Selling advice.

eahotson

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Ahh, I had a similar one, but picked it up in the end and it was clearly a young traveller lad, somewhat tipsy. I was selling a TB eventer, he wanted a shetland, the conversation was bizarre! Since it wasn't a shetland and not even broken to harness, would I take £500? But at least he was polite, if a bit slurred.
how funny.
 
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Leandy

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For a pony try your local pony club etc for more knowledgeable horsy contacts. Also, have you measured her properly taking shoes into account? You say 14.1. If the pony is not exceeding 148cm now then I would not indicate that I think it may go over that unless clearly still growing upwards rapidly and I wouldn't expect that at 5. All being equal, a pony with ability for height classes is worth more and of interest to serious buyers only if it measures in. A serious buyer knows better than to view a pony advertised as over height when they need it to measure in. I don't see any value in indicating that a 5 year old may end up at 14.3 when it is only 14.1 now and you could well put off serious buyers. In any event, 148cm is a little over 14.2hh.

I do not entertain showing a horse to someone with whom I haven't had a sensible discussion about what they are looking for and whether I think there may be a match. So when you have had all these useless queries have they actually spoken to you? If they are just messaging then if it is obvious from the question that the animal is not suitable then I message back saying so. If they ask sensible questions I then respond by giving my phone number and saying please call to discuss. If they don't sound suitable then I just tell them the animal is not suitable for them but thank you for enquiring. I'm not going to let anyone arrange to come and try unless I have actually spoken to them though. Nor do loads of messaging or go out of my way to provide more videos etc until I have done so. You have a much better idea of whether they are credible then. Asking for videos is perfectly sensible both ways and as a seller you have to be prepared to provide sensible videos but I would never ask someone to video something they aren't doing regularly anyway so it shouldn't be too much trouble. You do see a lot of videos from professionals which whilst they show walk, trot, canter and possibly a jump or two are so heavily edited that whilst one can see the type of horse and how it moves, you don't get much of an idea of how it actually goes or how educated or otherwise it is. ie horse goes from left to right and vice versa in each pace in an arena. I would much rather see some longer unedited clips of the horse schooling, showing transitions etc giving a more warts and all view of how it is going at the moment. Particularly for a child's pony I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for videos of it being handled and in traffic etc. For a competition horse, I will be suspicious if the seller doesn't have any videos of it competing. I think though that if you are just getting numpties, you should put the price up significantly and market with good photos and videos on sites etc where knowledgeable people will be looking, so keep it out of the"bargain hunter" market.
 

milliepops

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"You can try, and I'll take the videos for you..."
hahaha!

actually Leandy's post above has helped me personally too. I had a request for some jumping videos. The horse has now been sat on a few times and we are bumbling along keeping everything very quiet and relaxed while he gets established with this. I understand why people want vids like that but I really don't want to razz him up so someone can see him lunge over a fence because it doesn't fit into his work plan right now. Not asking for videos of things people aren't normally doing is a decent stance. I had been trying to give whatever they asked for to everyone who enquired before and it was pretty stressful, the whole reason for selling was that i wasn't in a position to give the horse an education so having to educate for a video was nightmarish!

you can tell i've been out of the horse market for, erm, 30 odd years... last time it was just a short para in the free ads and you rang the landline to ask to come and view :p
 

Peglo

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[QUOTE="milliepops, post: 14891333, member: 54458 you can tell i've been out of the horse market for, erm, 30 odd years... last time it was just a short para in the free ads and you rang the landline to ask to come and view :p[/QUOTE]

I think I viewed my TB from an advert in the local paper that read

for sale: 16.1 12 year old mare.
??
 

05jackd

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For a pony try your local pony club etc for more knowledgeable horsy contacts. Also, have you measured her properly taking shoes into account? You say 14.1. If the pony is not exceeding 148cm now then I would not indicate that I think it may go over that unless clearly still growing upwards rapidly and I wouldn't expect that at 5. All being equal, a pony with ability for height classes is worth more and of interest to serious buyers only if it measures in. A serious buyer knows better than to view a pony advertised as over height when they need it to measure in. I don't see any value in indicating that a 5 year old may end up at 14.3 when it is only 14.1 now and you could well put off serious buyers. In any event, 148cm is a little over 14.2hh.

I do not entertain showing a horse to someone with whom I haven't had a sensible discussion about what they are looking for and whether I think there may be a match. So when you have had all these useless queries have they actually spoken to you? If they are just messaging then if it is obvious from the question that the animal is not suitable then I message back saying so. If they ask sensible questions I then respond by giving my phone number and saying please call to discuss. If they don't sound suitable then I just tell them the animal is not suitable for them but thank you for enquiring. I'm not going to let anyone arrange to come and try unless I have actually spoken to them though. Nor do loads of messaging or go out of my way to provide more videos etc until I have done so. You have a much better idea of whether they are credible then. Asking for videos is perfectly sensible both ways and as a seller you have to be prepared to provide sensible videos but I would never ask someone to video something they aren't doing regularly anyway so it shouldn't be too much trouble. You do see a lot of videos from professionals which whilst they show walk, trot, canter and possibly a jump or two are so heavily edited that whilst one can see the type of horse and how it moves, you don't get much of an idea of how it actually goes or how educated or otherwise it is. ie horse goes from left to right and vice versa in each pace in an arena. I would much rather see some longer unedited clips of the horse schooling, showing transitions etc giving a more warts and all view of how it is going at the moment. Particularly for a child's pony I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for videos of it being handled and in traffic etc. For a competition horse, I will be suspicious if the seller doesn't have any videos of it competing. I think though that if you are just getting numpties, you should put the price up significantly and market with good photos and videos on sites etc where knowledgeable people will be looking, so keep it out of the"bargain hunter" market.

Some really interesting thoughts here. She is unshod and has absolutely no need of shoes at the moment as she has excellent feet. She measured in at 14.1hh but we could definitely put the stick on her again as she has muscled up over the past few weeks.

I’ve have adverts up on Horsequest and horsemart with an asking price of mid four figures which I hoped would deter the ‘bargain hunters’!

with the market so crazy at the moment it’s hard to know how to price!
 

05jackd

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hahaha!

actually Leandy's post above has helped me personally too. I had a request for some jumping videos. The horse has now been sat on a few times and we are bumbling along keeping everything very quiet and relaxed while he gets established with this. I understand why people want vids like that but I really don't want to razz him up so someone can see him lunge over a fence because it doesn't fit into his work plan right now. Not asking for videos of things people aren't normally doing is a decent stance. I had been trying to give whatever they asked for to everyone who enquired before and it was pretty stressful, the whole reason for selling was that i wasn't in a position to give the horse an education so having to educate for a video was nightmarish!

you can tell i've been out of the horse market for, erm, 30 odd years... last time it was just a short para in the free ads and you rang the landline to ask to come and view :p

Agreed! This is how I bought my first horse.
 

Lois Lame

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She sounds a little under-priced to me at mid four figures. Of course, I don't really know the market there, but she sounds great.
 

Wishfilly

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Some really interesting thoughts here. She is unshod and has absolutely no need of shoes at the moment as she has excellent feet. She measured in at 14.1hh but we could definitely put the stick on her again as she has muscled up over the past few weeks.

I’ve have adverts up on Horsequest and horsemart with an asking price of mid four figures which I hoped would deter the ‘bargain hunters’!

with the market so crazy at the moment it’s hard to know how to price!

If she is nicely bred and has no faults, then mid four figures is probably a bit underpriced- FWIW, I paid in that region for my pony about 18 months ago, he was a little older and had a bit more education but also has mild sweet-itch, no breeding to speak of and a few flaws which means he would never do well in the show ring (to be clear, he's a lovely pony). I viewed a very green 5yo connie who had had a previous injury as a youngster and another connie with really quite serious sweet itch in the same price bracket.

And I think prices may even have gone up since then, despite everyone saying they would fall!

I would probably put her on POA, and measure her again and market her in cm (i.e. under 148).
 

Birker2020

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It’s worth considering sales livery
If you send a horse to someone to sell on sales livery and then a buyer comes along what then happens if the horse turns out to be a headcase a few weeks down the line? It the onus on the agent to find them something else? Or the original owner to repay what that person paid? And what happens if the agent doesn't disclose all the information because they don't think they can get a sale?

Someone on our yard is thinking it might be an option for them to buy a horse from a sales livery as with the current market she is not able to even view horses she likes as they are literally gone so quick. I said I didn't think it was a good idea but I don't think its deterred her much.
 

Goldenstar

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No the onus on the sales agent to return their money which they would then recover from the owner .
There’s recent case history on this .
When I bought Sky he was on sales livery it’s a good way to find horses .
 

ycbm

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No the onus on the sales agent to return their money which they would then recover from the owner .
There’s recent case history on this .
When I bought Sky he was on sales livery it’s a good way to find horses .


I thought if it was an agency sale you had to sue the owner for the money and then the owner had to sue the agent if they told lies?

I agree sales livery is a good way to buy, I'd have no hesitation buying from an agent with a good reputation to protect.
.
 
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