Checking out potential horses for a student & ridiculous sellers

What a jackass. He knew you were looking for a kid's horse. A pox on people like that.

I have a damaged ugly leg because of someone telling me the horse was trained and not crazy. My fault for not recognizing crazy - I mistook crazy for a little spirit. Ugh.

It's a pain but what my trainer I did when horse shopping was pick a general location several hours away and look at ALL the possible horses there that day.

Half of them we were able to dismiss within 20minutes, the "uh yeah, not in a million years, we'll call you!" and then on to the next.

We actually ended up buying two horses the same day. Sheer luck I suppose but we looked at every even remotely good horse for sale in that area which made for one very, very long day.

OP--

That seller is a jerk and a liar - good for you for not falling for any of his BS.

Good luck in finding a suitable horse for your client!

I looked at approximately one horse this weekend before I gave up! We need a companion horse for my mare and something that is kid friendly for my nieces and nephews. We looked at a gelding who was supposed to be ok for a beginner who could barely be contained at the walk...then they tried to show us some nice 3 year olds when we said no thanks to the first one. Really? So I decided to just get goats instead.....

Some people are just so stupid!

We went to look at a "nice" appendix gelding for my mom a while ago. She asked all sorts of questions on the phone including - has he ever had Navicular and has he been lame. OF COURSE the lady says "Oh no, of course not!". We get there...and the girl is riding him extremely overbent to try to hide that he is horribly lame. Well...lameness is more than a head-bob, honey. We looked at his feet, and guess what? He had Navicular shoes on. The lady denied that he was lame over and over...

Anyway...good luck in your search!

It feels like the horse market in Indiana is absolutely crap right now. Both with sellers and the animals. Sorry for your frustration, MF. But it sounds like you made him feel sufficiently stupid, at least. Lol

Better luck next time!

I drove four hours to go look at this young-ish Thoroughbred that sounded like he had loads of potential. Talked to the owner who said he would make a lovely dressage mount, completely sane and sound etc.

We go all the way out there and the horse is an absolute sweetheart. Tack him up, everything goes well, a little touchy in the back though. The owner starts leading him to the arena and his hind fetlock joints literally touch the ground everytime he takes a step. The owner rides him around first and then tells me the vet said that his hocks were too weak to canter as of right now but he'll be fine with a little work. Later, she mentions which vet she uses and it turns out that I know him personally. As soon as I say this she starts backpeddaling on the whole hock thing. It was pretty interesting.

Then in the same weekend I went to go and see this little paint mare that was for sale as a calm and safe horse. As soon as I sat down on her, she started trotting. That horse would NOT let you put your weight in the saddle without taking off. I got the horse to a stop finally, got off and said she wasn't right for me.

Why do people make a point that these horses are safe when the are obviously not?

I have had more bad buys than good buys. But most sellers are hiding something! Always take another set of eyes with you to look at a horse cause in my experiences things I overlooked my friend who went with me would point it out. Never hurts to point things out to the seller as well but 9 times out of 10 they already knew and are trying to pass it off on someone else. Now I can tell you one memorable purchase a few years back was when I went to get a TWH gelding from a man about 50 miles from my home. I asked him on the phone could the horse be ridden he replyed sure can! He said what time you coming? I told him I would see him at 4:30 that evening and when I arrived lo and behold his 4 year old blond haired blue eyed grandaughter riding away by her lonesome! He said I told ya he would ride. And I rode him and purchased him that day. Was a very good horse till the day I sold him( I tend to buy and sell to much lol).

If anyone is interested I have a horse for sale..LOL
She needs work lots of work. :)

I wish that was an option Del. Sadly there aren't enough in any one area that I want to check out. Most unfortunately are easy to rule out on paper without even needing to see them.

See, honesty! Not hard and refreshing! If only I had time for another project Susan.

No doubt. I've been scouring the web and calling a lot of people I know too. The ones I trust all either have young ones just getting started or their oldies that they won't part with.

I'd have made him feel much more stupid if I wouldn't have been with a lesson family. I'm a pretty patient person but he had my german/irish temper ready to boil over