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finder's fees

14K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  my2geldings 
#1 ·
Hi all!

I am in the market for my second horse and my trainer has been helping me a bit. She charges a 10% commission/finder's fee even if she does not locate the horse. For example, if I find a horse but want her to check him/her out, she still charges the finder's fee.

Is that normal? What are your previous experiences with finder's fees and commissions?
 
#3 ·
Yes, it's completely normal. If your trainer spends any time looking for a horse, approving a horse, etc she should get a commission/finders fee. If you found the horse and bought him yourself and did all the work, then no, you shouldn't owe her anything. But i do know of barns who get a cut regardless of how involved they were.
 
#7 ·
yes 10% is usually normal. Some trainers won't charge. Mine wouldn't have charged if I wanted her to come up and see a horse I thought might be good to buy...but I knew a friend's trainer that would charge 10%

Are you getting your trainer to help because you don't know what to look for? Just want advice and comments? Honestly, I never really needed anyone's help picking out a horse. I made sure I knew alot about horse conformation, injuries, and so on that I could look at a horse and see how it was built, and such. You should know that even if you get a trainer.
I had a friend who owned a horse come up and take a look at my boy before I bought him, just to see if she liked him.

Mainly what trainers do is that they critique the horse as good as they can. Doing what a vet would do in a pre-purchase...but since they aren't vets, they wouldn't be able to find everything wrong with the horse.
 
#8 ·
IMO it depends what she does for you. If she is actually using her free time to search classifieds, look around and putting the word out to people she knows that are "in the know" then yeah I would happily pay a fee. But I doubt very much she would put much effort into looking for you. If she was doing the above I think 10% is ok, but asking for 10% just to go look at a horse is a bit rich (pardon the pun). Spos that also depends on what your looking at paying? I doubt she would be satified with 10% if you found a horse for $500. Surely if this is your second horse you MUST have SOME idea of what you need, whats good and whats not?!? My vet was going to charge me $300 to come out check ALL conformation, teeth, hearing, vision, fitness, heart and gut sounds stuff, bloods and urine tests! They can also do x-rays for ~ $50 a pop. What is your "coach" going to do for her $1000 if you decide on a 10k horse?
It's up to you :) If you feel way more at easy with her opinion and O.K. then it's worth it isn't it :D
 
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