Question/opinions wanted on selling and collecting deposits

Ok so I have my young filly Glory for sale and a lady has told me she wants her YAY.

She has paid a deposit of $100 and apologised that she couldn't pay that week as a truck repair turned out to be more than expected. She said that she would have the rest of the money transferred the next week. All Ok

That was 2-3 weeks ago.

I tried contacting her this week and I can't get through, also left an email, no response.

My question is, if the sale doesn't go through, should/do I keep the deposit?

I say yes. But that's in the US. Keep track of all the emails and calls you have made. If you put Glory back on the market and she sells, you won't get a hassle from her. The deposit should cover your costs of having her off the market waiting for the non-buyer.

If a person wants me to a hold a horse for them I require a 25% deposit and it is non refundable. I would keep it. For future reference I can PM you a deposit agreement if you would like.

Without anything in writing that is a tough call. Personally, if I didn't have a written agreement, I would go by what I understood to be the agreement.

If the buyer did not show up or contact me as I expected them to and I wasn't able to reach them in a reasonable amount of time, I would keep the deposit. My rational is that the horse could have been sold to someone else and now I have to re-advertise; that is besides the fact that I had to board the horse and not ride him during the time I was waiting.

The OP is the perfect reason to get things in writing.