Would my yard put you off buying?

To be honest, my thinking would be that if a horse I was trying behaved in an open field, that would be a plus! Also, as long as I could ride it properly, have a jump - did you say you were going to wait till the field dried up a bit? - and try the horse out of the road, I'd be happy; I've tried horses in similar situations and though they weren't right for me, it wasn't the facilities that put me off. Good luck :)
 
eleanor79 said:
To be honest, my thinking would be that if a horse I was trying behaved in an open field, that would be a plus! Also, as long as I could ride it properly, have a jump - did you say you were going to wait till the field dried up a bit? - and try the horse out of the road, I'd be happy; I've tried horses in similar situations and though they weren't right for me, it wasn't the facilities that put me off. Good luck :)
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Out on the road, even!
 
I bought my first horse from someones back garden! Had to 'borrow' a field to have him vetted though. Not having facilities didnt put me off in the slightest as horse was super!
 
Wouldn't put me off but would look around to see if there is school you could use near by. The best pony we ever bought not only came out of the field but as the weather was so bad we couldn't try him on the field and literally just tried him on the road!! Not ideal I know but he was cheap and a lovely looking little welsh A x that they had only had 3 months because their daughter had lost interest. He went on to win loads of local shows with my niece and she had so much fun with him, he was a star.
 
I would not expect a "posh" yard by any means. However, I did once go to view a horse that was over 4 hours away by car. When we arrived, we found that there was literally no place to see the horse ridden or lunged or in any way moved. The fields were steep slopes full of rabbit holes. The drive way was this made of some sort of jaggy rocks that you couldn't walk across without twisting your own ankle let alone ask a horse to be trotted up. There were no verges. So I asked if the mare hacked. She said she was a bit green as she had been backed and turned away and then lightly schooled (where?) since then but as her daughter who used to do the riding had been away to Uni horse hadn't had much work. Anyway, to cut a long story short we went on a hack (with me on another horse so I could see how the mare went) a short distance to a field where we swapped mounts. I turned the mare away from her companion and got a few meters in to the field when the mare started bronking, decanted me and hooned about the field for several minutes til she could be recaught.

In hindsight I suppose it was perhaps a good thing that I tried this mare this way - imagine if she'd been good in the school only to find it didn't hack? :rolleyes: Either way, the owner was practically begging me to take it for 30 days - but it would have been a heckuva long lorry ride there and back when it didn't work out. I found out from my friends after that the owner's partner was telling them that the mare didn't load, was bad on the lorry, was a biter, kicks....charming eh?

So to answer your question, I would never view a horse without good facilities to ride in a school - and also I want to hack it out as well. Since then I have viewed / ridden horses in schools and taken them on short hacks on different days.
 
Your yard wouldn't put me off because it's the horse I would be coming to see not your yard. If however there was no where for the horse to be tried out properly then that would be an issue & I wouldn't waste fuel coming to see it. I would expect you to have made arrangements for the use of an arena nearby in which to try the horse. If the horse cannot be tried properly then it will seriously jeapordise your selling potential.
 
No. I visited a mixed bag of yards and just because its a posh all singing dancing doesnt mean they are selling something good. So not at all. As long as I could try it out to do what I want it to do then thats good for me. Good luck. Dont worry.ps yes if you are buying a showjumper and there are no jumps then I may be worried then!
 
I don't think it would put people off. I bought my mare from a similar sort of set-up and it didn't bother me in the slightest - I had to ride straight off the yard onto a main road as the lady had no school or schooling field, the only schooling I could do with her was on a large area of common land, and we had to do a rather hazardous stretch of riding along a canal towpath going under very small arched bridges! For the vetting we had to take the poor vet along the canal towpath for about 15 minutes and then use the common land. We couldn't lunge her as the land was open and she could have got on to the road if loose, so I had to ride her round in circles for ages. It was brilliant :D
 
Clippy said:
Some horses can't be ridden in an open field so I would say your yard probably has plus points for a buyer. Most horses go well in a school but it falls apart when you get them out in the open!
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This!! I tried my mare in a lovely school with jumps etc, she was fab - I didn't get the opportunity to ride her in paddocks/fields. However when I bought her home I discovered just how exciting an open field can be :o! Luckily not an issue for me, but may have been for someone else!

Lack of facilities wouldn't put me off trying a horse at all, I'd be quite happy to try a horse in a fenced off area if that was what was available. If I was very keen on the horse then I would like to try it over a course / on roads / in a school just to see how it reacted to different situations, but I would pay for all the transport and hire costs involved x
 
Is the surface in the field good enough to show the horse off in all its paces? If it is show horse then people are going to want to see it in canter and possibly gallop depending on what type of show horse it is?

If you are not saying the horse will jump then you will not need to provide a jump.

If you are saying the horse is good to hack alone and in company but you do not have a place where the potential purchasers can test this, then this might be tricky but it depends on what sort of person you are marketing the horse to.

I bought my pony and did not try him in a school as they did not have one so I just rode in the field and had a little jump on him in a field but I did get the chance to hack him in company including in canter and also to hack him out semi on his own - eg with no other horse but with the owner walking a little distance behind.

They also provided a little video of him doing some x country jumping so I could see that, do you have any videos or photo of your horse in school or showing that people could see.

When it came to the 5 stage vettting the people selling my pony took him to their friends yard as they did not have suitable facilities to do all the vetting stages and they covered the cost of that (they had a trailer). If you are saying your horse will pass a vetting then you do need to be able to provide adequate facilities for doing a vetting.

It may have an impact on price if people can't test out everything you say the horse can do then it is more of a risk for them.

With regard to potential buyers paying to take a horse to a place to try it say over a course of jumps or in a certain situation after the first viewing. If you are confident the horse will behave in the way you are describing it then I would say to them that if the horse does not behave how you have described it then you will pay the hire/transport costs and if the purchasers decide to buy the horse you will deduct that from the price as if it is going to cost more to try your horse than other horses due to having to hire somewhere to take it then it could put some people off.
 
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My field is really flat and you can canter and gallop and jump in it. I've also got a bridleway nr by and roads to ride on, but as its all stone you can't canter out on a hack.
I think by what people have said il feel ok about people coming to try him now.
 
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