Trial, is it long enough.

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lucy007

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Have a pony for sale, had a viewing, have agreed a price and short trial term at buyers yard subject to vetting.

We have never let any pony out on trial before, hubby has only ageed to 4 days. Drop off sunday am, verdict wed pm, and collect thurs am if not suitable.

Is this long enough?
 
Would never agree to ANY trial off your premises. Could all too easily go very very wrong and you could get a broken/ruined pony back that you then can't sell. I have seen it happen and you get stories of it on here all the time.

Let them trial the pony at YOUR yard and have it vetted from there.

They are never going to get a good idea of what the pony is truely like in a short trial period anyway.(it takes months for a horse to settle at a new home) they would get a better feel for it at your yard.
 
For me - no way.

Some horses can take months to settle into a new home, and the upheaval the poor pony will go through to move homes for 4 days is quite a lot. Also you never know what someone will do to your horse, and you could end up with pony coming back that is broken.

I don't think that 4 days is enough for anyone to get a fair idea of the pony in their home.
 
In my opinion, no. You need time to let pony settle in, rider get used to pony and vice versa. Going on how I would accept a new horse on trial I would only have ridden pony twice max in 4 days! Never going to get a true picture! I'd want at least a weeks trial if I was buying.
 
It isn't long enough for many ponies to settle to a new yard, people and routine anyway, but it is long enough for the pony to be damaged and become unsellable, expensively broken, or worse, and not unheard of ... stolen.

Are holidays coming up? I always used to get a spate of people wanting to trial ponies when PC/RC shows and camp were happening.

Sorry, I wouldn't do a trial at all. People can come back and try the horse here, but it no way does it leave the property unless I have cold hard cash in my hand, and, unless I have a deposit, a pony on 'trial' with me is still on the market and open to be tried by others.
 
Agree with the others, its neither here nor there. Personally wouldn't ever allow a horse to go on trial having had one returned with a lovely lump after it got kicked.
 
To be honest I wouldn't allow a pony of mine to go on trial :( Not only are they going to be nervous due to new surroundings, and so not give a true trial, they could be injured or have their confidence knocked.

I had one horse on a day's trial, (he came to be vetted at our yard and also hacked and jumped as owner didn't have any facilities) and the owner was there the whole time so it made things much easier, and still gave a good idea of what he was like.
 
I personally wouldnt put a horse on trial (bad experience of a pony going on trial for a week and coming back lame when he'd only ever been lame one in the 8 years we had him and that was 7 years ago when he stood on a nail out hacking!) I would happily let anyone trial from where the pony was for longer and as long as i was present would be happy for them to take the pony xc schooling etc.

If he is moving to their yard then 4 days is a bit short for him to settle in. Having said that many ponies take a good month or so to settle in...

When buying providing the yard is local (ish) I am more than happy to trial the horse from his present yard as I think you get a better feel of what they are actually like
 
same as other posters, would never trial a horse off my own yard. pony would be unsettled and therefore not a good representation of its day to day behaviour.

i moved yards recently and my own lad was a completely different horse for a good while, and not what he usually is.

there's to many variables such as feed, turnout, other horses to allow them to judge the horse unbiased. plus i wouldn't trust the safety of my horse in passing it to strangers, what if they are crap riders and it bolts on a road? what if its turned out with a strange herd, gets a kick and is injured?

if i was thinking of buying a horse, id be happy to trial it in the sellers place.
 
Sorry but a no way from me too.

4 days is not long enough for a pony to settle and for the buyers to get a good idea of what the pony is like, but it is long enough for an injury to occur and you could get back a lame/injured pony. Let them have a trial at your yard, that way you can keep an eye on them, and the pony is already settled so that they can get a good idea of how he behaves normally.

I have had a horse on trial at my yard before, but it was for 2 months (more of a kind of loan with view to buy) and I knew the owner VERY well. The horse actually took more than a year to settle.

As much as I would love a trial when it comes to buying, I understand that so many things can happen away from he owners yard and so I would be more than happy to trial from the owners yard. There are so many variables and the horse being unsettled in it's new environment may not give a good representation of how the horse normally behaves.
 
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I have one on 2 weeks trial at the mo,he has settled in like he's been here forever,walks around after me like a dog and is being quite pampered to what he's been used to,he didn't even look back at his owner when she dropped him off. He was bullied by a shire x where he came from and has a couple od quite nasty bit wounds so i'm sure he prefers my yard! i just enquired if she'd consider a 2 week trial (he is very young and to ride is quite sharp at the mo,he bucks a lot when you get on him,he got owner off twice so now thinks it's game on!) she said yes to my surprise,i am riding him tomorrow for the first time with a friend so if all goes well on the riding front i'll def buy him. TBH i wouldn't let any of mine go out on trial,i have had offers of trial with a view to buy and i've turned them down,i either put mine out on loan or sell,i don't really do trials with my ones. To answer your ?,no that is def not enough time for them to get to know the horse,bit of a odd number of days really,trials are usually 2,4 or 6wks,i might be wrong but that was my thinking generally.
 
galaxy23 said:
Would never agree to ANY trial off your premises. Could all too easily go very very wrong and you could get a broken/ruined pony back that you then can't sell. I have seen it happen and you get stories of it on here all the time.

Let them trial the pony at YOUR yard and have it vetted from there.

They are never going to get a good idea of what the pony is truely like in a short trial period anyway.(it takes months for a horse to settle at a new home) they would get a better feel for it at your yard.
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Totally ditto this. I let one of mine go out on trial years ago, the woman phoned up after 4 days saying that although he behaved beautifully for her, her farrier (?!) had said my horse "had a dodgy pelvis"!! So she wanted to return him because of that. I laughed pretty hard, what a load of rubbish! The horse had competed pretty much every weekend with me for the past 3 years, never being lame etc. She took ages to send my horse back (I had taken the horse to her, a 3 hour drive! so agreement was she'd bring him back), eventually he turned up in a beaten up old lorry in a sweat with NO travel gear on at all (even though she had it in the lorry!) AND half my tack was missing!! So it took another week for her send the rest of my stuff back. NEVER AGAIN. Far too risky IMO.
 
Oh, the Easter holidays are coming up!! Agree with everyone else, would not let a horse off my yard for a trial; prospective buyer would be welcome to come and try the horse at any time, and go to shows, etc as long as it was kept at my yard. In any case, four days won't tell the prospective purchaser anything, particularly if the pony is used to staying away at shows.

Keep it close!
 
Thanks everyone,
you have all pretty much reinforced what is our usual position on this.

I am happy for them to try in as many situations as they would like, and as I said, I have never let anything out on trial before, for many of the reasons listed above.

Tbh, the only reason it was up for discussion is because I know the yard, a number of the staff and have a family member that works there, that could keep an eye. A deposit would be left and pony turned out in an individual paddock.

Would usually have been a flat no.

Good to hear the voice of reason as always.
 
First rule of selling, NEVER EVER EVER let a pony go on trial!! more often than not the pony/horse is sent back with something wrong with it, they want a trial then keep it at home and they come to your yard and ride it, hack, jump etc, DO NOT let it leave the yard until they have purchased the pony.
 
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