Should I just give up?

[Muddywellies]

Aww. I feel your pain. Sometimes when we can't find what we are looking for, we become hell bent on finding it abd it can take over a bit. It's a rubbish time of year, even without CV. So why don't you do nothing. Just cruise along. Take a breather. Keep your ear to the ground, but only that. As the saying goes "What's meant for you won't pass you by". At some point, an opportunity will present itself (and might be something completely different to what you thought)

 

[Hallo2012]

facebook for bargains, i see especially C's but the odd D crop up for NO money especially if you can take a colt and geld it after purchase.

 

[milliepops]

possibly depends on what you call no money, haha

 

[ester]

Is there more than one definition of no money?

 

[Littlewills]

possibly depends on what you call no money, haha

Theres about 20 on dragon driving starting from £300 ono

 

[Red-1]

I couldn't find what I thought I wanted, so I bought what was, on paper, a very unsuitable horse. I am loving having him. Turns out he is a gem. A gem with health issues, but he is making me smile.

That Welsh D mentioned above looks amazing, if I hadn't bought Rigsby, I would have been trotting along to look at him.

 

[ester]

Theres about 20 on dragon driving starting from £300 ono

Missing the relevance of this to no money? sounds like £300 worth of money to me?

 

[milliepops]

i only saw lots of As on dragon driving (looked yesterday?)

 

[Laafet]

I am a little large for an A. My legs are quite long so I can look silly on small horses/ponies. I had a Welsh D x, well connected, his brother went PSG, he however was not one bit interested in competing, he was downright dangerous when he wanted to be, so I have steered clear since. 5 years I spent trying to convince him otherwise, then I sold him back to his breeder and was going to give up horses completely. I lasted a month and then Nickel popped into my life.

Ironically enough I live in Newmarket and work for a very large producer of Thoroughbreds but that doesn't seems to be helping much on the ex racer front. its incredibly cliquey and my face doesn't fit with some of those people. My friends on training yards have reported that they have been getting so many calls enquiring about racehorses needing to be rehomed. Basic horses that go in an 'outline' are going for £4k when usually round here they are £500 or cheaper. In the past horses have just popped up, so I have not had to 'look' as it were for a long time. All of mine have been word of mouth pretty much. So I had forgotten just how awful it can be to actively have to look for a horse on a budget. And Covid has obviously made it worse.

I have been touched on all your replies and don't feel so stupid now feeling so bad about my situation. I will have to wait until after lockdown now but will be trying to find someone who needs helps with riding locally. I have been putting out my ad every month since May on my personal and blog page on Facebook - it had over 13,000 views last time I refreshed it and put it on. I will refresh that again and pop it on at the end of the month. I am trying to be very sensible and not feel bad turning down horses that are not suitable. There's no point having a horse for the sake of having one when I already have a nice person to hack for as long as he will tolerate it. I do worry about him though and if I lose him before I find the next one that is going to be so tough.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

The period with the least amount of daylight is here, making it even easier to feel down, and that things are difficult, add Coronavirus/Covid-19, lockdowns, quarantines, prices on (supposedly) rideable horses having gone up, various other problems, and lastly also add that you've apparently for the XX time since you started looking had your hopes about that this might be my new horse crushed.

I think it sounds as if it would be more strange if you didn't start to question if you'll ever find what you're looking for. But finding a new horse can sometimes take time, even when all other factors are optimal.

 

[Littlewills]

Missing the relevance of this to no money? sounds like £300 worth of money to me?

No one said free. They said cheap. then no money which also means cheap. Someone posted a link to a cheap horse who was 3.5k. £300 is more what I think of as cheap.

19 Cs

https://www.dragondriving.co.uk/search.php?search&k=section c#AP

 

[ester]

They didn't say cheap - and neither did I! they said 'NO money', it was even in capitals surely that means no money, not a bit of money, or cheap, or any of those perfectly fine terms one could use to represent the situation of 'not a lot of money'?

 

[Hallo2012]

ok it wasn't a literal no money ie free and i think pretty much everyone would read it as dirt cheap not free as true freebies are rare.

under £500 is a good bargain whatever the breed and lets face it less than most saddles, boots or a couple of months general expenses.

 

[ester]

Thank you for the clarification. It read as a literal no money especially with the emphasis, hence posts 33 and 34. Always best to reduce misunderstandings where possible.

 

[Hallo2012]

Thank you for the clarification. It read as a literal no money especially with the emphasis, hence posts 33 and 34. Always best to reduce misunderstandings where possible.

i often hear welsh A colts are ten a penny- they are not they are £50 to £350 not actually ten for 1p.....

for no money (to my mind/as i hear it used) means an amount you can afford to chuck away/spend without thinking

apologies......

 

[ester]

Yeah, we don't all pick up on idioms unfortunately, especially when written.

 

[milliepops]

it's all relative i'd have to think hard before spending £300

anyway OP glad you are feeling a bit less despondent, the right one will come along at some point.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

It’s probably not hugely helpful right now, but assuming our purchase continues to go as planned we’ll be moving near to thetford next month. My youngster is being backed next spring so I’d love to find someone happy to hack out with us on my older boy and perhaps do some schooling if that would help tide you over while you look for something to loan/buy.

 

[Palindrome]

There are lots of French trotters going through rehoming charities in France. If you like a hot horse with a heart of gold and built fairly uphill, a trotter off the track will set you back about 700-1000 quids.

 

[FireCracker238]

Lancaster is a long way from me, I am in Newmarket ironically and am trying horses at our local centre, that's where I got buried yesterday, on my third ride of what I thought could be the one. I have always bought direct before from trainers and I have put it out locally what I would be looking for.

Going along this vein you could try Cheveral House

 

[Laafet]

Going along this vein you could try Cheveral House

They are currently not letting people go up to see the horses - so you are essentially buying unseen. I am not massively keen on this idea in normal times and even less so now. My friend did get a nice horse from there and would consider them if they open up again.

 

[fiestiemaestie]

Could you not try sue molley at palace house? She has a steady stream of horses through for retraining there?

 

[Laafet]

Could you not try sue molley at palace house? She has a steady stream of horses through for retraining there?

I live in Newmarket and would go up Palace House regularly when I was training, Sue knows I am looking for a horse...