Checking out potential horses for a student & ridiculous sellers

That sucks MF....good luck in finding a true kids horse :)

That little gray horse that I bought last winter was advertised as a good horse for the women and kids. Yep, real nice when he runs attempts to jump over the arena gate to get out with your kid on its back...(he doesn't do it anymore)

I have decided no more buying "used" horses..only "new" ones....tee he

Lol, this is also why I decided to breed my own show horse. Everything you look at in the pleasure world that's broke barely past two has been shut down to hell and mangled and lame. No, I'm not going to buy your horse that four beats when you claim he's the next world champion. X.x

What I love are the adds that say the horse has had 60 days of riding & would make an "wonderful" kids horse.

My daughter is a sucker when it comes to horses. The first one would have been okay if she hadn't turned out to be so dang sick. (She eventually died, in spite of all our efforts and vet bills.) The second one turned out to be so crazy she couldn't be ridden...at least not by my daughter. Daughter gave her away recently, and now there is a 14 year old girl riding her all over everywhere. Guess that horse and my daughter just didn't click.

Several months ago, daughter was given two "free" horses that were starving to death. I noticed the little chestnut mare had the potential to be a nice backyard horse, and daughter eventually agreed. Now they are inseperable - and the original owner that "gave" her to daughter wants her back! I told them they could pay me for boarding the horse at $250/month, the vet bills and the trainer's bills...up front - no payment arrangements. Haven't heard from them since, thank heaven!

This yahoo said the other horse was well broke and his kids had been riding the horse daily ever since they got him a year previously. Seriously? The poor guy was only 18 months old when we brought him home! He's still in rough shape - his weight is fine, but he has some soundness issues that will mean he will be little more than a pasture pet his whole life.

Now we come to my girl. Her previous owner said only a man could handle her. I knew she was a problem horse the moment I saw how she interacted with the previous owner, but since the owner planned on just abandoning her since she couldn't sell her, I got her anyway. Well...I'm not a man, but I don't stand for nonsense, either. My Dancer and I get along just great, and she packs my fat a** quite happily!

I think I'd prefer someone exaggerate a horse's bad points, like Dancer's previous owner did to someone who tried to hid them or gloss them over...

Buying horses for kids is such a crap-shoot. There are such crooks in the world and half of the horses that are truly kid safe have been run into the ground and have health issues. It takes a true criminal to try to sell a mean/hot horse to a 10 year old kid. At the very least aren't these criminals worried about a lawsuit?

Horses that can safely carry a child aboard are worth their weight in gold. When you price them accordingly, parents deem them "overpriced".

I'm ALWAYS honest when I sell a horse. We rarely sell anyways but I do my best to show EVERYTHING.

We had a 7 year old APHA gelding for sale. Posted him on dreamhorse, he was on for maybe a week and he was sold. Lady drove about 2-1/2 hours to come see him, with her 5 children ranging in ages from 2 to 8. (Busy lady...)

Thunder was down at a friends house keeping a single horse company. She met us at our house, we drove down there to look at him. Loaded him in the trailer and brought him back to our house where he was brushed and tacked up. Ridden by everyone. Washed down. Put in a stall. Everything you can think of. The very next day, the lady came back and purchased him and he was gone. We had him posted for only $2500, she didn't even try to talk us down.

We really miss that horse and wish we could get him back. We'd pay 4 times as much if we needed to. We never should have parted with him, but he was the best kids horse and just wasn't getting used. We got him as a 2 year old and he was as perfect then, as he was the day he left us. He was the most honest, sweet, forgiving horse you'd ever meet.

I can't imagine ripping someone off. I'd feel too guilty and horrible I'd have to call and tell on myself.

UGGG My heart goes out to ANYONE who has ever had a bad horse buying experience. My best horse friend found a "great mare" online in California (we live in Arizona) She talked with the owner for weeks about the horse, went out of her way to cover all bases. Even looked at several others in state and thought, "well the mare couldn't be any worse than THOSE!" So, we packed up, hauled a trailer all the way to California and when we got to the place we found out that the only thing that was honest about the horse was that she was pretty. All my friend was looking for was a three year old with good ground manners. The owner assured us that the mare was professionally halter trained and aside from the one time when she freaked out and jumped out of her stall, she was perfectly fine. Well, the mare was a pain to halter, and took two hours and six people to get in the horse trailer (that no other horse including many a colt has put up much of a fuss about). The entire time the owner just kept saying, "well, she is strong willed" I would have given up and called it a nice road trip....but since it was my friend I kept in. Her reasoning was she had to get the horse out of this place. (I ended up getting a broken finger out of the deal but that really was my fault)
We got the mare home.....And then things got REALLY bad. In the end after thousands of dollars of vet care compounded by the horse having to be sedated for EVERYTHING including shoeing, several broken bones, and a completely reconstructed ankle, my friend finally admitted defeat and sold the mare (for a tenth of what she paid (honestly, to someone who not only could handle her, has made quite a nice horse out of her).
Sometimes it is absolutely better to say "No, even though I drove all this way, I'm still not going to take the horse."
That's just one of my own horror stories. I'm sorry to anyone that has a dishonesty story of their own.

I had a four year old thoroughbred mare for sale. She was a gorgeous dapple grey and I had several people contact me about her for kids, asking if she was kid safe. I honestly replied that she was super quiet and a good size for a kid, but I had never had a kid on her and she was young. I scared several people away with my honesty, and she actually was purchased in the end by a women for her 10 year old. The kid rode her like a champ and it was a great home for her! I don't believe in cheating people! I would rather find a home where the horse will be happy and spoiled by an owner who is a great match. I don't understand people who are "horse" people who don't care about the well being or happiness of the horses they sell.

I hate the dishonesty rampant in the horse show world. I had a client who wanted me to ride his mare in an upper level dressage show. I rode her and refused to show her because she was lame. Not badly, but enough that I wouldn't be caught dead trying to show her.

He got another trainer who had no problem doing it. She won a low ribbon on her and the owner laughed that the judge never even noticed she was lame. When we got home, I fired that client. He just couldn't understand why. YUCK!!