Whats the most stupid question you have had when selling a horse??

A friend was selling a little pc pony that had most of one ear missing (bitten off many years before as a foal) all of which was explained in advance. Purely cosmetic. Amazing pony, family viewed and loved him and said they would take him as long as at the vetting their.vet.confirmed his ear would grow back. Err?!
 
I see a lot of these comments are from Mums.....which is probably what my Mum would have asked!! :D I was the only kid on the yard with no help and who's mum came to the yard in stiletto's! She asked me why i needed a girth once - told her they're quite handy to stop you falling off!

Some people i think see 'not Novice ride' and seem to misread and not see the initial 'not' before ringing with ridiculous questions or coming to trial when they clearly can't ride!

Sellers are as bad though - my favourite viewing was for a gelding who looked nothing like his picture (lost all his muscle), apparently worked in a natural outline but wouldn't work in one even with severe coaxing! And to top it off when i asked for canter threw in a lovely buck to which the owner said the magic words.....he's never done that before!!! Funny thing was the amended the advert 2 days later to say he could do flying changes!!! :O Silly me! Must have been what the buck was! ;)
 
one lady came to see a cob we had, hacked out pass buses etc (which she specifically wanted to do) pony didnt put a foot wrong. "oh its such a shame he's coloured. Does he roll?" to which we replied yes hes a horse. "oh I cant have a white horse that rolls"....

People on their 2nd visit, after riding horse in school and then 2 hour ride over richmond park, taken out in trailer etc, taken 8 yr old girl cantering round park whilst she held front of saddle... "how do you get the metal on his feet?", "could you show us how to put the pad(saddle)on", "we are going to put him in our garden, its quite big" did some digging and it turns out they knew absolutely nothing and wanted to keep a 5yr old cob on his own in their back garden that had picket fencing ;)

had one girl come to see a fairly sharp 5yr old 14.2 connie that jumps the moon but was very green for his age. . On the phone "will he jump junior fox?" "yes he definitely will, but he's only 5 and he needs more schooling and experience etc etc)". People came and girl had jumped a riding school pony about 2'...Think pink jodhpur people.

11 yr old pony for sale for £1200 a few years ago when prices where sky high, "will he do prenovice BE" if he did, he'd be a lot more money!
 
Not selling, but buying ... I spent half an hour on the phone to a lovely woman asking every question I could think of; when I finished my flatmate and his girlfriend were all agog - "what's his name?" "what colour is he?" Er, no idea, didn't ask about either of those!
 
Selling a 13.2, a girl of around 13 came to try him, trotted and just fell straight out the side door! Pony did nothing wrong....she broke her arm! Oops!
 
Cellie- by any chance was the girl blonde & from somewhere round the northumbria area? Had an encounter with someone about 10 years ago who came to view a hunter, she took such a dislike to its knees she didn't even want to see it tacked up.
 
Andiamo said:
BoolavogueDC, that's funny! ;)

When I was selling my 17.1 hh dressage gelding, 4 years old (just), they asked "has he started changes?"
My answer..... HE'S 4!!!!


Someone else tried another young horse I had for sale, and she couldn't get him to walk, trot or canter, he stopped,started, and stopped and started, and refused, had his back dipped and head up high in the air, constantly being yanked in the gob (yet she talked on the phone as though she's a Grand Prix dressage rider when she made the appointment)...I am very surprised he didn't deposit her on the ground...
Anyway, when she was about to dismount she asked "is it ok if I kick him in the backside when I'm getting off?"

I thought, there's two options here, I could let her do it, and there will be some fast-paced entertainment immediately. Or I can hold him tightly by the reins while she hauls herself off, dropping her chunky leg on his backside, dragging it heavily over his back...I held the reins very tightly - he wanted to bolt, he was not a happy camper (as one would expect), if I hadn't held on to him, she would have broken the speed record in the school, I'm sure (until she toppled off).
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Oh your a meanie why didnt you let your horse get his own back :)
Selling one of my international horses for 9k. sharp sensitive Tb type. bloke turns up says hes training with some top event rider (cant remember who but i know the name so im happy) till he gets on - cant do rising trot. slinky was NOT a happy boy, arched his back dropped his head i yelled at him to stop and he gave me such a sheepish naughty look. thankfully he didnt chuck the rider off! all the gear no idea type. Mildely suggested that his trainer should accompany him on viewings. no stupid qusetions as such, but as for sellers well thats another story :)
 
Some of these are hilarious!

This one happened when I was selling my young TB who was eventing at Prelim (90cm):

She said she hadn't been riding long, and I was about to say he wasn't suitable, when she came out with "I want something that I can start doing competitions at, like, 1.30m, is he suitable?"

Um... no horse would be!
 
Went to look at a horse that sounded absolutely amazing on the advert (can do dressage up to Novice, can jump anything, good on the ground, good out hacking, 100% in every way) We drove from Peterborough/Stamford way down to near Gatwick to see this horse. First of all, they had a GP saddle, but would only ride her in the dressage saddle they borrowed from a friend, the owner wouldn't ride her, her friend did. As they did the girth up (after having asked if the horse was cold backed/good with taking up) the mare Leaps up ionto the air we asked "Does she always do that?" the owner then replied "yes"... the woman then wouldn't get on her in the very nice arena, they got on her in the jumping paddock (very, very slowly and calmly, almost as if she were scared) at that second the mare bronked the entire way round the field and chucked the woman of, and then carried on going. The owner said "Oh! She's never done that before...." woman attempts to get on again, this time doesn't even get a leg over before the mare bronks round the field... hmm.... false advertising? The YO then said the mare had always done that and the lady was petrified of her.... Get a back lady and a saddler out I think! haha. :)
 
Once advertised for someone with a quiet horse to come riding with me on my silly Thoroughbred. Received nothing but replies from people who wanted to do free trail riding on my horses. Told one particularly persistent young woman that my Thoroughbred would kill her. Still didn't get it. :rolleyes:
 
Nice girl I know, no ability at all recently advertised for another horse so she and hubby can compete together. 'Must be not novice ride'! She and hubby are beginner standard at best.
 
Oh I've had plenty.

Had one woman ask tons of questions to then come out with 'oh whats his colour scheme, I only want a horse that looks good in black and gold'

Had another ask what colour his saddle was. I said he didn't come with a saddle so she could buy whatever colour she wanted. She then told me she wouldn't buy him as he didn't have a brown saddle with him?

You get tons of people turn up who can't ride at all. They definitely overestimate themselves! I hate it when people don't call back after viewing the horse, doesn't take much to say no sorry not for me..
 
Spotsrock said:
Nice girl I know, no ability at all recently advertised for another horse so she and hubby can compete together. 'Must be not novice ride'! She and hubby are beginner standard at best.
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That explains it!
Not novice ride means you don't need to be a good enough rider to be considered novice!
 
some funny stories ..
i had a 14.1 cob for sale for 5000 euros a few years ago..i had lots of callers and told them all thast i wouldnt go down in price...it was 5000 and that was that,
so my first "prospective buyer" arrived with her four children as the horse was going to be for the family..they came at 10am and spent the whole day with us, riding him and we hacked out on my other horses aswell..i even gave them lunch and her hubby had a few whiskeys with my husband.
at 3 0clock she said to me...i love him! i will get him vetted and then buy him..
great!!..
but i only have 1500 euros...is that ok?????..I COULD HAVE KILLED HER AND HER BLOODY KIDS
 
I advertised my filly, who was a yearling at the time, up for sale. She's a nice coloured little thing with manners to burn (well she did when advertised, turning into an absolute little **** now!) who I'd been doing quite a bit of showing with but was afraid she wasn't going to grow big enough for me.
Anyway I got message on horsemart with somebody asking if I would loan her with tack to a girl a few hundred miles away to do pony club on. Couldn't believe it!
 
I remember someone coming up to us at a show, looking at our (the yard's) 15.2hh STOCKY connemara gelding, built like a tank...and asking if we think he'd be suitable for his daughter (who was still in a pushchair).

Had to advertise for a rider for my horse recently, while I'm overseas. Horse is a 16.2hh TB, very tricky ride to jump as he can stop and is easily upset then works himself into a panic. Not suitable for a nervous rider because he can buck and will take advantage.

The advert mentioned this and also said he was jumping 1m classes and going Elementary at his next show, and I would like a rider to progress his schooling etc, will pay, and cover show costs etc etc.

The amount of replies I got from kids saying 'well I'm very experienced, I jumped 60cm classes this year and I can canter' was just unbelievable.
 
Theocat said:
Not selling, but buying ... I spent half an hour on the phone to a lovely woman asking every question I could think of; when I finished my flatmate and his girlfriend were all agog - "what's his name?" "what colour is he?" Er, no idea, didn't ask about either of those!
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I did that too! Phoned up about a prospective share cob.... spent about 20 mins on the phone asking all sorts of questions and getting loads of info. Finished the call and OH asked "What's she called then?" Durrrr...... I hadn't asked that. Turned out she was Cherry and I ended up buying her too :D
 
was chatting to my YO and she said that years ago her mother had taken a pony to the sales. A family came over to look and one of the children had a ride on a lead rein. then they asked if they had to take off the saddle and bridle when they put him in their paddock! YO's mother did not sell to them!
 
Overheard by a friend at the New Forest pony sales as a foal came into the ring;

Wife "oh that's so cute, let's buy it." Husband "where are you going to keep it?" Wife "We can give it a basket next to the Aga" :eek:
 
When I had my daughter's 11.2hh pony up for sale I had a lovely long phone chat with a prospective buyer, telling her all about why the pony was lead rein only (she was sharp pff the lead and sometimes bucked in canter) lady was really happy with everything I said and wanted to organise a viewing, but it had to be after 5pm because her daughter didn't finish college until 4.30! Daughter was 17!!! Took ages to explain that despite them wanting a small pony for a novice to learn on said 11.2hh was TOO small! :eek:
 
As a buyer rather than a seller, one of my many questions was , does he have sarcoids? The owner asked what they were, and when I explained, he said. "I think he has two on his front legs." i said i was looking for something without that kind of problem, apologising as I know horse are not always adversly effected, and said my goodbye.
About 5 minutes later he rang me back and said, "My wife has told me to call you, she says they are called 'chesnuts'." !.
I wondered why he hadn't noticed the ones on the horses back legs. Horse sounded nice but this did rather put me off.
 
Not quite same but had a really nice girl come to try my pony last night. He's difficult and I was all honest with her. He even took off with her! Queue the yard begginners turning up whole family in tow. Coming in to school on just fed horse and proceeding to canter about into my pony while girl was trying it.
 
Lady who rang in reply to my ad (H & H!) selling 16.2 gelding. After long chat I agreed to cancel taking my horses to a show so that she could come 3 hours to see the horse.

Was about to ring off after giving directions etc. when she said 'I really wanted a mare as I want to breed from it' and 'I have a wanted ad for a mare in next H & H'!!

I suggested that she did not bother to come as it was quite difficult to get a gelding in foal and that I would go to the show as planned. Glad I did as I won Foxhunter and she would still be trying to get the gelding in foal!!
 
As a buyer I went to see a horse during what was a long horse hunt I had interrogated the buyer at length the horse had hunted and was showjunmping In the sumner and when we arrived on the yard another group of people where trying it ,it was bilaterally lame in front with two huge acutely swollen forelegs ( looked like suspensory trouble)
I am told by my other half I just said No turned round got in car and drove off it was rude but I can just remember the frustration of another day wasted mingled with sadness for the horse.
 
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