Strangest reasons for people not buying your horse

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The wife

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In the last week we have had 4 people try an absolute saint of a pony. He's only 5 but well put together, extremely well mannered, impeccably behaved, pops a small fence, hacks out alone or in company, has had lead rein children on board, has a lovely work ethic, not the flashiest of movers but very kind, gentle and willing. So far 3 of these 4 have been time wasters but have come up with an array of weird, wonderful and highly amusing reasons not to buy him...

So I put it to you, what is the funniest comment you've had for not purchasing your horse or even the funniest comments you've been asked while people are trying a horse.
 
I went with a friend to view a horse called 'Flame' (stated in the ad, but no photo) and saw a really lovely chestnut mare. The viewing went really well, in fact the mare was perfect, but my friend turned her down saying 'She's great, but I expected her to be grey.' :confused:
 
The wife said:
In the last week we have had 4 people try an absolute saint of a pony. He's only 5 but well put together, extremely well mannered, impeccably behaved, pops a small fence, hacks out alone or in company, has had lead rein children on board, has a lovely work ethic, not the flashiest of movers but very kind, gentle and willing. So far 3 of these 4 have been time wasters but have come up with an array of weird, wonderful and highly amusing reasons not to buy him...

So I put it to you, what is the funniest comment you've had for not purchasing your horse or even the funniest comments you've been asked while people are trying a horse.
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You cant tell us all that and not the reasons! :p
 
I daren't put details incase anybody reading is somebody who has given us the excuse!

But "he doesn't go in an 'outline"' is one...

A friend of mine has had a question about a gelding that went something along the lines of "do they cut the whole willy off or leave a bit"... *goes to bang head against a wall*
 
I had someone travel 4 hours to see him, walk in the stable & say "oh he's a bit whiter than I though"! She'd seen tons of photos & he was a coloured with minimal colour, mostly white!

He also has a blue stripe through 1 eye, when she saw it I got "omg has the vet ever said anything about his blue eye?" To which I replied "oh yes, he said hasn't he got an unusual lovely eye" ;) xx
 
2 that stick out in my mind-

He's grey (he was grey when they saw him the first time as well).

He's unbroken (as stated in the advert).
 
From the other side of the fence, what do you say if the horse does nothing wrong, looks exactly like the photo, and is worth every penny of the asking price but you just don't him/her.

Do you claim you don't: Like its stride, feel right, or you get that gut feeling this isn't for you. How do you put that in words without offending the owner?

Sorry to chuck a spanner and all that...
 
Agree with above posters...some of these people aren't time wasters! They aren't intent on wasting your time. They are people that thought they may want to buy your horse from your ad, from pictures you have seen and from the phone call. I went to see 7 horses before I bought mine, most weren't as I thought they would be from speaking at length with their owner....I'd hate to think what they were saying about me!
 
shmoo said:
From the other side of the fence, what do you say if the horse does nothing wrong, looks exactly like the photo, and is worth every penny of the asking price but you just don't him/her.

Do you claim you don't: Like its stride, feel right, or you get that gut feeling this isn't for you. How do you put that in words without offending the owner?

Sorry to chuck a spanner and all that...
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I probably have been called a time waster in the past i usually use the excuse i didnt click with the horse and it didn't feel right.

Normally its because the horse is not as described an the easiest way of saying this without peeing of owners !
 
^^ I normally tell the sellers the truth :) whether its just don't feel a connection, don't like something about it etc I'd just tell them how it is & they usually appreciate honesty rather than feel a bit confused or annoyed by a 'timewaster'.

I would class someone a timewaster if they stated they didn't want the said horse due to a colour or something else they knew about beforehand (like another posted stated a youngster for instance). If they just said they weren't feeling it for xyz reasons then that's fair enough. They're not gonna know without trying ;) x
 
I think it's fine to go see a horse and just not like it or not click with it and therefore turn it down. I wouldn't call that time wasting, that is something you can't figure out over the phone. I went to see a lovely roan gelding many years ago, super jump and nice manners, reasonably well schooled and experienced competition horse. On paper he sounded perfect but when I got there he was just blah! I just didn't like him as a person, I couldn't picture myself owning him. I just told the owner he wasn't the one for me. There was nothing really wrong with him, he just wasn't mine.
 
Not me, but someone I know selling a very quiet pony - the arena was really deep and the pony tripped going into canter, and skipped it's bum along a bit to get it's balance (literally just going from disunited canter to a correct canter) and the woman viewing it goes 'It bucks!!! We don't want a bucker!' and left :eek: If you can't deal with that level of "bucking", you can't deal with a pony full stop...
 
Billie1007 said:
It won't match with my other one :)
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I once bought a horse which was for sale because she had been bought to make a matched driving pair but they didn't match:confused:
I've never been able to work that out she was very obviously a bay 16.3hh Clydesdale with a narrow blaze and white feather, surely they knew whether she matched the one they'd already got or not, when they first saw her.
 
I would much prefer somebody to tell me they just didn't think the connection was there rather than come up with silly reasons for not buying something for example, "I wanted a gelding".... Why look at a clearly advertised mare? We've turned down ones before that I 'just didn't like' and have told owners so.

Its supposed to be a fun post guys, not what one person would call a time waster vs anothers :)
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I once bought a horse which was for sale because she had been bought to make a matched driving pair but they didn't match:confused:
I've never been able to work that out she was very obviously a bay 16.3hh Clydesdale with a narrow blaze and white feather, surely they knew whether she matched the one they'd already got or not, when they first saw her.
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It's more than just looking similar that makes a show driving pair, it's length of stride, temperament paces etc (and of course whether you can essentially tie to two together and not have them kick 7 shades out of each other)
 
My gorgeous 4yo ID gelding was unsold at the sales this week (wasn't going to give him away), and the thing people questioned most was the fact that he's unshod. I put in the particulars that he is great with the farrier (unlike most horses over here), regularly trimmed since a foal (unlike most horses over here) and hacking quietly about the farm. He has not needed shoes.

Apparently though, he should have been shod from the age of 3, and because he hasn't been it means he is difficult with the farrier, hasn't been ridden at all, and won't be able to jump.

I despair.
 
Selling my 4yo, someone came to see her, put up some jumps and she jumped them all really well, then asked to put a jump up a bit so they banged it up to about 110cm, she cleared it beautifully. They then said she didn't have enough scope for them.
I literally don't know what else she could have done to please them, except maybe sprout some wings and fly over the jumps! Don't know what else they were expecting of a 4yo pony?! Strange..!
 
Rowreach said:
My gorgeous 4yo ID gelding was unsold at the sales this week (wasn't going to give him away), and the thing people questioned most was the fact that he's unshod. I put in the particulars that he is great with the farrier (unlike most horses over here), regularly trimmed since a foal (unlike most horses over here) and hacking quietly about the farm. He has not needed shoes.

Apparently though, he should have been shod from the age of 3, and because he hasn't been it means he is difficult with the farrier, hasn't been ridden at all, and won't be able to jump.

I despair.
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After being told the same when buying a barefoot horse (who'd been shod in the past) and him being an absolute **** with the farrier, i'd never take the risk again! So can understand people questioning that.

The most annoying excuse we've had was when selling a mare we had who was too sharp for us. Stated in ad she wasn't a novice ride and very sharp. Had a husband and wife come and try her - they spent an hour riding her, jumping her and churning up our paddock (understand people need to try though so not much we could have done about that!), really liked her and was supposedly for the husband. Got a call later on saying she'd be too sharp for their 13 year old daughter!!! The daughter had never been mentioned up until that point! Grrrr. Very annoying. Unfortunately though part and parcel of selling!
 
I think I gave a pretty pathetic reason for not buying a little roan mare when I was looking...all because I was too nervous to tell the seller that she was lame :( Wish I'd been braver now!!
 
Friend is currently trying to sell her sons sec c as he is outgrown. This is one of the best ponies I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, caters to all abilities, absolute dream in every way. People came to view him, said he was perfect but he had too much presence. :confused: :confused: :confused: I wasn't sure that was possible?!?!
 
Luckily I've only ever had to sell 3 of mine and 2 of them went to the first person who saw them.

The 3rd was a lovely little tb mare, we brought her to bring on a sell and she literally hadnt put a foot wrong and if she was bigger I would of kept her. A teenager came to try her out and all was goin well til the girl took her over a jump. The mare just galloped flat out round the school, jumped the school fence and then galloped across two fields before she stopped!! I just stood in the middle of the school like :eek:

Needless to say the girl didn't need to give me any reasons as to why she didn't want her lol

Luckily she sold to the next viewer where she behaved like her more normal self and they still have her 8 years later
 
The wife said:
Its supposed to be a fun post guys, not what one person would call a time waster vs anothers :)
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Sorry :D, Didn't want to cause controversy. Honest !!!

I was just musing after reading the ridiculous things people come out with.

:p

I had two girls turn up drinking bottles of beer once to view my horse... I didn't let them get on, they left laughing at me and calling me all sorts of names. In the end the farmer came out and told them what for. Really upset me at the time.:mad:

Love the didn't match from OP earlier though :D
 
I went to see a horse who would have been great but I really didn't like his legs, ground his teeth when ridden, looked lame in the video of me riding him and the notes on a previous vetting (reading between the lines) gave me cause for concern. I just said that I didn't feel he was the right horse for me and that there were some conformation issues that I wasn't happy with. I should have been more honest really but the seller was so lovely and very disappointed that I didn't want him.
 
Years ago went to see a "welsh cob".
It wasn't exactly as described- a cob indeed, but not a hint of Welsh about it.
So asked the owners about their description, only to be told " it is, its a cob and we got it from Wales!"
Not as described was my reason, but I think the irony was lost on them!
 
when selling my very pony like 14.2 mare, one seller came and the viewing went really well but they turned her down saying 'she doesnt ride big enough for me' - if they wanted something that rode big why were they looking at a 14.2h pony?!
 
shmoo said:
From the other side of the fence, what do you say if the horse does nothing wrong, looks exactly like the photo, and is worth every penny of the asking price but you just don't him/her.

Do you claim you don't: Like its stride, feel right, or you get that gut feeling this isn't for you. How do you put that in words without offending the owner?

Sorry to chuck a spanner and all that...
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I've done it many a time...I just say Thank you for showing him to me, he's lovely but not right for me. No-one has taken offence, these things happen.
 
When we put our beautifully bred event horse (age 4) for sale we had 2 interesting visits. First one claimed she had flat feet, like her current horse by same sire (she has brilliant feet, only recently been shod aged 5 as she was slipping on wet courses doing ode, of which she's done 4, placed once, won twice all dressage scores under 29%). Didn't want her as her 'flat feet' would be an issue. We found this very odd as we were long reining her on roads, no issues with the stones.

Second one said she didn't have enough bone. That's fine, but we'd sent loads of photos, & they knew she was 3/4tb, 1/8wb & only 1/8ID. She has beautiful conformation, but she is not an irish draught with huge amounts of bone, nor did she look like one in any of the photos.

Very pleased these weren't interested, sold her to our stud vet for her daughter, who was who we hoped would have her all along. They're a brilliant combination.
 
Spottyappy said:
Years ago went to see a "welsh cob".
It wasn't exactly as described- a cob indeed, but not a hint of Welsh about it.
So asked the owners about their description, only to be told " it is, its a cob and we got it from Wales!"
Not as described was my reason, but I think the irony was lost on them!
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Wow...that's a...interesting interpretation!
 
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