Pros and cons about buying from a dealer?

i would only ever buy from a dealer, of course one you know and can trust

Private sales all look at there horses through rose tinted glasses, with a dealer you get a more realists idea of what your actually buying.

and most importantly come back if it is not the horse for you, they will swap it at least or some full refund.

There is 2 dealers in scotland where i stay i would use, i know them and i trust them.
 
You can get conned by both. A good dealer has a reputation to lose. So do your homework before you go looking and check and double check. There are good and fair dealers out there as there are private sellers. A dealer may have several suitable horses for you to try out or they may be able to source for you exactly what you are looking for. They would have put the horse through its paces.
I was conned by a private seller.
 
Last edited:
There are two types of dealer, the honest and the dishonest. I would always ask around for feedback from any person I intended buying from whether that's a dealer or private seller.
 
Silver-Dove said:
Personally i would never buy from a dealer, you get no history with the horse. I would always buy from a private seller.
Click to expand...

Thats a rather sweeping statement & rather unfair to genuine dealers.

There ARE a good number of decent dealers who DO keep info on the horses & ponies they have in.
Yes, there are always horses or more that come in with no history - thats how some end up in dealers.
However, there are equally as many which do have competing history, breeding etc too.
 
There are some good dealers and there are some shocking private sellers.
And vice versa.
I don't really understand the question :)
 
A dealer may have a variety of horses that may be suitable so you can try a few. But make sure you do your research on them as there are unfortunately some very dodgy dealers! I bought from a dealer and have only ever known good horses to come from them in particular, mine is too and I have all his history! :p
 
Having been conned by several private sellers I would now only ever buy from a dealer. They have a reputation to maintain and you have some sort of comeback if the horse turns out not to be what you expected, plus they usually have excellent trial facilities and you can often try several horses on a single visit which saves travel costs. Good dealer will now the history of the horses and lots of horses end up on dealers yard for very genuine reasons, for example owners lost grazing or doesn't have time to sell or needs a quick sale for financial reasons. I used to work on a dealers yard where we reschooled ex-racehorses for sale and were very honest with potential buyers about behavioural issues, quirks and medical history.

It's important to research a dealer before you decide to buy and word of mouth is the best way to find a good one I think. There's a very good one locally to us who import young horses from Europe of very good breeding, either break them or put some miles on them and sell them on. They are very easy to deal with and very reasonable with prices and exchanges.
 
Having had a very bad experience with a dealer and being in the middle of police investigations into said dealer who is out on bail I would be very wary of buying from a dealer. I thought I would have more comeback buying from a dealer but she refused to honour the written warranty given with the pony. I took her to small claims court and won but still don't have my money back. The police are involved due to many other sales and are putting a case together.
I did google said dealer before purchasing but little negative feedback came up. Since then I have tried to warn people about this person but any mention of a name on a forum gets vetoed by admin as they are so scared of litigation. It is very difficult to research dealers in this situation unless they are local and you can ask people locally.

I did buy my horse from a dealer and she is a star although when I first got her she was 2 years older than advertised.

Good luck if you are horse hunting.
 
A dealer you are more likely to get a returns policy, & have more choice in one viewing, however you pay more for that benefit.
Private owner more likely to want the best longterm home for the horses sake, but a good dealer has a strong reason to sell only suitable horses to maintain a good reputation.
As far as being honest/dishonest goes, I don't think there is any difference, there's bad in each, & I assume every seller is lying until proved otherwise anyway. If they are dishonest, a dealer is more likely to have had practice at blagging, but, you would also have more legal comeback than with a private seller.
Dealer probably won't know quite as much about the finer details of a horse than a long term home, but is more likely to be able to give a non-biased general view.
In short, its swings & roundabouts, just look for a suitable horse, then check out the sellers history, regardless of private or dealer.
 
I think in those two options you also get "direct from breeder" . Most I know are very honest about their horses as they have an emotional tie to the horses and want them to have the best possible match.
 
Frankly a good place to get recommendations of local dealers good and bad is to ask the local farriers. My hubby could tell you exactly which dealers to avoid - he sees the same problems arise time and time again from the same dealers, so he has strong opinions on them.
 
I would buy privately or from a dealer if it were the right horse. There are good and bad on both sides.

We looked at one horse with a dealer for my husband, we said we'd have it, subject to vetting, but the chopped and changed days for vettings etc, so we decided to leave it be. We then looked at another horse that happened to be another dealer. We went to see it on a day that the dealer was out, she said it was ok. There were too young teens on the yard, who couldn't get the bridle on the 17h stubborn giraffe we were looking at, once I'd tacked it up, the girl rode it, couldn't get it to canter, and nearly cried when it did a huge jump over a cross pole! I liked the fact that nothing had been covered or faked, it was warts and all. We bought the horse.

I think if you know a bit about horses, and really listen to what is said, rather than hear what you want to hear because you like the horse, hopefully you're ok.
 
Thanks all. I know buying a horse no matter where from can be a risky business. It's not something I really had much experience in.

My friends actually found Pinto for me, and how they founf him i still don't know.

I found Blitz just by chance, as I wasn't really looking for a horse, and certainly not a foal, at the time.

Horse prices in France are pretty high, and what I'm looking for seems to be rarer than hens teeth!
 
Orls said:
...They have a reputation to maintain and you have some sort of comeback if the horse turns out not to be what you expected, plus they usually have excellent trial facilities and you can often try several horses on a single visit which saves travel costs. Good dealer will now the history of the horses and lots of horses end up on dealers yard for very genuine reasons, for example owners lost grazing or doesn't have time to sell or needs a quick sale for financial reasons.
...
Click to expand...

Another reason for leaving your horse to be sold by a dealer or selling your horse to a dealer, could be that the dealer have more experience in selling horses than the owner, who maybe only have experienced it from the other side = when they bought the horse, whereas a good dealer knows about writing contracts and having a horse vetted, they're used to dealing with potential buyers, and they should be better prepared to handle the situation, if the buyer wants to return the horse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top