Please help...should I be worried??????

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*Maddy&Occhi*

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Hi guys

Cut a long story short, ive decided to give my mare away. After a long hard event career it has just taken so much out of her. For a long time now Ive known it was time for her to live a quieter life, gentle hacking etc. So I decided it would be best if I found a loving new home for her. The money isnt an issue for me, its finding her the perfect home. Because of her limitations with what she can/ cant do I didnt think I would get any money for her, hense why I advertised as free to a good home. Well, I advertised her last night and literally have been bombarded with texts/email/calls about her. I spoke to one lady who seemed very genuine and asked if she could come down and see her tomorrow, so I said yes etc, just recieved a text from her asking if she could come saturday instead, and could she bring the trailer if she liked her, she could take her that day :confused::confused: is it me or is that just a bit fishy???? Then I recieved an email from a lady warning me about people pretending to love the horses etc so they can sell them on or send them to the meat man for money :eek::eek: Im so worried now, and im not sure what to do?? Should I advertise her for money so I dont attract any weirdos?

Anyone else been in the same situation?

Thanks guys
 
Not sure what the best way forward is but this is what I'd do:

Put a price on her above what she would be 'meat value'. Get the name of the person and google them, see what comes up. Maybe ask them to try her too. Visit where she is going to to get a feel for the place.
Good luck, I'm sure there are genuine homes out there.
 
Do not give her away free to good home as 99% of the time you will have a dealer trying to make money out of it! There are genuine people out there, I took on my little welsh free to good home but you can never guarentee that! If I were you I would probably put her out on permenant loan for a year and do plently of checks on her to make sure that home is right for her then give her to them :) also when you do give her away do a contract that says if they can no longer keep her you get first refusal and/or new owners details :)
 
cheeryplatypus said:
Not sure what the best way forward is but this is what I'd do:

Put a price on her above what she would be 'meat value'. Get the name of the person and google them, see what comes up. Maybe ask them to try her too. Visit where she is going to to get a feel for the place.
Good luck, I'm sure there are genuine homes out there.
Click to expand...

^^That's sounds like good advice to me. Although my first thought, is ask around. See if anyone you know might be interested first.
Definately Google anyone who calls/texts/emails. I am always putting phone numbers/email addresses into Google, it's amazing what comes up! You can soon tell if someone is buying/selling lots of horses, or anything else for that matter.
Also maybe you could say you will delivery her to her new home, that way you get to see it. My loan pony's owner wanted to delivery her, which is no problem, in fact it saved me a job!:D
 
Unfortunately there have been quite a few cases reported on here where people offering wonderful 'happy ever after' homes have either buted up/repassported as younger/misadvertised and sold them on, or in some cases yes, they have ended up going for meat.

There is no way of guaranteeing the horses future but a few things could be considered:

Could you loan instead? You would need to thoroughly vet any potential owners and have a properly drawn up loan agreement, and you would need to keep a check on the horse. You could always do a loan-to-buy (or loan-to-gift) in the future if you were happy.

You could advertise the horse for a reasonable sum (£500 ish) and then you could tell people when they enquire/if you are happy with them that you would be willing to take less, advertising as 'free' will unfortunately attract some undesirables!

I certainly wouldn't be letting the horse go without finding out a fair bit about the buyer, asking for references from yard/vet maybe, and I would strongly encourage them to try the horse out a few times so you can see if you approve of the partnership.

Good luck :)
 
Hi,

As much as I would love to think all the calls you get are genuine, I think sadly there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who may take advantage so it may be a good idea to do some checks.

You could ask to visit their yard or where they would be keeping her and also do an internet search as hopefully if there is anything dodgy, their name would come up? Maybe suggest to potential buyers that you would like the chance to keep in touch and pop in to see her on occasions and gauge their reaction to this? Could you consider loaning your mare as that way, you still have some control and you could write up a loan agreement? Surely, if someone was genuine about wanting to give your mare a good home they would not mind that?

Good luck and I am sure you will find her a lovely home!

Katie
 
I'd do my research into where my horse is going. Find out as much information as you can about the person, get references and view the yard where the horse will be going. If it's all above board, the new person won't see this as a problem, if they get funny about it then stop the agreement before it gets too far. If everything is above board, insist on delivering the horse to the yard as opposed to them collecting it.

If it's not too late to (which it sounds like it already might be), then could you change it to permanent loan instead of free to a good home? If you do this, make sure you have a contract in place (you can get this from BHS site) and arrange to check on the horse every six months or so.
 
Warn them their names will be checked with MHOL, horses scams on Facebook but agree. Money over meat or read through the trace, stolen forum to see how you can safeguard yourself. The whole sell while on loan, meat man is happening more and more...
 
If she is YOUR horse and has given YOU a nice long hard event career. Why not retire her yourself, instead of palming her off on someone.... You could always advertise for a jockey for her to keep her hacking out over the Summer. ?
 
Hi guys

Thank you so much for your replies, really appreciate it and some fantastic advice there. Im going to change my ad to full loan instead and ensure that I vet check pottential new homes. Will defintley not be allowing this lady to come and see her!

Thank you again
 
personally if someone wanted to bring a trailer to take away when they do their first viewing i;d be telling them where to go. agree. full/perm loan idea then if the person looking after - and is genuine you could always sign over ownership at a later date.

Also if you still did consider free to good home - word of mouth is by far the best way to do that. thats how I got my son's pony she was ace and had a good few years with us before pts. (i wasn;t even looking for one for him)
 
*Maddy&Occhi* said:
Hi guys

Thank you so much for your replies, really appreciate it and some fantastic advice there. Im going to change my ad to full loan instead and ensure that I vet check pottential new homes. Will defintley not be allowing this lady to come and see her!

Thank you again
Click to expand...

Much better way forward and of course she can be loaned from your yard then, which enables you to keep a very close eye on her.
 
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