rode past with him and i thought 'i gotta have that horse!'
a year later he came up for sale, i went to see 3 others just to be sure sid was right and the rest is history, i was 2 grand down and the proud owner of a nutty tb lol!

 

[Leg_end]

Leg was the second horse i went to see. The first one was a nutter and was clearly not right for me (although she was stunning!).

I wanted a 16-16.3hh TB type,aged 5-9 preferably a gelding and a bay one. And i got... a 16.2 5yo dark bay TB!

 

[RachelB]

Maiden was the 10th horse I saw, I tried to get the ninth one vetted but she got sold the day before the vetting! Most of the ones I saw were totally wrong, mostly ex-racers (advertised as confidence-givers!), one who had obviously raced and the lady selling him (didn't want to admit she was a dealer) denied everything, 'oh no we don't do racing here m'dear'... despite being two minutes down the road from Lambourn.

With Maiden, I had no idea what she would be like, no picture in my head (unusual for me) and I decided withing 30 seconds I wanted her. I was looking for a 15.2-16.2hh confidence-giver, with a bit of jump and fairly decent paces so I could do RC stuff. I ended up with a 15.3hh saint with no jump (never been taught) and a horrible stilted walk, but a heart of gold! We're working on the rest! I didn't mind whether I got a mare or gelding, but Maiden isn't in the least bit mareish (everyone who meets her comments on 'how handsome he is'...!
I travelled mainly within an hour's drive, furthest places I went were Heathrow, Lambourn and Wimborne (where Maiden was). Not too bad, but it did mean a bit of searching.

 

[PoppyPony]

Dibbs got thrown at me when I wasn't looking for a horse!
I would never have looked at buying a cob, but Dibbs is so handsome and forward going he suits me just fine

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Many Thanks for all your replies so far. So many different views & stories as to how you found your ideal horse.

Mine was the 2nd I went to see. We were looking for a 15h2" gelding, aged around 8-9 years, with jumping potential. We ended up going to view one advertised as that in H&H but on seeing him he was infact 16h2", 6 years old & green as grass. He had a great personality, was kind & gentle, & was keen to please. His Sire was Grannex & Grand Sire Grannus so had really good breeding. He was really too expensive for us but the owner, an extremely wealthy woman, was more concerned that he went to a loving home. She greatly reduced her price & we bought him. He is now schooling well, does a nice dressage test but above all he jumps for fun & has amazing scope. We travelled about 45 miles to see him. We can't imagine life without him now. Periodically I send a DVD of him working to the previous owner so she can see how he is progressing.

 

[4whitesocks]

With my first two horses I bought either because I fell in love (at a Riding School) or on impulse....with Sid I saw about 15 horses, travelled to Northern Ireland, West Cork, Galway.....
rode 10, brought 3 home on trial....
all three failed their vetting

was looking fro a 16 2+ 7 - 8 yo mare, comfortable jumping 1 10 but not bored if jumping 80 - 90, no vices, no stopping, no napping...safe knows their job had hunted etc. Any colour but grey

ended up with a 16hh 4yo (now 5) bay gelding who knew nothing and had been nowhere...he barely passed the vet but we haven't looked back!!

 

[dieseldog]

This time round, phoned quite a few, saw 4, only sat on 2 of them as the others were too scary looking and bought the 4th one we saw. Whom we hadn't arranged to see but as we were driving home past the dealers we had bought the others from we gave him a ring and popped in. Was a lot bigger than I wanted.

 

[icestationzebra]

Several. Would have been lots but as I could only travel to see horses at weekends I was always missing out as people were getting there before me. We put a lot of miles in too. I wanted a grey gelding.... I bought a bright bay mare and she turned out to be 6 miles away!