whats the weirdest horse viewing youve been to?

jackessex

jackessex

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 April 2008
Messages
310
Visit site
i had the strangest viewing yesterday which involved a large well known dealer in my area who im pretty sure is clearly having some sort of a breakdown!!!i wont go into full detail but horse was not as described and she went on to tell me that if all her horses where not sold by this wk they would all be shot!!!!
so this led me to wonder what other peoples experiences have been when viewing horses???
 
I think the oddest was when I was trying to sell one! Charlie was a white grey, and was advertised as such. I had a woman travel for 2 hours, got there, and wouldnt even get on him, because he was 'too white'!!
 
lol i also had one a bit like that when i advertised a 14.2 for sale and the woman turned up and said it was to much of a pony!!!!
 
We went to see a horse at a dealers yard, it was advertised as 15hh, when he showed us to the stable its chest was well above the door, and I was starting to think 'its a bit bigger than described' til he opened the door, poor horse has to jump down out of the stable as the **** was so deep, when it was out of the stable it would have been lucky if it was 14.2hh stood on its tip toes
Was a very odd experience
 
When I was looking for a ridden companion for Henry, my friend told me of a horse up for sale where she'd done a behaviour consultation. So, I arranged to go down there and see the horse with my friend (as she knew where it was). We got there to find that the owner hadn't bothered to turn up. The livery owner dutifully showed me the horse, who was grazing happily in a field. I literally just watched this horse eat.

My friend was very apologetic, but it wasn't her fault. I asked the YO if I could come again and maybe RIDE the horse, but heard nothing from the owner. I was expected to make some sort of choice when they didn't so much as put a headcollar on!
 
I made an appointment to go to a reputable dealers yard as he said he had a few ponies to show me that would suit my requirements. When we got there he had forgotten we were coming and clearly had nothing that fit my requirements. In desperation he showed me a 4 year old pony that had just got off the ferry from Ireland the day before. Must have been fate because he is now my boy and in everyway my horse of a lifetime. I wouldn't change him for the world! :):)
 
I have had a couple of strange ones.

Travelled 2 1/2 hours to see one, owner turned up at the yard an hour late, said she was in too much of a hurry to waste time tacking up, so she jumped on it bare back and got bucked off!

Went to see a little lead rein/first ridden pony, described as a beloved family pony ridden by all the children - when I asked to see one of her children ride it, she said "I am NOT putting MY child on that!"
 
went to see a nice looking allrounder 5 mins down the road from me. was nothing as described. infact, was advertised as 8 but this horse was at least 20. underweight and looked so sad :( told the owners the horse wasnt as described and left.

they were bloody crazy. they knew i worked at a well known local stud and the father of the girl said he worked there and he backed two of the stallions. apparently he knew the owners and were best friends. i asked them about him and they had never heard of him!
 
Went with a friend to a well known dealers yard. She rode this pony in the school , quite good. She took it out into the field with wooded areas where it took off and wouldnt stop for over 15 minutes. When she finally got off and said she didnt think it was suitable they asked if she had learnt to ride yet.
 
I went to see a 14,2 cob. It was 13 hands . the woman went on to say it is not spookey, he spooked at a bird. She also went on to say i dont ride him with a whip. Her friend was there to take it and two others out for a ride.. She got on and asked for her whip..lol She then wanted me to follow them for a ride out on foot..nice way of trying it out. I at this point stop her talking rubbish to me and pointed out its not what ad said..Thankx ,but no thankx.
 
I went to try a horse for a nervous friend and the elderly owner slapped on a driving bridle with two lead reins, chucked his Jack Russell on its back to show how calm it was and then eventually went and found me a saddle before saying it hadn't been ridden for two years.

I rode it up and down the track to his farm and decided it was too forward going for nervous friend. That said, I often wish I'd bought it for myself because it was as good as gold considering the circumstances!
 
I went to view a little 12.2 pony - it was slightly built and we tacked it up and led it out in traffic and to a local green where the owner asked me if I wanted to hop on? I was horrified as imo pony would carry max of around 6 stone and since I was around 10.5 stone there was no way it would have occurred to me to try it out. She was a tall well built lady and definately far heavier than me. I bought the pony and had its back checked - poor thing she had clearly been riding it, it was so sore.
What is wrong with people?

I also went with a friend to view a big coloured. It was very green, but a nice looking horse UNTIL it trotted and wow - I have never witnessed dishing like it! It's hooves in front flew into the next county. The dealer stood there with me as friend was trotting up the road towards us and without a lie she said 'look at that lovely straight action' - crikey I nearly choked on my disbelief at her affrontry!!
 
Yup went to see a horse that was described as an athletic allrounder, perfect ponies to horses transition etc.

Went there and it was a horrendously just clipped TB type, it was clearly doped out its face head hanging wouldnt move, not interested. Went into its STALL (:eek:) put a head collar on (not a flicker) and took it out, it tripped coming out the stall, went round it felt its legs (very hot!!) wanted to see it outside took its rug off whilst owner went looking for the tack and was horrified it had ribs poking out everywhere and the greasy crap coming off its coat was disgusting, I was almost buying it out of pity.

Owner couldnt 'find' its tack so I put its rug back on and put it back in its stall (nearly in tears as I felt sorry leaving it there) and walked away. i was crying in the car with my mum and almost made her turn around and go back and get it.

Thats probably the worst viewing I have ever been to :mad:
 
Sprout said:
Went to see a little lead rein/first ridden pony, described as a beloved family pony ridden by all the children - when I asked to see one of her children ride it, she said "I am NOT putting MY child on that!"
Click to expand...

PMSL - At least she was (kind of) honest! :D
 
Last weeks was quite odd, 15hh experienced 15y/o hunter, turned out to be 14hh green 12 y/o cob and nappy as hell and completely brain fried by galloping and jumping exclusively.

Jumped him with 4 dogs literally running between his hooves as we approached the jump! Then had a 'client' (guessing stooge) bidding on him for her daughter while watching me jump him.

Fell in love though and brought him home anyway.
 
Went to view a horse being sold as a good allrounder, owner, a rather large girl dressed in trackies and flip flops tacked up and said, "there you are", I replied I would like to see it ridden first, she replied she didn't have a hat!! I told her she could borrow mine, her face dropped so far she was dragging her chin on the floor. She got on, still wearing flip flops and then spent the next 5-10 mins trying to get the horse out of the yard, I thanked her for wasting my time and went home.
Another time, went to view a highland pony at a dealers, nice sort. Felt its legs but wouldn't let me pick up its back feet at all, when I asked if this was usual the dealer ran off and I didn't see him again! Waited 10 mins, still no sign so I shut the gate and toddled off.
 
When I went to view my horse we ended up sat there eating chocolate muffins and drinking rose wine with the owners, gossiping about the neighbours!! Was a very nice but strange experience!! :rolleyes:
 
Went to try a nice youngster, mainly for western riding, that had been backed about 6mths - tbf dealer told us straight away about its sarcoids, but then you could hardly miss them (wouldn't have bothered taking the afternoon off work to look if had been told beforehand!) Thought I'd let my OH ride it anyway as it looked pretty quiet with the dealer, then just as he'd got on someone else barged into this 40x20 school to have a jumping lesson! So the horse did at least prove his quiet temperament by giving an unknown rider a nice ride while dodging jumper! Then the dealer insisted that I should ride the horse in English tack - hadn't been told it went in English tack, so altho I'd got my hat, had to ride the horse in my work trousers! Worse still, the only saddle he'd got was tiny close contact type that I couldn't sit on at all. Poor baby horse was so confused by this time he wouldn't canter...we soon made our (polite) excuses and left :D
 
maree t said:
Went with a friend to a well known dealers yard. She rode this pony in the school , quite good. She took it out into the field with wooded areas where it took off and wouldnt stop for over 15 minutes. When she finally got off and said she didnt think it was suitable they asked if she had learnt to ride yet.
Click to expand...

this rings a bell, I took my kids to look at a pony advertised for $2500. It was obviously a dealers, the kids all rode it, they had trouble getting it going, trouble stopping it from eating, and so on, and they had the hide to sit there and blame the kids for what was obviously something they had picked up 1 or 2 weeks ago, and were trying to sell for a heck of a lot more money than they had paid for it.

i noticed afterwards their same phone number in the local papers, with a variety of horses advertised, and a variety of suburbs, (all neighbouring), to make it look like they were not in business of buying and selling.
 
I went to try a horse that sounded great, but was being sold by a chap who admitted he had just broken up with his other half whose horse it was. When I ventured to ask if he could confirm that he was entitled to sell it, he had a right old rant at me. So I guess the answer was 'no'.

Fortunately it was also a fruit loop with one leg that was on the wrong way round, so I didn't lose the horse of my dreams.
 
I never actually went to view this one - nice sounding jumping mare advertised at 4.5k. Phoned up and asked some questions, sounded as though it hadn't done much since they got it as her daughter was losing interest and "the horse was being wasted". Arranged a trial and vendor phoned up in the morning to cancel, saying as it was raining, the field would be too slippy, but tried to get me to come the 150 mile round trip to look at it standing in the stable, as she was "an impressive looking mare". I tried to re-arrange ridden trial for a few days later, but she claimed the weather forecast was so bad, she couldn't guarantee I could ride it then either...
 
Great thread :)

...I haven't really got any really awful stories but once went to a dealers and like YasandCrystal I was shown a horse with the most awful confirmation in his front legs and the dealer said to me "He has fantastic confirmation" Hmmm.

Then when we bought Ella, the YO said she was selling the horse for someone who was going to uni at the yard. She said she got her 3 months earlier for this girl off a lorry from Ireland. We never met said owner and when we bought her, the YO was the one that signed the document. Looking back on it I don't think Ella had been at the yard for as long as 3 months and I think the girl was myth. Though we got a lovely horse from it and she was as described in everything else.
 
I love the standard dealer stories - "daughter lost interest/got pregnant" and one dealer I know always says she got the horse because "someone died". She must go to a lot of funerals.
My recent oddity was seeing a big young RID mare about 16.1 +. Seller was 7 stone dripping wet and insisted "anyone" could ride the horse, all the while disparaging the importance of flat work and insisting the best way to train a horse was to get it out x-c & let her rip. My daughter got on in school, horse was a bit un-responsive and overall my impression was of a barely broken horse. I got on ( about 2 st heavier than daughter but not too heavy for the horse) and got bucked off twice! Clearly never had anyone but the tiny little owner on her. We said no thanks and left.
Felt sorry for her as she had just split up with boyfriend who had all the land, stables, etc and had to get rid of horses pronto. But do get tired of the dealer BS! Have to find a dealer you can trust - they are out there - and work with them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top