Where did you get/buy your horse from?

Firewell

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Just out of interest, how did you find your horse? Where did you buy or get them from?

My late grey Mare was a lot in the ascot bloodstock sales programme. It had a private number for if people wanted to view her before the sale. I went to see her at the weekend before the sale, liked her and brought her :). I got her from Wincanton about 2 1/2 hrs away from me.

My current horse is on lwvtb from a member on here! She posted asking if anyone might be interested in him, I sent her a pm, went to see him and now I have him and he's super! He's from Surrey about 1 hr away from me.

Where did you get your horses from? I'm Interested to find out how many of you brought from dealers/private/word of mouth ect as well as how far you travelled :)
 
My current horses were advertised in the ad-trader and they were about 1hour away from me :)

I bought one of my previous horses from a dealer 40mins away and my first horse was advertsed in the paper and in a local tack shop and she was 1 1/2 hours away :)
 
Mine belonged to a dentistry client and wasn't actually for sale at that point. I mentioned to the owner I was looking and she said she was thinking of selling him at some point and was I interested.

I had looked on net/mags/etc and everyone said don't look for one, the right one will find you and he did!
 
My first came from a riding school I used to work at - I backed him for the new manager, then when they said they wanted him working full time (at 3yrs old) I rescued him :)
The 2 welshies I've had came from a farmer friend and the TBx youngster I have I bought from Dublin... I only went to look at another horse with a friend on here and I bought one too.. :) Still in touch with the breeder 5 years on and wouldny hesitate to get another from them. :)
 
We went to a local auction in wales called Llanybydder, about 30minutes from where we lived back then, had my mare 18yrs this july, she has been a cracker of a horse too. They delivered her home for us on the massive lorry she arrived on from Ireland :)
 
Direct from the breeder/stud about 50 miles away. And they delivered him in a lorry as they were worried about putting him in a trailer for his first long journey. He had been very well handled and introduced to wearing tack etc. and was also good at being led from a quad bike. All in all, it made my task pretty easy.
 
my first horse i saw in the local paper. she was about an hours drive away. to cut a long story short, i was diddled. i traced her previous owner after i experienced one too many problems with her and she told me her history. they'd sold her as a field companion as they'd done all they could to solve her problems too. i decided i didnt hve the time, money or experience to sort her out, so found her a lovely new home, where she is still very happy. i didnt want her going back to the woman i bought her from as i knew she'd do the same thing again. i later found out she's a dealer.

my current pony, the owners found me! i put a wanted ad in the same paper and they emailed me about him. he was about an hours drive away, but a different area. he'd been a well loved, well cared for pony club member. i've had him for 11 months now and adore him. he is 99% perfect. the 1% is that he gets too excited on the hill and wants to go go go! I'm currently working on that!!
 
Ben = was advertised for loan/possible sale in the Friday Ad - we'd had a bad experience with loan horses, so dad said I could only have him if they would sell him - well, we tried him, and the owner decided she didn't want to sell him, only loan him, but dad agreed, and 11 months later we managed to buy him - I've now had him 12 years!!

Evy = was bought from the breeder as a 3yo - she is 11 this year

Alma = her former owner posted on another forum asking where to advertise a broodmare, and I emailed her as we were looking for another one at the time. Alma came home to us, and Louise (her previous owner) still comes and visits her at least once a year, and gets regular updates on how she is doing.

Emae/Ella - I bred

Unamed-horse = Spotted her at a traveller site (friends of ours) and fell in love, OH bought her for me as a surprise after making out I would be wasting my money if I bought her.
 
The connemara came direct from his breeder on weaning after I saw an ad in the Friday Ad, the warmblood came direct from her breeder who told me about her when he came to do my connie's teeth and the wonder cob was an advert in Horse and Hound and she came from Hampshire. I wasn't seriously horse shopping when I bought any of them!
 
Monty - I advertised for a share horse in AdTrader. I got 5 calls and Monty was the 4th horse I viewed that day. Shared him for 2 years and then moved to London, leaving him behind. 4 months later OH stopped by his field to say hi and found him skinny and neglected. OH called owner, we drove up the next day with a lorry and bought him for £1.

Zoom - Was already in the field where I kept Monty. Her owner moved away but still wanted her for horseball. I looked after her and rode her and her owner came and took her about 3 times a year for horseball. In november, her owner called and sold her to me......for £1!! :D

I can't imagine actually looking for a horse. Both mine just sort of arrived!
 
Mine came from the dealer just 2 mins walk from my old house. Had 38 ponies to choose from on that site but he was prepared to bring in others from his other sites. He's not one of the nice kind of dealers either (doing more research i've found some dreadful things out) but ended up with a nice pony even though he wasnt properly gelded and younger than expected...
 
I got Oscar from a lovely lady about 75 miles away from where we are :) not too bad but when you have to make the trip 3 or 4 times to try him, try him again and pick him up... :-/
I saw him advertised in a free local horse magazine that i dont usually pick up but as i was on the lookout for a horse i happened to :)
She only sold him as she was pregnant and he was wasted out in a field
 
Axel was advertised in my local feed merchants, I was 6 months pregnant at the time and no way was I looking for another horse (I already had a 3 yr old section a pony) but the picture of him looked so nice I couldn't stop thinking about him, so much so that the next day I went there and took the advert and photo off the board!
I felt I had to at least go and look at him then so and he was kept only 10 mins away at Harwoods Arabian Stud so I went along with my husband who had strict instructions to not let me buy him!

Peter the stud manager had bred him out of his own Hanovarian x TB mare by one of the stud's stallions Saker.
First of all he brought the stallion out to show us, stood him up and then trotted him up for us. Then we went and saw the mare, who was also trotted up. He then took us to the field to show us Axel's half sister out of the same mare, then he showed us some pure bred arabs also by Saker.
Eventually he showed me Axel, stood him up for me then led him to the field and turned him out so we could see him move. As soon as I saw him trot across the field I was blown away and I knew then I had to have him!

My husband loved him too, and said he would buy him for me as he'd never seen such a beautiful horse!
7 years later we still have him :-)
 
Drove miles and miles and miles to the other end of the country, stayed in a b&b (which turned out to be a shed in someones back garden!) to get my big man... and then had to bring him home up the M5 & M6 on a bank hol after he'd passed the vetting! Was it worth it? Oh yes... he's fandabbydosie!!
My little man... stumbled across him when a riding school about 10 miles away closed down... and he's scrumptiously wonderful too! One extreme to the other in terms of distance travelled!
 
The mare was on loan and purchased for a quid after the loan period was up (I still say I was diddled lol!).
My current lad was bought from one of the other liveries at our yard - I used to ride him when the mare was lame (which she was all the time).
 
I found mine at local livery yard when I went to find out about livery (was looking for a horse to purchase) YO's horse nibbled my shoulder whilst I was talking, YO said she was for sale, she was mine within the week and remains on livery their nearly a year on.

Pony - Found him on horsemart, 23 miles from home.
 
Found mine on horsequest private sale 4 hours away!
We've had some quite big issues but we're slowly getting there and he's turning into a bit of a secret superstar :)
 
The grey came for a dodgy dealer- didnt know she was dodgy obviously- he has issues and is older than his passport but luckily it all worked out and I wouldnt be without him.

One came from a friend, the other was a private seller about 6 miles away from me.
 
Pilfer came from 1/2 mile away through word of mouth, after i had been searching for about 3 months! best horse i have ever bought.

Millie came straight from the breeder with her dam at 4 weeks old.
they had another horse advertised in H&H which had sold but told me about Bibi (millie's mum) so i went to look and bought them both!

Vinnie was advertised on Horsequest and came straight from his breeders at Louella Stud.
i wasn't looking for another foal but saw him and fell in love!
 
I bought my youngster through Horse and Hound classifieds and now have my ridden hunter for sale using them. He's 15yo and 15.3hh TBx. Check out Suffolk although the price should read £3000 not £3950!!x
 
Polly - too many years ago to think of now, through an ad in H&H. She was only about 15 miles away. I remember she was described as an Arab, but when I got there it turned out she was Anglo-Arab. I chose her anyway but later on still needed to fulfil my dream of a purebred Arab hence:-

Pharaoh - brought from breeder as a foal. About 30 miles away.

Reine - Pharaoh's Mum - came (given) to me to retire from being a broodmare.

Amir - Brought from breeder as a yearling (had contacted several Arab studs to see what was available in my price bracket). About 100 miles away.

Warrior. Bought from breeder as yearling. I wasn't looking for another, but by chance heard about this one and he was such a bargain - because he was an "unexpected" foal - we said yes on first viewing and ultimately it has been well worth the gamble we took that he would turn out okay. About 40 miles away.
 
A friend lived opposite the woman who for 6 months was bringing on the gelding that I eventually bought. They were neighbours and knew each other a bit and the best part was my friend (who had had horses all her life herself though not at that time) got to see him across 3 months (before she even mentioned him to me as a possible purchase) hacking past her house on main roads, around the stable yard as they shared various outbuildings of her landlady's and schooling in the arena so she knew he fitted the bill for what I was looking for. I was very fortunate in that respect as it cut lots of corners and I knew I could trust the seller by the time I met her and the pony and that he was genuine good type. He tried it on with me for about the first year I had him though but that's another story!
 
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