Who will admit they dont care who buys their horse

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rockysmum

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Just a random thought that I had while reading another thread. Didn't want to jump on the OP on there.

So my question is, do you care who gets your horse, or is money and getting rid the only consideration.

I consider sending to the auction, selling to a dealer or part exchanging to be an indication that the horse is an object like a house or car.

I do understand not everyone can or does want to keep one for ever, but what about finding a good home. I accept that you wont always get it right, but who cares enough to even try.
 
rockysmum said:
I consider sending to the auction, selling to a dealer or part exchanging to be an indication that the horse is an object like a house or car.
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But by that rule, isnt selling the horse to ANYONE an indication the horse is an object or possession to be bought and sold?

One of ours was bought from a stud dispersal auction, and she was/is not an object to us or her previous owners, and we keep in touch still.

To answer your question, a good home is important to me, and I'd like to think it would be a good home any of mine were going to. Realistically I realise its not always that cut and dried and sometimes for some people a quick sale and the money are the driving force.
 
I would never sell gypsy to someone I didn't know, purely because he is always mis understood as a dangerous, nutcase cob that tanks off all the time, no one ever sees any good in him, you have to give him ages to get to know you and you to get to know him. If I didn't know where he was going, and the buyers didn't know what they were buying, the most likely chance is he would get sent from pillar to post and end up in the meat market as classed as dangerous.

I would not forgive myself if I sold him to someone I didn't know, and these days you can't really trust anyone, so he's staying with is forever anyway!
 
Having sold a fab horse only to find out later that the person I sold him to ruined him, I will never sell another I think a lot of again if I could possibly help it. If I was forced to sell, say if something unexpected happened and I couldn't keep them, I would make an effort to find them good homes.
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Well, we haven't ever done forever homes. We can't afford to. I owned a little coloured pony who was badly injured out hunting (both hind tendons were completely shot, looked like honeycomb- the vets had never seen anything like it at Rossdales!). He went on loan as a companion, 2 years later came sound and rescans indicated he'd be able to be used as a happy hacker. So re-loaned him to a family we didn't know who had a lovely time with him pampering him and spoiling him rotten and going for ambles round the fields. Then they had a change of circumstances but knew of someone who loved him and so he went to her. I haven't heard from her about him for well over 4 years now, but I believe he's either dead (he'd be in his 20s) or still a happy hacker. It doesn;t mean I didn't care about him, but his owner now is providing him with a far nicer life than we ever could have.

Forever homes are great for some, but are not for us. Part exchanging or sending to a dealer doesn;t mean you don't care, you just have different priorities.
 
I'd never sell my boy, mainly because his quirkiness is somewhat unnerving to most people.. So even selling him with that, it would still play on me, not that I could sell him anyway as he's my baby, but if let's say I got severely I'll or couldn't afford him for whatever reason I'd give him to my best friend, I trust her and he loves her to death, plus we've always had that agreement, actually we agreed if either lost her job the other wouldn't mind paying for the others horse:p
We have. VERY close bond though and have never fallen out, I'm very lucky. But yes I have never understood people that just sell without checking homes etc, a lot of the time it's to do with money.

If I had to choose between selling my boy for 5k cash or giving him to my friend, id choose the latter no thoughts about that.,
 
I sometimes take in sales liveries and still turn potential buyers away if I dont feel they are right, not great business sense but normally the right person is the next one anyway so it works out in the end.
I have bought at sales in the past and have sold a few, at the better sales but would not now, they tend to stay as field ornaments if unsaleable for some reason.
I have in the past told someone to get off the mare they were trying, refused to let other people come back for second joy riding visits and frequently tell nice people that the horse is not what they are looking for, when I know it will be too much for them.
I prefer to keep them than sell to the wrong home and it is great seeing them out and about later having fun, I meet many of my previous liveries and ones I owned, at competitions in the area and its very rewarding to see them doing so well.
 
I have not been nor will be in the position to keep a horse forever. When it no longer has a job, it has to go.

The daughter is about to make the move to horses so the pony must go. She has been brought up to know this & so it is her choice whether to keep the pony & not compete or he goes & she can then find a horse. She chose the latter even though she adores her pony.

Tbh, if someone is willing to buy the pony at the price I am asking, then the only other factor would be if the child could actually ride him. I have never vetted a home for a prospective buyer.
 
My animals are with me for life. But then I see them as part of my family not commodities, or expendable. I understand some circumstances for sAle such as unable to care for te animal properly, for exame your own Ill health, but never understand others, such as the animal is not useful to me anymore, or I'm bored with it, I want a different toy.
In my ideal world a person would want an animal and pay for it to be bred. No unwanted animals. But that's not the real world.
 
It's not that I don't care about the horses my yard sells, in fact, I help do everything possible to guarantee a good home.

However, you do have to be realistic that the perfect home may not last forever. Once they're sold then they stop being your responsibility and you have passed the control over to someone else. If you can't deal with that then don't sell. It's blunt and it's harsh but that is the reality of the situation.

I'm not sure there are many owners out there who don't care at all what homes their horses get sold too. But remember, sometimes an attitude like that can be to try and detach how an owner is truly feeling about a situation. They are trying to convince themselves, not others.
 
Now you see I wouldn't sell my dog or cat as they are my pets. Our pony is a working animal, not a pet.

That's not to say we dont love him to bits, we do & he is a part of the family. It is going to be heartbreaking when he goes. But it would be a very expensive pet!

Also he has many competing years left in him so why let him be wasted in a field when some other child could be having as much fun & success with him as my daughter has had for the last 4yrs.

I think people opinions depend on what they use their horses for, aswell as personal circumstances.
 
Is it my thread by any chance?! Hana

Ive sold a few of my horses on, my first pony I sold back to the person I bought it off. He's lives the life of luxury now. Another was a horse I had from the sales, was going to the meat man because his owner had arrived too late to enter him in the sale, I had him, broke him and sold him on and now he's with a little girl who sends me regular updates, the rest have homes for life, or have sadly passed away.

I think finding a good home is more important than how much you sell it for. And if I couldn't find a good home for one I was selling I wouldn't sell full stop.
 
My horse is a working horse and in return for his long years of good service I repay him with a home in his non working days. I will never be top of the tree in competition as I cannot afford more than on horse. So an expensive pet I have. And he makes my life richer.
 
NoltonSeaShell said:
Is it my thread by any chance?! Hana

Ive sold a few of my horses on, my first pony I sold back to the person I bought it off. He's lives the life of luxury now. Another was a horse I had from the sales, was going to the meat man because his owner had arrived too late to enter him in the sale, I had him, broke him and sold him on and now he's with a little girl who sends me regular updates, the rest have homes for life, or have sadly passed away.

I think finding a good home is more important than how much you sell it for. And if I couldn't find a good home for one I was selling I wouldn't sell full stop.
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No it wasn't your :D :D

It was one about trading your horse in, just reminded me of a car and started the chain of thought.

Its not the selling the horse that made me think, it was the lack of interest in its fate.
 
Biggest regret was selling my grey but when I couldn't pay my rent because of his I had no choice. I should have loaned him out but I really liked the girl that turned up. I always remember her saying "i can feel the piaffe in there".
Anyway I have first refusal if that means anything. I stalk her on FB and always love to see his photos.
I even suggested she sell him back to me but his not going anywhere.

Recently I heard friends had been turned down for buying a horse - dealer said he had a reputation and the horse was to advanced and would be wasted with her! Harsh but true.
 
Rockysmum... Ok :D just in a similar way.

In an ideal world I could find the perfect home for my girl, and that's the main priority for me not the money. Seens as she doesn't have the choice as to who she goes to then I have to make a good judgement for her.
 
I have no problem selling a horse (sad as it may be) but would very much want a say in the home they were going to. I know you can't then control where they go after, but at least I feel i've made ever effort.

To trade in, send to auction or dealers or, to some extent, swap means you have little to no say on where they go and therefore I feel anyone happily and willingly doing this doesn't really care where the horse ends up, as long as it's gone. :-(
 
Many horses sold through auctions, dealers etc end up in good forever homes.

Sometimes I think we remember all the awful stories because they are shocking. Probably the majority have happy endings. Likewise you can sell on to what would seem to be a "good home" and later find that it wasn't.
 
rockysmum said:
I do understand not everyone can or does want to keep one for ever, but what about finding a good home. I accept that you wont always get it right, but who cares enough to even try.
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I breed to sell, I also buy to sell

I try to pick what seems like good homes but that's all I can do, try. I turn people down, in person and on the phone - which businesswise isn't clever, I can live with it though.

What I cannot do is weed out the conmen, and the liars, the dealers that turn up with a cute child, or keen teen, or someone looking for a trail horse for their old grandma.

Now you mention it, if I buy a horse privately I have never been asked anything about why I want it, how long will it be with me etc.

I can only take people at face value, I don't take references, or do home checks. It doesn't make me a bad person, and I know for a fact that the majority of the horses I have sold are well cared for, some have inevitably changed hands and I've had one or two back for various reasons.
 
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There seems to be an assumption from some people here - not just this thread, but generally - that selling a horse on (except in cases of dire necessity) is almost by definition a callous, heartless thing to do. People seem to take great pride in saying "I would never sell mine", "Mine will be with me forever", "My horse is my friend, not a commodity to be sold", etc, etc.

But surely very few of us here would have our much-loved horses at all if someone had not been wiling to sell?

And I doubt that we all knew the sellers personally, so they could not have been absolutely certain that we would provide perfect homes.

At least, I suspect that most of us here have at some point ourselves been that 'unknown' and therefore potentially imperfect buyer.

So, were the people who sold us our horses all callous, heartless and greedy? I somehow doubt it.

And why do we assume that we are the best possible owners our horses could ever have? Is it not possible that by selling on a horse we might be giving it a better home, with someone even more experienced, even more sympathetic, an even better rider, etc, etc than ourselves?

Of course, we should care about who buys our horses - but to assume that selling on is in itself necessarily an unfeeling thing to do strikes me as rather arrogant.

(For the record, I have bought 2 horses in my life, never yet sold one, and spent 13 years in self-imposed horseless mourning for my first one, who died, so I'm as sentimental as anyone. It would break my heart to have to part with my horse, but NOT because I consider myself to be the best owner he could ever have.)
 
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Money is not everything, I would rather lose on the $ and feel good about the home, than get every last penny.

Animals are not really a possession the way material things are. I would rather home /sell my horses than try and keep them if for example my situation changed, and if I have not enough room for the horses, or not enough time, again i am happy to make the decision to sell, BUT I also want to do my best for them.
 
I think people have lost the point of my OP a bit, it was never about people in business.

I just found a list of questions about trading in a horse which revolved around practicalities such as price and procedures a little odd.

I would have expected a one horse owner to at least consider what a dealer might do with a traded in horse.

If I ever found myself in such a situation I would at least be asking something about that.

I know horses get good homes from auctions, dealers, trade ins, and I dont think I'm the perfect owner.

It was just the way the post was worded, it could have come from a car forum, and I do think we do have some responsibility for the lives in our care.
 
Depends on the horse. I've had a couple of horrors in the past - not at all dangerous BTW, just utterly useless for the job I wanted them for. One I gave to a RS the other I swapped with a dealer. Good luck to whoever got them I say.
 
I would do a part ex with pur pony if the deal was right. But the pony in question is worth a great deal of money so I highly doubt anyone paying/dealing with that amount is then going to go & abuse/neglect him. If he was worth a few hundred quid then there is no way I would part ex.
 
Just joined today and thought I would post a reply here. I bred my "youngster" cause "shed breed a lovely foal" She did and when youngster was 6, at a big competition (part loan) home, offered £30,000. Never sold her in case they "hurt her". I have my first horse (mother) now 34yrs old and her foal now 18yrs old. Both go to local shows and live together with a recently rescued "boyfriend". I couldnt ever sell and go through fire and water to keep both my children!!
 
Now I think you are crazy :D also it sounds like the youngster had massive potential if someone offered you that & I would love to have seen mine out competing to a high level & be able to say "I bred that"!!
 
My horses are livestock, not pets. They are bought to do a job, if they ever cannot do that job then if they can be sold, they will be. If not they stay with me as farm ornaments.

When I sell I genuinely try to choose a good home, if the feel isn't right there's no sale. Like Enfys says, I don't go to the trouble of cross examining people so maybe I can be duped but to date haven't been.

I wouldn't sell a horse through the sales if I could absolutely help it, however having seen some people here (and having been to sales myself to buy) there is no doubt that a good home can be found at a sales, so I doubt its the hell some people see it as.

That's unless you're selling a knackered, useless horse that you should have had the guts to put down instead...
 
I have always tried to sell my horses to the right home and make sure at the time i do everything i can to make sure that that person matches the horse however i fully understand they can not promise a forever home and l just hope that when the time comes they sell on to the right person.

I have had to sell horses for various reasons like loss of job, we didn't click, out grown or over horsed myself. I fully appreciate that there is no such thing as a forever home because circumstances change.

So yes i care who i sell my horse to, it's not about the money.
 
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