To buy or not to buy? dilemma! (pics)

Go back for a proper look and get some decent photos of her limbs and feet. Remove mud if at all possible. Make a very low starting offer if you are going to buy her, you can always increase it.
 
Gwena said:
Thats all my friends have been saying!!! buy her!

Conformation wise - how do you think she looks? Her feet are covered in mud so look a bit boxy - but I think thats the mud. She appears to have a good shoulder. What do you think she is? I'm assuming she's half NF, she's not as cobby as some of the other ponies he had and doesn't appear to have too much feather. Apparently on her passport she's called Longslade Elfin.
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She is lovely. Feet will be a bit boxy at her age as they have not finished growing yet. I really like her.
 
I am a hopeless case when sentiment with animals comes in - she would already be in the field with me if it were me :D

On a serious note, if she loves people and has chosen you, then i certainly would take a punt, I would not offer the asking price - but she would be coming home with me.

I often end up with the no hopers - or those on last chace saloon.... you know what - each and every one has turned out to be a honest, loyal work horse - ok may not have the looks but a twisted back leg did not stop the Ginger one from being a superb hunter, a schoolmaster jumper - a solid fun hack and she worked till she was 23 when she was retired.

You can have the pefect horse confirmation wise - but if it has not got the will to work - you may as well send it to Findus - on the other hand a horse with poorer confirmation but the want to please can be helped to have a sound and fun future.

Good luck - whatever you decide
 
I don't think the OP has made any claims that she is "rescuing her" so I'm not sure of the relevance of some of the posts re buying better and supporting good breeders. It's not all about pedigree!
 
Two of her hooves are broken forward. When you go today have a good look at them. It may just be that she needs a lot of heel taken off. It is her near front and off hind. If there is plenty of foot to come off you should be fine. If not, then I would have your farrier look at her before buying.
 
Personally, my number one priority when getting a horse is temperament and personality. I can overlook a few conformational faults so long as they are not serious. I think this filly will grow up to be a stunner. My only serious concern are the feet. But this kind of problem can be due to poor or non existent trimming of the feet. The foal at our yard missed one of his trims due to having an op and being on box rest. He soon developed a broken forward axis on both fronts. A five minute trim, and his feet look normal again. I suspect this is what this filly needs. More heel off and leave the toe longer on the two broken forward feet. You will see the other two feet have rather long toes that have started to flare up at the toes. I think the hoof problem is due to neglect.
 
Do you want her as she is now, whatever the conformation, feet, breeding, etc. because you have fallen in love with her and have the money, experience, facilities and time to keep a youngster? If yes, get her. Nothing wrong with indulging ourselves once in a while!

If you want a pony for your daughter to do a specific job then buy the best you can afford for that job. This decision has little to do with love.
 
If it was me and I'd fallen for her I'd get her. If you just raise her and get her to be a good child's pony then you can feel happy that she has a better future ahead of her than she might otherwise have had even if she might not be the perfect show pony. I bought a similar sort of young gelding a couple of years ago and turned him into a pony a child now rides and adores and even though I barely covered the cost of keeping him I felt happy that he now has a more promising future. I'd check her feet out before I got her but hopefully there's nothing wrong a good trim won't sort out.
 
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Wagtail said:
Personally, my number one priority when getting a horse is temperament and personality. I can overlook a few conformational faults so long as they are not serious. I think this filly will grow up to be a stunner. My only serious concern are the feet. But this kind of problem can be due to poor or non existent trimming of the feet. The foal at our yard missed one of his trims due to having an op and being on box rest. He soon developed a broken forward axis on both fronts. A five minute trim, and his feet look normal again. I suspect this is what this filly needs. More heel off and leave the toe longer on the two broken forward feet. You will see the other two feet have rather long toes that have started to flare up at the toes. I think the hoof problem is due to neglect.
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This ^^ Looks aren't everything (although i think she is beautiful - love the white forelock on the darker forehead), you do need to be sure she will be sound, but she's young & if she's only been touched 5 times, how likely is it that her feet have had proper attention? Go with your heart, but let your head have a little say too! I'd probably take her home! There has got to be some of us soft suckers in the world - not many of us regret being that way!
 


Can't beat a good forrester (or cross). Lost my best ever 14.2 NF gelding to freak accident last June - now riding away a lovely forest bred 4 y o & with another stunning 2 y o growing up in our gelding herd.

This is a quality filly once she's finished growing & her feet wouldn't worry me as a good farrier can work wonders.

Best bit of all - temperament!!! These ponies were bred to work (hard) and do everything from take missus to market in the trap to take farmer hunting, they live off fresh air (your biggest problem will be not allowing them to get fat as laminitis does lurk if weight control not adhered to).

Your comment about coming up and saying hello is exactly what my baby did - peeled away from the herd and marched over, head on shoulder, lovely kind eye, please take me home - I did and provided you can afford her keep that is a good price and she would be coming home with me!!! :D:D
 
Buy!! I bought a 3yo connie x off Facebook 18 months ago, for the same money. She has turned into a dream pony. This one looks lovely and she'll be a real stunner in the future I bet!
 
Can you cope with a youngster? Can you afford the time and the finances? Remember this filly may be very friendly and go up to people generally if given the chance. Could she be infoal? are there any colts running with her in the field. Its easy to say she "chose" you but you will be making a life time commitment if you take her on.
Buying a horse needs a lot of thought and do please make sure you have enough knowledge , experience, help and time and money before you decide to have her.
Her feet dont look right, maybe even club footed on one of the hinds. You are best advised to have her vetted.
 
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If I were you I would def buy. I'm someone who goes on gut instinct and a 'feeling' I've never seen a horse with perfect conformation and seen some shockers who have never been lame. She is 2 and still has a lot of growing to do, I reckon she will be lovely. If you have clicked get her. Or I suspect you will wonder what happened to her and regret it.
 
I'm not commenting on this filly (photos of hooves not good enough for me to evaluate), but people should remember that youngstock have odd looking hooves as they are bigger at the coronet than they are at the bottom. They can look upside-down, boxy and wrong to people who aren't used to it, but think, tiny foal hooves need to grow into adult hooves and they grow from the coronet.
 
She looks to be back at the knee and sickle hocked. both weaknesses. Also that belly---worms or in foal? [or both]. shes also a bit heavy bodies for her legs. her feet are badly trimmed. All that said, she looks sweet so if you really want her use these bad points as a bargaining tool . I really can see why you want her, but personally I wouldt buy her , but if you just want a pet and light hack she should be up to it I think, just dont be surprised if you get a BOGOF and you need to be sure you want/can afford two.
 
£350 seems expensive for an unbroken, possibly-unhandled small cob filly of unknown breeding and unknown health/handling history (worming? in foal?).

There's plenty more like her on DragonDriving, preloved, etc - unbroken and part-broken cobby youngsters, some coloured, some not, mares, geldings.

Young horses are often curious and friendly, so walking up to say "hello" is the norm, and youngsters are attracted by other young animals too, humans, puppies, so it's natural that she would make a beeline for your daughter.

Is your daughter prepared to wait to ride while the pony matures and is handled and broken-in?

Do you want your daughter riding a just-broken-in pony and riding the mare through her formative ridden years?
 
I would be reluctant to but a rising 2yr old for a child who may have lost interest by the time its ready to back.
its a long time for an adult to wait and i prefer to leave them as long as possible before doing any regular work with them, my rising 6yr old has been with a friend for proper grown up backing and work since november and she seems to have benefitted from the late start. so that would be a 4yr wait-its what i did but kids are not always so patient.

i would but something ready to go and have fun on for kids, the novelty of faffing about on foot soon wears off
 
Re overpaying, that's all relative. I payed £10 for a yearling that wasn't worth £1, so 10x its value, but I could cope with overpaying £9. As long as op is aware she's overpriced, then it doesn't really matter how much she overpays if she can afford it.
Also whilst it would be difficult to ask a 10yr old not to ride for 2yrs & to be held back for 2 more at least, that only matters if the child has nothing else to ride, which op hasn't mentioned.
 
Hi - I thought I'd give you all a little update. Firstly I really must say I think that Horse and Hound is a fantastic place for different opinions - it has really really helped me.

So I went to see the filly again with a 'different set of eyes' and decided not to go for it. It was really hard but as I had mentioned, she really wasn't what I wanted and had possibly one too many things on the list that weren't suitable. For the record - she would have been a mother daughter share and even if my daughter did decide she doesn't want to ride any longer - she would have been mine.

Lots has been happening - and to cut a long story short I had and offer accepted on this chap last night. :D The second picture isn't that great but you get the idea of his markings. He's a gelding who's 4 in May - he's been backed (well sat on approx 9 times :rolleyes: ) and I've ridden him too. I would say his only fault is that he's quite juvenile at the front (looking straight on) so I'm taking a gamble that he'll open up with work and maturity.
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Gosh - because of the extremely wide post I missed the age bit. I would have said he was a two year old from those photos!

He does look like he could be lovely. How big is he?
 
He looks a sweet chap, how big is he?

I agree with AM, he looks younger to me, possibly only coming up to 3? Of course it might be that he's just got a bit poor after this awful winter but i've got a rising 4 NF filly & she looks an awful lot more mature than him.

Good luck with him :-)
 
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