The extent of lying in adverts... (rant sorry)

I still laugh over my horse's advert. He doesn't/didn't have a medical condition but it was things like;
- comes to call (struggled catching him so asked previous owner for advice and she said he had always been like it. It would normally take me 2 hours)
- well behaved hacking, even when other horses are upset (he lacks so much confidence and is usually the least behaved!)

I now don't feel like I could trust another advert so would go to a dealer next.

Hope you find a horse soon :)
 
when i've advertised my pony for loan and sale i was so honest i didn't get any serious responses.
the ones i did get were from people being totally stupid and unrealistic.

for starters i said he was unbacked. a few emails i had about him asked if they could come up with their kids to have a go on. or would he be suitable for pony club camp the following week! it was quite shocking really.
needless to say i've still got him and it will stay that way until the RIGHT person comes along.

it's hard work looking for the perfect horse but it's worth it once you get it! ;)
 
i once went to see a 5yr old when i was about 14, he was about 15.3 and the add described him as safe to hack, forwardgoing but sensiable.
I remember it clearly because when we got there i looked at the horse and did not like its stamp so said thanks but no thanks. the owner then was very insistant that i should ride him , i declined as he was not for me, on chatting to her she mntioned that she had hurt her back, when we asked how she let slip that the last time the horse was ridden wa about 4 months ago, just after he had been broken , she had taken him out on the road and he had napped then spooked at a car , spun round and flipped over in the road then bolted home. and she was going to let me be a crash test dummy.:eek: not every one is out to get you, but theres always a few...:(
 
Perhaps I have just been very lucky, or I have very low expectations but I always have got what I paid for.
Its human nature to cover faults, after all everything has them. I always try to buy from someone less knowledgable than me, working on the premise if they can ride/look after it the chances are so can I or my daughters.
I try not to be swayed by a smart yard, one of my best buys came from a shed in someones back garden. I also watch body language its what they don't say and what they do that counts. Also a quick google of their telephone number will soon tell you if the private seller as sold anymore recently.
If you are going to buy from a dealer and I wouldn't unless it was a young horse they had just broken, you have to remember you are paying twice what they paid for it at least. Dealers make money by quick turnover, so they could have bought or taken it in part exchange a week ago. They do not really know the horse and certainly probabley who they bought it off will have been economical with the truth so they have to double or triple the price to make it worth the bother and make a profit.
And I would say be prepared to compramise. What is really important to you. If it does all you ask but it the wrong, age,sex,colour,cribs,9/10 lame, what ever is that really important?
I have an old TB, I wanted a dressage horse but could not afford the prices. He had done showing and was 17 when I bought him for not a lot of money with his tack. With my I eyes open to the pitfalls I bought him. He did exactly what I wanted, got my daughter out and on to horses competeing and getting good marks. My point is I was not looking for a TB, and certainly not an old one.
By chance I met someone who sold him to the girl I bought him from, and the girl I bought him from had been honest about his past.
 
actually some people are completely honest - when we sold Mr Git - we could have done as the previous owner had & starved him into submission [ claiming poor grazing:rolleyes:] or taken him to market as a smart blemish free IDX - BUT i sold him for the price of his tack & rugs to someone who knew all his horrid habits - nearly a year later - she still has him & sends me photos of him doing well [ the money i lost means that i cannot fund a replacement for my older mare - but i did the moral thing] - when we sold on out-grown ponies we have always been totally honest - i could not bear to think of some child being injured/scared or worse because of my need to make a dollar or two - we have even turned away buyers because they were not suitable for our sharp little 2nd pony - so take heart there are some pos many good sellers out there - but sadly some folks seem to have a complete morality bypass at the point of selling a horse
 
honetpot said:
Perhaps I have just been very lucky, or I have very low expectations but I always have got what I paid for.
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Same here!

All the horses I have bought have been as described, and I have only tried a couple that were not.

Also agree that there is always a compromise somewhere with horses - you just have to decide what you are willing to compromise on.
 
The thing is though, yes I would make the compromise if the owner was just upfront about it.
It's really peeing me off, I keep asking, with no real response just "talk to the vet".

Horse was lovely, but I don't know if I can trust it, I know its a bit harsh, but who knows what else has happened to the horse before I rode it... if you know what I mean.
 
Sometimes its not the seller lying though- its that the buyers are idiots! Like if you sell something as a nice jumping pony, then its rider spends a few rides hanging off its mouth over every jump, sending mixed signals into the jumps, over-facing it etc etc, then pony decides its less confusing and painfull to refuse to jump. New owners then contact previous owner saying the pony was sold not as described.
 
It is so difficult to buy a horse or pony. It is not 'til you get them home that you know what you have bought and viewing is another story!

I went to see one that sounded suitable. I had asked if it had ever seen the vet other than for routine jabs etc. Told over phone ,no. Went to see said horse and it looked awfully flat on the wither, I was wondering how to fit a saddle to it when it transpired it had had an accident as a youngster and damaged it's spine, Doh! What a waste of a journey.

My present boy was as described. Good and bad. Wouldn't part with him for the world. There is a horse out there for you.
 
Oh i can totally relate to this...

'no lumps/bumps or blemishes' - oh, apart from the whacking great bursitis on the poll we noticed back home... and the old healed tendon tear which has retorn =/ oh yes that no blemishes... oh and 'been jumping bsja at -local showground-' but somehow had NEVER seen a coloured pole! and took a year to get her to jump a clear round with no run outs

and the lovley thought of not putting their name on the passport ! oh and the varying lengths of time they'd owned her- of course being naiive back then it seemed like a honest tradesperson, hahaha how wrong can you get! oh well we all love her and she sure landed on her feet, not many would have stuck through the issues she has caused :/
 
Tell me about it. Ive seen 4 horses, none of which were suitable or as described the last one was nervy but I was told he was laid back before I got there. Ive been done 3 times by dealers so Im not going down that route again but how do you protect yourself from dishonest sellers, apart from getting 5 star vetting and bloods done?
 
It's annoying when people lie in adverts! I couldn't do it for my horses sake never mind anyone else. I would want a potential buyer to know everything about my horse to ensure they went to a loving and permanant home and not just sold on.

However I think in a lot of cases its that the sellers don't actually know, I went to see a horse which sounded great when I was looking last year got there and the owner was quite obviously a novice, which is fine, but the horse was lame and she had no idea.
 
I must have been very lucky when I have bought/sold horses!

I sold my horse within 4 days of advertising him. Woman came to see him on saturday morning, vetted him saturday lunchtime and he was gone saturday afternoon!!
I was honest about him, and luckily the buyer was honest about her ability too!

Buying, we saw one "sport horse", turned out to be a cob, and there was another horse we went to see was lame :mad: could have saved us a 5 hour round trip :rolleyes:
But my boy they were honest about him; what I saw was what I bought :)

The right one is definately out there :)
 
Steorra said:
When looking for my first horse I thought I'd found the perfect one: a super mare that was very chilled, had done BD and BSJA but the owner wanted to do more than she had scope for so had passed her on to a dealer acquiantance to find her a suitable home. She was a real pleasure in every way and the story seemed to add up. Then came the vetting - on paper she passed with flying colours. But our super, experienced vet said he had a 'bad feeling' and strongly advised us to get the blood samples analysed BEFORE we took her on. She wasn't lame but he said that on the flexion test she seemed to expect it to hurt. Well, we had the bloods analysed and she was buted to the eyeballs.
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That story just brought tears to my eyes. :( That poor mare. There's some people I'd just love to punch in the face. :mad:
 
My first buy ended up been a huge learning curve. Found a mare which I thought was ideal, owner seemed very honest, however informed me that the horse was 'quirky' in her stable... When I asked her what her 'quirkyness' consisted of, she described it as face pulling but would never do anything physically.
Got her home and she was bargy, pinned me against the wall, dragged me out the stable door, wouldn't stable whilst the others where turned out and wouldn't stay out whilst the others where in, wouldn't tie up outside on her own... No face pulling what so ever, just a mare who was very different to the one I viewed. I saw her in her stable for all of about 20 seconds when viewing and thought nothing more of it (My fault :() Luckily she was returned and even more luckily I got my money back!

When you do start viewing again, take an experienced friend. Mine has helped greatly and pointed out issues that I've over looked. She also found the horse I'm now getting on trial :D

Good luck and I hope you find what your looking for!
 
Arghhhh i hate horse hunting :( I always ring then forget what i need to ask lol ... When we were looking for our first horse 3 yrs ago we went to see a gelding who sounded perfect over the fone, but then after trying him out they told us he wouldnt pass a vetting because of an old leg injury :mad: ... Then when we rang about a "16hh bay gelding great RC horse", it was actually a 16hh GREY 4yr gelding apparently done some jumping and never napped, bucked etc went to view and it was just out of racing, but we bought it for some reason!! When he arrived we discovered a whole new horse; bucked, napped, reared and couldnt jump a pole on the ground!! He turned into a super horse after alot of work, really miss the wee dude.
 
vieshot said:
Sometimes its not the seller lying though- its that the buyers are idiots! Like if you sell something as a nice jumping pony, then its rider spends a few rides hanging off its mouth over every jump, sending mixed signals into the jumps, over-facing it etc etc, then pony decides its less confusing and painfull to refuse to jump. New owners then contact previous owner saying the pony was sold not as described.
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Excuse me.
no, I did not ride it terribly.
The horse was not mis-sold ability/temprement wise from what I saw. But it was mis-sold on the health issue front.

Thanks.
 
some sellers are def honest - i brought a project horse from a top riders (wont name them) groom, but they ran out of grazing so sold her for silly money (£695) She was a 5yo 15.3 TBxNF bay mare, sounded really sweet so went to see her... sold from field so just went to meet her, and see her trotted up etc... lame. She said they were all hoolying about in the field earlier (about 10 youngsters in the field) so thought shed probably jared something, and would we like to see how she is in a few days. We said yes as we liked her.. Sound. Picked her up the following weekend. Had her 8 months and didnt have a days lameness. Sold her 2yrs ago and still in touch with new owners and they love her to peices, never been lame :)
 
My advice?

Dorey wasn't the horse I went to see. A lovely chestnut skewbald mare called Alice was the love of my life at that time. But Alice had a snotty nose.

Dealer assured us that she had the perfect horse for me, but she was on the way from ireland. All I remember her saying was "we've been after her for a while". Figure it was worth a second visit.

The mare was well behaved, but ugly, dull, thought she'd make a nice project, but certainly not a horse I'd love.

Got her vetted. Vet couldn't fail her, but she "failed" the flexion tests and apparently had a broken wind.

Well.

7 years later, her lame leg has been sound for the full 7 years, her wind has never stopped her doing anything (the vet didn't realise, our other cob had partial laryngial paralysis and hunted and evented fine :rolleyes: ). She's filled out so she's not so ugly looking anymore, and with some weight came her personality, all those hundreds of bags of it.

She is probably the best find ever. And she wasn't what I was looking for, wasn't what I wanted, wasn't what I liked and failed her vetting.

Think outside the box, and you'll find the adverts don't lie anymore.

(Except, she DID manage to lose 2 years in the process of travelling over from ireland... we were going to see a 7 year old and bought a 5 year old...)
 
honetpot said:
If you are going to buy from a dealer and I wouldn't unless it was a young horse they had just broken, you have to remember you are paying twice what they paid for it at least. Dealers make money by quick turnover, so they could have bought or taken it in part exchange a week ago. They do not really know the horse and certainly probabley who they bought it off will have been economical with the truth so they have to double or triple the price to make it worth the bother and make a profit.


I'm sorry, but what a load of rubbish... Not every horse has to have doubled in value upon stepping into a dealers yard. Dealers are after a quick profit so actually if you think about it they want to put Less money on and get rid of it... Quick turnover... If they doubled the price they paid for every horse nothing would ever go!!! Don't get me wrong, some dealers do I'm sure add alot of money but to say what you said above is ridiculus!! Not every dealer is the same :( and it's comments like that that make people not want to go to them when actually surely a warranty etc is better than going to a private seller with no comeback?!?!?

Don't worry Raych... You'll find q gooden eventually, don't give up :)
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vieshot said:
Sometimes its not the seller lying though- its that the buyers are idiots! Like if you sell something as a nice jumping pony, then its rider spends a few rides hanging off its mouth over every jump, sending mixed signals into the jumps, over-facing it etc etc, then pony decides its less confusing and painfull to refuse to jump. New owners then contact previous owner saying the pony was sold not as described.
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EXACTLY!! this is why 75% of horses go back to dealers, as the buyers are divs and want something better than they are capable of. If you bought from a private seller, the chances are they'd say, oh well... But with a dealer, you take the horse spend a week or so ruining it then just chuck it back at them and give them a bad name to boot!
 
penfold said:
Tell me about it. Ive seen 4 horses, none of which were suitable or as described the last one was nervy but I was told he was laid back before I got there. Ive been done 3 times by dealers so Im not going down that route again but how do you protect yourself from dishonest sellers, apart from getting 5 star vetting and bloods done?
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Ummm - no disrespect, but what is wrong with getting a 5-stage vetting done?

I know that vets (like doctors) are not infallible, but reading through this thread, it seems to me that a proper 5-stage vetting (which includes taking a blood sample that can be checked later for tranquilisers, bute, etc.) would have been a good idea in almost all of the cases described!
 
htobago said:
Ummm - no disrespect, but what is wrong with getting a 5-stage vetting done?
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Vettings are around the £300 mark nowadays. Have one or two fail and its a serious amount of money spent just to find out someone's a liar.

Maybe when we buy horses we should drag sellers on Jeramy Kyle for lie detecter tests instead! ;) :D
 
not all buyers are divs, we might just need a hand as we dont kow much.

im looking to buy a horse, and as i havent ridden in a while i want something fairly slow and ploddy, that can live in a feild and will be a bit forgiving with me.
now i have been offered countless horses by people, all of which are completely unsuitable for a novice like me, the most honest bloke was surprisingly a gypsy, who is helping me nag the other half into submission.

i would like a youngster that i could get help breaking in myself, it wont be something i'll have for a year and then sell on, im looking for something for life, and noone i speak to seems to get that.
 
newtothis said:
not all buyers are divs, we might just need a hand as we dont kow much.

im looking to buy a horse, and as i havent ridden in a while i want something fairly slow and ploddy, that can live in a feild and will be a bit forgiving with me.
now i have been offered countless horses by people, all of which are completely unsuitable for a novice like me, the most honest bloke was surprisingly a gypsy, who is helping me nag the other half into submission.

i would like a youngster that i could get help breaking in myself, it wont be something i'll have for a year and then sell on, im looking for something for life, and noone i speak to seems to get that.
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In all honesty, in all but the most exeptional cases, your requirements are mutually exclusive.
 
Maybe it would be an idea for sellers to have the horse/pony vetted first. Obviously it would be sensible to have it vetted yourself with your own vet anyway, but at least it would be difficult for the seller to hide anything major.

There should also be a grading system for horses concerning price. Two ads reading basically the same can have a huge price variance. I am looking for a horse for my 14yr old daughter and sometimes don't ring an ad because it's suspiously cheap or alternatively because it seems to be a huge price for something that has done very little!
 
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