Seller Beware - Anyone ever sold a horse and regretted it?

Why won't they tell you? Did the horse maybe die and they don't want to say why? That makes no sense unless they were just bad people who lied to get the horse and resell it for a profit. If it was registered maybe you can find the new oners, if it wasn't probably not...I am sorry to hear this :(

Sad story, but not uncommon. SR is right, you have to be ultra careful when re-homing a horse. "Because they seem nice" is never a good enough reason. Ask for references, and more importantly, CHECK them. A lot of people will gladly hand out false references, expecting they will never be checked.

I've sold 4 horses, one to family friends, and 3 to wonderful people with great reputations and I get regular updates and pictures of all of them.

I have this one mare, who when I injured myself I thought maybe she oculd go and get used for something so I gave her to this woman and amde her sign a document saying that if anything happened to the woman I'd get my horse back and I had the right to reclaimt he horse whenever I wanted. Well about 6 months later I went to check the horse (12 hour train trip) she was ill and thin so I organised a transporter that night and sent her home, I informed the lady that the horse was going whether she liked it or not, she got drunk and yelled at me and abused me but it didn't change my mind. Apart from a short couple of months stay with a friend of mine whilst I moved house that mare will never leave my hands again.

This actually only just happened to me, :( its sad to watch.
My "friend" from the south coast I use to ride with her and her grandparents owned a trail riding business and they didnt really look after there horses that well. But my first horse Billy, wasnt really ment to be a first horse, but I worked threw him..(i actually got him out of a neglected home) and we got his weight back on, got his ground manners back and most of all, stopped him from bucking, pigrooting, rearing etc. undersaddle. My friend was there the whole time, She new what he was like and saw when he had his bad days..But in the end we got his spirit back and made him happy and feel wanted. (He was extremely misserable at the place we got him from) Anyways, I was sick of seeing my friend get all these cheap horses taken off of her at the trail riding place, so I decided that it was time for me to move onto another challenge horse. I gave her billy for free. Bad idea. For the first 2 months, she rode billy everyday and loved him to bits! After that though she had a falling out with her father and moved to her mums, leaving billy at the trail riding place. So because she didnt see him anymore they just took him in! Now, when I gave billy to her I especially told her NOT to give him to the trail riding place as I knew he wouldnt be looked after.

So I didnt know that billy had been given to the trail riding place till I went there for a trail ride.. and I saw how sad, unhappy and under-weight he was. I was not happy at all. So I rang up and now have him back. THANK GOD!

I am happy that you both were able to get them back. I think the smartest thing is too get something in writing that say you have the legal right to reclaim the horse if at anytime you feel it is being neglected or abused...maybe like the contract horse rescues in the states use...its really sad that people even neglect horses...I guess in a perfect world a man's word will still mean something.