Would this annoy you if you were selling a horse?

Annagain

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I'm thinking of getting a bit more scientific about this search. If you were advertising a horse, would you be annoyed if a prospective buyer sent you a questionnaire about your horse?

If I put a list of desirables together and ask sellers to mark each one out of 10, with room for a comment would you think: "That's a good way of doing it" or "OMG what an a**e, i'm not doing that." ? I'd make it clear that I'm not expecting a 10 in every (or even any) category but that some would be more important to me than others. I'm so fed up of typing the same questions over and over again and people misinterpreting (maybe deliberately?) what I'm saying.
 

eggs

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I've not bought or sold a horse in years but when I did last buy a riding horse I did have a list of questions written down which I would go through over the phone before deciding whether to go and try the horse.

Personally I think sending a questionnaire might be rather OTT and I wouldn't expect to get a mark out of 10 but the comments made would be very telling.
 

ycbm

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If my horse was a good one with people queing to view, as my last one was, I'd put your questionnaire to the bottom of the pile and the horse would probably be sold before I got around to filling it in.

It wouldn't annoy me, but I'd be a bit bemused about what and how you expected me to score out of ten.

.
 

be positive

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I have had a few similar emails, without the scoring, when selling PC ponies and was happy to fill them in but would be less happy if selling an adults horse when I tend to prefer to have a conversation, the same when buying, rather than spend ages typing a list of answers, often with follow up questions, when a conversation would have been so much easier to get the important points out of the way in the first minute.
I think you can gauge a lot from speaking to someone, one question may lead to another that was not even thought about until that point, if I don't like the way they answer then I will end the conversation and waste no more of anyones time, some things are subjective so very hard to describe in writing, points such as height are still open to interpretation and you can still end up going to view something that is nothing like you expected.
 

AmyMay

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I think I'd honestly not want to do that, I'd rather chat to a prospective buyer. I also think marking would be very subjective, what one person would mark as 4 another would mark an 8 - many things are in the eye of the beholder!

I also think you’d find people reluctant to do it because of the legal position sellers would worry it could put them in.
 

HEM

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I agree with the others, I would 'use' your questionnaire but I would not send it to be filled in.

I would have the questions in front of me whilst having a phone conversation and fill in with the answers provided and make notes of my 'reading between' the lines.

As others have said, people will lie/exaggerate the truth and you are likely to have different opinions about what is good/bad/acceptable
 

Follysmum

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Sorry but to be blunt I would ignore
What is one persons opinion “score” could be completely different to yours.

Go with a list of questions which I would expect of I was selling.
 

conniegirl

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I'd ignore it. Sorry but my easy to ride may be very different to yours etc.

For example recently I rode a ladies horse who was in its owners opinion "well schooled" for me it was stiff as a board, ducking behind the contact and very very tense.
another example would be when I was looking for a sharer for my last horse, I advertised him as being suitable for a competent novice, he was young but well schooled and not spooky at all. I had quite a few people turn up who were blatantly unable to canter, one lady whom I had to ask to get off him within 2 mins of her getting on him (she was tipping so far forwards in trot that she nearly went over his shoulder) and several who were clearly not yet ready to leave the riding school! they all thought they were competent novices, in no way shape or form were any of the vaguely competent, i'd even hesitate to call most of them novices, total beginners would have been more apt.

If someone sent me a form to fill in about a horse for sale i'd write them off as time wasters and sell it to the people who actualy phoned and had a conversation. A good horse will always sell quickly
 

Littlebear

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The last time i sold a horse i had one lady that sent me 2 a4 page lists of questions to answer about her, whilst i didn't mind doing it, its very time consuming and at the time i had 2 people biting my hand off for her without the agg of questionnaires and i ended up selling to one of those people just because they made it happen for themselves, came to view very quickly, tried her, agreed price and vetting immediately. I chose between those 2 people who she went to.

I think you shouldn't underestimate the volume of enquiries a seller may have, if there is a nice genuine horse for sale their phone will likely be ringing off the hook (as mine was) and you don't want to isolate yourself as a difficult or pedantic buyer against other much more straight forward possible buyers.

Also take into account that some sellers may be professional riders/ trainers, not private sellers with one or a couple of horses, i can only imagine some of their reactions to getting something like this!
 

HeyMich

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Yes it would.

Not that I have sold a horse for a very very long time, mind you... But I have bought some, and then have had a list of questions and a note pad to hand when I called the seller. You can judge a lot by tone of voice etc.
 

cundlegreen

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I'm thinking of getting a bit more scientific about this search. If you were advertising a horse, would you be annoyed if a prospective buyer sent you a questionnaire about your horse?

If I put a list of desirables together and ask sellers to mark each one out of 10, with room for a comment would you think: "That's a good way of doing it" or "OMG what an a**e, i'm not doing that." ? I'd make it clear that I'm not expecting a 10 in every (or even any) category but that some would be more important to me than others. I'm so fed up of typing the same questions over and over again and people misinterpreting (maybe deliberately?) what I'm saying.
I'm careful where I sell mine, and I wouldn't be keen on that idea. Happy to send plenty of photos/videos if the buyer appears genuine, but at the end of the day, they have to click with the horse, and a set of questions on paper doesn't do that. If I look at anything, I have to like the overall look, then the movement. Then it comes down to whether you will enjoy looking at its head over the door. Works for me, anyway!
 

blitznbobs

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I’d tell you to ‘do one’ I may be paranoid but it screams litigation to me - can see it now in court - you said ‘9/10 for manners ‘ but horse nipped me yesterday so I’d say 4/10 therefore misrepresentation stands - only an idiot seller would fill in such a questionnaire
 

ycbm

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I’d tell you to ‘do one’ I may be paranoid but it screams litigation to me - can see it now in court - you said ‘9/10 for manners ‘ but horse nipped me yesterday so I’d say 4/10 therefore misrepresentation stands - only an idiot seller would fill in such a questionnaire

That's a good point!
 

Keith_Beef

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I can understand how frustrating it is when sellers (not only of horses, but cars, bikes, houses, boats) write ridiculously over-puffed descriptions of the item for sale.

I think that just asking for a photo in front of one of those walls with height markers (like in a criminal line-up) would be enough.

Sending a questionnaire is out and out saying "I don't consider your description to be anything like honest, so please bend over backwards to conform to my wishes."
 

cobgoblin

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I don't often sell horses but I'm afraid I'd chuck the questionnaire in the bin.
One person's assessment won't tally with another's. It would make you look like a nitpicker, no matter how much you tried to mitigate it.
 

Annagain

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Thanks all, I thought that’s what the answers would be. I am having the conversations but some of the answers I’m getting are so vague and no matter how many times I ask the question in different ways I don’t get the answers I need e.g
me: “How much bone does he have”
Seller “oh he’s quite a big chap.”
Me: “Have you measured how much bone he has?”
Seller “he’s a good allround type”
Me: I need to know how much bone he has. I’m 14 stone, will he carry me?
Seller: “He’s 16.1 you know, he’s a tall chap”
Me: I’m more interested in how well built he is than his height
Seller: “he’s not fat, he’s fit and ready to go
Me: “Thanks, I don’t think he’s for me, bye”

That’s probably the worst conversation but not the only one. I just thought a questionnaire might avoid conversations like that!
 

ihatework

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Well if you asked me how much bone my horse had I’d tell you I don’t know because I haven’t measured it (I’ve never measured a horses bone!)

You can generally tell from a photo the stamp and likelihood of whether accurately described. The one you linked to was pretty clearly going to be too small/lightweight
 

Annagain

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Well if you asked me how much bone my horse had I’d tell you I don’t know because I haven’t measured it (I’ve never measured a horses bone!)

You can generally tell from a photo the stamp and likelihood of whether accurately described. The one you linked to was pretty clearly going to be too small/lightweight

It wasn’t that one and I always suspected he might be but as they described him as an ISH thought he was worth a look as he was so close. I had asked how much Irish he had and they said 1/2 but he was nowhere near that I also told them my weight and they said he’d carry me fine.
In the conversation I mentioned above I’m sure the seller didn’t know but didn’t want to tell me they didn’t know. I don’t mind people not knowing every single answer straight away - I may consider things others don’t. I thought writing the questions down might give them a chance to get the answers they don’t know straight off.
 

Antw23uk

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9inch … I know this because I just measured for brushing boots. As for the questionnaire …. it would be binned and you wouldn't get a viewing. It screams nightmare buyer to me! Without being rude OP are you looking for a horse or a machine?
As a side note … I can look at a horse and determine if im going to get on it (Im nearly 14 stone so I have to think about these things) I don't need to know how much bone it has to see if its going to be too slight for me!
 
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