The one that got away…

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BBP2

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Lots of posts right now on buying and selling and it made me wonder if any of you have a ‘one that got away’ horse? One that you saw advertised/went to view and for whatever reason decided not to buy, and have thought about them ever since?

In 2024, filled with grief over losing BBP and with my stunning youngster clearly showing something wrong that I wasn’t sure would ever come right, I ended up viewing two lovely young horses. One of those was a really striking grulla quarter horse with a big white face, just down the road from me. He was way out of my budget but when I made an enquiry it turned out they had just dropped the price. When I went to view him, he was the loveliest guy, but he had what to me was a real pain face expression in his eye and quite severe sweet itch (which could have been the cause of the pain face), so for those reasons I decided not to buy him and instead went for the emotional part bred arab with a club foot who was about 5 hours away, but who was an absolute darling on viewing and I just felt a connection there. Turns out she has hated moving homes and has, to be honest, been a bit of a nightmare (but despite all the things I say about her, I do love her!).

I know I made the decision not to buy him for the right reasons, but I keep looking back at that sliding doors moment and wondering what life would look like if I had chosen differently. My Connemara gelding could have had a big gelding friend to annoy which might have made him happier, the QH could have been backed and riding away by now, and if those things had happened I probably wouldn’t now also own two mini Shetlands (well, technically I only own one of them). Sometimes I think maybe I’ll find him again one day. Like a romcom ending but with ponies.

Anyone else had a ‘one that got away’ horse?
 
I sort of have...

As a teenager when I was pony hunting (thanks Grandad!) I tried a wonderful little grey Connemara mare and fell head over heals for her. That was a Saturday afternoon. I phoned back the Sunday morning to inquire about a second viewing and she was sold (my family are non-horsey, it didn't occur to us to offer a deposit). I was heartbroken. In the end, I got my Hairy Champion, I didn't fall for him in the same way, I just thought "we could get along well". One day, years later, I suddenly realised how much I loved him, but a slow steady love, not the "coup de foudre" (lightening strike) that I felt for that little mare.

Between selling my Hairy Champion and getting my Little Madam, I fell in love with so many horses (I rode in riding schools in four different countries over that time, so got to meet lots of lovely horses), though I wonder how much that was because I knew I couldn't have one at the time... Love is easy without the commitment. I still wonder about some of them, though they will all be getting on in years now.

The last one that got away was the foal I'd all but reserved and waited all summer to be born for the breeder to decide to keep her. That hurt, but at least I didn't really know the foal.
 
Oh I saw his ad too.

I think i have a few 😅 i went to see a lovely chestnut flaxen Welsh mare who was sweet but i just didn't feel confident on for no reason. Arguable she probably would have been more suitable than my girl. One sweet guy I tried thay again I didn't feel confident on actually ended up coming to our yard 2 years later with a rearing problem, which is now fixed and he's ridden by teens, but I'm glad I didn't buy him as a 5 year old 😅 after I bought my girl when she was being tricky a lovely big arab came up for sale exactly what I had been looking for except grey but suspiciously cheap and just up the road, I do wonder where he ended up.

I do think these horses dont end up being as perfect as the fantasy we have in our heads, horses are horses after all.
 
To answer your actual question, yes there are a few that I think about. One I didn’t even view, but when I was looking for my first horse as a teenager there was a 15.1 4yo 3/4tb x Welsh palomino gelding on H&H that I lusted after. Unfortunately it was a few hundred miles away…

First horse I tried out, was definitely not as far along in his training as owner had said. As in, he’d been sat on a couple of times 🙈 not the horse for me but a super stamp and hopefully went to a good home.

When I was looking for a youngster a couple of years ago I went to see (8hr round trip) a 2yo because it looked identical to the old chap I’d lost the year before. Was MUCH bigger than the owner had thought (on professional youngstock livery and she lived several hundred miles away). He was a very very sweet boy though. I know he ended up being bought by someone at the yard he was on, but then found him for seriously low money on preloved as a 3yo ☹️ No room at the Inn by that point, and he was indeed already well over 16.2 (owner had said to make 15.2)
 
I don’t think I have.
I had one that nearly got away but fate intervened.

Poor early 20’s … looking a cheap horses / unbroken, sharp, vet issues etc

Saw one - sharp and vet issues.
Fell hook, line and sinker in love with him.

Went home, discussed with my vet and my yo. Both very much said don’t go there.
So made a head over heart decision and said no.

A month later I got a call ‘horse still here. No one else could ride him. Do you want him for free’. I got him as a 6yo and he stayed with me for the rest of his life!
 
Yes. I tried a beautiful horse about 8 years ago. I was cheeky and he was slightly over budget. I tried to negotiate and the owner was having none of it.
She did sell him 6 months later (the market was slow) and I tracked his eventing career. He did a season at 90, had an injury and then went into showing with a good producer.
 
Cloball said:
I do think these horses dont end up being as perfect as the fantasy we have in our heads, horses are horses after all.
Click to expand...
I guess that’s the thing isn’t it. Had I decided against the arab I always would have thought about her and she would have been the one that got away. And I would have been blissfully unaware of all the chaos that I had missed out on 😄
 
I found as soon as I bought a pony all the good ads appear and I had to keep telling myself it's an ad it's probably too good to be true, you haven't actually seen them, they are at the other end of the country etc.

A lovely ad for a quarter horse popped up just as my pony's brain has been blown trying to fix a medical problem 😅 I used to exercise a super sweet highland pony who was sold when I was a student, she would have been fab we got on so well but I wasn't in a position to buy at all (zero funds med student placements all over the country lots of travel and shifts) not wise at all. I do wonder where she ended up.
 
There was a gorgeous large buckskin for sale a few years back, called Chatterbox. I wasn't really looking but I met him on a trip to look at potential RDA horses and then again when a friend went to view him. At the time I just couldn't get the funds together fast enough and he sold. But I was very, VERY keen on him. I have tried a couple of times to find out where he went, but with no success.

However I have my gorgeous, sweet, clever black cob, and that in itself is all my childhood dreams come true.
 
No, I'm too sentimental so if I love them I will buy them 🙈

I very nearly left Jack behind as during the vetting, it came out he'd had a wind op, tendon issue and eye issue, none of which were disclosed to me as apparently 'all healed' so they didn't see the point in mentioning it 🙄
Based on this, and his stiffness, the vet failed him in about 10 minutes and left.

However I was completely in love with him and also a big dollop of sympathy as he'd been owned for 8 years, lived in their beautifully maintained Cotswold estate with all the facilities but he looked poor, had barely any bedding and no turnout for 6 months.
This was after he'd taken the girl from 90s to 3*** eventing!

So I went ahead and bought him at a knockdown price and took him home.
The vet was so adamant that she was right to fail him, she rang me that evening to rant about the owners, not knowing he was already sat in my field 🙈

Sadly we lost him to complications from a rotational fall that also weren't disclosed and he'd basically broken his neck and no-one had cared to have it treated properly at the time 😥

However, I had the best 3 years with him and even though it was a short time, he left one of the biggest impacts on me that any horse ever has.
5 years on and everyone in my family still cries if we talk about Jack, he was a very special horse.
 
Sort of - I went to see one and had a really silly fall off him that was my fault. I was convinced (due to my own hang ups) that he was going to stop at a fence but he was too genuine and popped it and I went out the side door. I ended up in A&E with concussion, decided that I wouldn't get over that start so said no to him. The next day I changed my mind but he'd already sold. I thought about him a lot even after I'd bought Charlie but since I bought Wig I've barely given him a second thought.
 
There was a beautiful, big jet black mare, who had 3 white socks and a blaze, who stood at 17.1hh at a riding school where I was taking lessons a few years ago.

It came up in conversation that the mare's owner was looking to sell her, and was loaning her to the riding school to keep her in work, till someone who was interested brought the mare.

I managed to get the owner's details, spoke to her at length and explained that I would be happy to buy the mare from her, but I'd like to have her on a loan with view to buy period before committing, as I'd only ridden her in the school so had no hacking or jumping experience.

The mare's owner declined and I was gutted as I really clicked with the mare and adored the bones of her.

Sadly I never found out what happened to her, but I do think about her occasionally and hope she ended up in a lovely home, as she was an absolute darling......
 
Someone else local bought frank, in the days of freeads/no photos and she hacked him past our house and I was gutted we hadn’t gone to see him (top of budget and a bit far)

3 months later he was for sale as she’d fallen off too many times and she told the old owners he was dangerous on the road (anything but!)

So he came home 😅 albeit he wasn’t quite the clipped fit pony that hacked past my window

He was the first of about 7 ponies she bought and sold over a 9 month period …

We did have a sort of mutual friend that knew the previous owners who were quite worried about him being sold on so quickly so they came to visit armed with a lot of photos and videos.

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I had a lovely foal booked from lines I really wanted, when I went to collect I found the dam was for sale too. I just couldn't afford both but hoped she would get a good home as she was young from really good lines.
I never knew where she went at the time but then sadly found out via the dratted Internet, that she was exported to a place I wish she hadn't gone to. I have felt guilty ever since I found that out.
 
A pink roan pony, that was down south in about 2019.

I wasn't brave enough to buy him without seeing him. He was affordable, 14.2hh and all the videos looked good.

I desperately tried to get someone to go and view him for me, but it fell through. I just wasn't brave enough.

I often wonder start became of him.
 
Possibly a few…

A project horse that was closely related to a previous project horse I’d owned… that turned out to be an amazing horse.

A foal I saw in an online auction… a dodgy dealer bought it.

An ex-racehorse I’d ask the trainer if I could buy when it had finished racing. Trainer said he’d contact me, he never did. Saw an Ad for the horse on FB, but trainer said no to a strangles test, and my offer, which was within the range requested, was too low.
 
A grey 15.3 TB/ID cross mare named Melody Blue. I loved her and would have taken her home in a heartbeat but… I also knew I wasn’t the correct home for her. She was a mare who would have thrived in a livery/ competition environment and I keep mine at home and don’t compete, she would have been bored out of her tree!
 
Yes. I had two viewings on a lovely 5 year old coloured gelding- cob cross sports horse.
There was a few little niggles with him that made me eventually say no- he got very tense when you went to dismount and his head would shoot up and he’d threaten to run backwards. He also didn’t give me great feeling in the canter and something just made me think there might be an underlying issue. He had an incredible jump on him though.

About a year later I spotted him on a girls social media and he was looking incredible. She had started showjumping him and he was winning everything- he was seriously impressive.
I was a bit gutted by that one, I have to admit, but the feeling I got at the time told me to walk away.
 
Yes. A friend had a lovely coloured that she’d bought at weaning, he was skewbald and I loved him and he loved me. She showed him in hand for a couple of years then sold him I think rising four (she didn’t ride), he was offered to me and I was sorely tempted but was in DIY livery and couldn’t afford two. His new owner ignored advice on his management and chucked him out over winter, whereas he had lived in at night, well rugged. He coliced and died.

And one I only saw a photo of, that was being sold on behalf of its owner by a young event rider I knew. He was a sane, black M&M type, not quite full Sec D from what I remember (blimey I must have seen the photo 15 years ago!), doing a dressage test in a competent manner. He really stuck in my head. I never did anything about it.

Of course there are others too!
 
Oh several I remember keenly over the years....

As a 17 yr old looking for a PC eventer
Fell in love with a 16.3 TB type that gave me sooo much confidence at the viewing. Absolutely adored him but discovered at the vetting he was 13 not 8. Would still have bought him but the vendor wouldn't shift on the price

In my mid twenties, looking for an eventer (again!) Went to a dressage dealer who had a sharp little Dutch horse called Amarillo. Too sharp for her usual middle aged female clients. Failed the vet and she wouldn't negotiate. She never sold him and I saw him a few years later, bored to tears being used for her working pupils.

There have been a few.more but those two stand out
 
There was a cob at the RS I learned to ride at who they were clearly getting sick of, I’d always got along really well with her, and loved her to bits. She was always very no-nonsense, she wouldn’t spook without good reason, but she was known for biting/threatening to kick people who did wrong by her. So we made an offer, but it was refused.

Last I heard, they’ve confirmed that she has hockey arthritis, and still tried to shove her over a course of jumps, so she kicked the instructor, and decked the kid. Knowing her, that doesn’t surprise me one bit, but it does make me sad, as she deserves a 1-1 home where she can enjoy life.

Two months before I met Erin, I met a morbidly obese highland pony gelding at a reputable local sales agent. He was incredibly sweet and tried his heart out. I knew he had issues during the viewings, but I didn’t know the extent. The vetting showed that he had an extremely extensive list of issues, and the vet estimated that he had a life expectancy of months in that condition, unless things were changed drastically. His foot-perfect behaviour despite the amount of pain he was in (bloods were clear, he had water, and no evidence of having been worked) was testament to the sort of horse he was, and he deserved a chance. We offered £1K. They (owner + agent) insisted that he was worth full price (7K), as much as it broke my heart, I walked away.

Last I’ve heard of him, he’s back with his original owner, being forgotten in a field somewhere, and possibly dead by now. It does make me hate humanity.

At least I get to do the best I can for Erin and Saus.
 
Miri was one I kept an eye on because I didn't buy her at the time I bought Mim but always had a Miri-shaped hole in my yard. So she's a bit special like that.

Husband has a horse he wishes we'd bought. He asks after her from time to time and I try to find her. She's a chestnut mare by Woodlander Wild Child and he's always liked her. Last I saw she'd had a foal which was sold last year.
 
I fell in love with a youngster at the stud I worked at. He was an absolute sweetheart, a little cheeky but so cuddly and loving. He was really level headed and took everything in his stride - I had the joy of lightly backing him.

The only drawback (in my eyes) was that one of his forelegs was toe out and the foot was very slightly clubby. I thought it would be silly to buy a horse likely to have issues, told myself it was a bad idea and squashed those thoughts. Then I changed my mind and planned to speak to my boss.

Sadly, my timing was off and the day I wanted to speak to my boss about him, someone came to see him and bought him on the spot.

I still think about him a lot. Unfortunately haven't been able to track him down, so doubt I'll ever see him again. I'd have him in a heartbeat if I ever saw him come up for sale.
 
14hh Welsh d x appaloosa bay roan 2.5yo filly Dakota
I groomed her, picked up feet, saw her trotted up, she started mutual grooming me and was generally a sweetie but we decided too narrow/small for me. The owner cried because she saw how well we got on and we'd explained we keep all our horses for life and she didn't want to sell but couldn't afford two anymore and she'd just lost her job but had two children and because she'd lost her job couldn't afford child care in order to get another job so was in a horrid catch 22.
I think about that filly a lot.
Not my 'heart horse' (My heart horse is dead) but a really lovely little animal.

Whilst also looking a friend gave us the number of 'a friend of the man I rent my field off who apparently breeds cobs'. We rung him and he said we could go look - he couldn't be there but the address was xxxxx for the fillies, colts were 'in a barn somewhere else'.
There was 10. Tiny, absolutely untouched from that year's weanlings to a couple maybe 2-3. Feet curling up like slippers, skeletons with big wormy bellies and long ropes of tangled hair hanging from their barrels. I sat in the field with them ages trying to see if they'd get close enough to even touch but they didn't.
We rung him back later that day and asked how much he wanted for them (bearing in mind none of those poor little things would've made more than 12-13hh) and he said 4-500 for the small ones, 600, 700 the bigger/older ones. It was way too much considering the state of them but he would not budge and it felt unconscionable (never mind unaffordable) to give money to someone producing animals to keep them in such a way. We learnt later he'd previously sent ones he could not sell to slaughter.
I did later file a report with the RSPCA though their online portal thing, despite not having any photos to back it up, I don't know if anything ever came of it, but I have been back to the place once and the field is empty, so hopefully he's stopped breeding for good. Two of them in particular I remember, a blue roan tobiano and a little red roan who stuck to each other like glue and watched me with their ears pricked forwards but flew off if you moved towards them only they couldn't trot without tripping over their long hooves.
I hope they died painlessly.

It's the only time in my life I've considered crowdfunding but the idea of funding more of that treatment of any living thing was so impossibly nauseating.

Anyway I own a unicorn now
 
I tried this horse a good few years ago now and I don’t think I’ve ridden something that gave me as good of a feeling since. And probably never will at this point! The hang time in the air and his willingness just felt so cool. Rocky is my soulmate (notwithstanding my human soulmate, of course…) but this horse really was something else.

 

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