are they close to You? Can you go out and access the situation?

 

Horses are living creatures with their own personalities. Not every horse works for every rider. You were honest when selling. Once it leaves your hands there is not much you can do. You have 3 choices.

1)buy the horse back
2)talk to them and ask if they would find it helpful for you to give them some pointers
3)leave it alone and move on.

I had an unfortunate sale this year too, where I was totally honest and after the horse left my care it apparently had a complete personality change. I don't know what happened but I was not in a position to take the horse back. All I could do was reiterate that I had never seen these behaviors.

It really sucks, but it happens.
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I have come to the conclusion that a huge percentage of a horse's personality is a direct reflection on its rider. I bought my horse from a situation like you describe. The woman sold her as *not* for beginners and a month later was buying her back because the buyer apparently was so afraid she wouldn't get in the stall with her. With me she's quiet and calm and respectful.

On the other hand, if your reputation is a stake you might want to consider doing something about the problem. Maybe some training sessions or lessons?

 

ITA

My 2nd dd was given a horse. Sweetest horse. Dumped my dd 3 times. He bucked so badly he look like he belonged in a rodeo.

Gal took him back and sent him to a trainer. He spent about 2 month there. Trainer said he wasnt the horse for us so I didn't take him back. One day I thought, that was stupid. I didn't even ride him after training at least to give him a chance.

So I rode him. Took me almost a month to control myself enough to ride him. Seeing ones dd fly off 3 times did that to me. But I finally got control of myself. Realized he was fine and took him back.

First time ever I came off a horse was him. That was last year.

Just rode him hard this past weekend... if he wanted to act up he had every reason to. He didn't. Hard nasty ride. I asked and he gave. No pushing.


My oldest dd who rides a very cranky pony hopped on him the other day and I saw his face change and demeanor. Twirpy horse LOL But then her pony is the same. He gives for her what he does for nobody else.

It all depends on the rider. Thought my oldest could ride him fine cause her pony tries everything with her and she makes him toe the line. Any fear or lack of confidence and they zero in on it.

205 successful miles on him. Just this year

I just dont get it.

 

If me, I would go make an assessment as suggested and provide a few free "lessons". I think you may be the same as me in this thought: it's not about making a profit so much as it about setting up the right horse/rider partnership. If the lessons are going nowhere to helping cement the relationship, then perhaps you can offer them a few options for rehoming him, sending him to trainer, etc. It does rather sound like they are inexperienced.

 

If you're in the business of selling horses, either be extremely choosy as to who you sell horses to, or expect that this kind of thing is going to happen. I wouldn't feel guilty for these PEOPLE, except in such that you maybe didn't assess how experienced they were, only bad for the poor horse to have gone into an obviously bad situation, for whatever reason.

If you're going to sell horses & you care about your reputation &/or the horse, then no matter how choosy you are, you need to be in a position to refund or buy the horse back.

 

This, what Loosie said, coming from someone that raised horses for more than 30 years, and selling young started and older horses.

I have had lots and lots of positive feed backs from people that I sold horses to, and quite a few became friends or people who have kept in touch , over the years
I can honestly say, not once did I have someone who wished to return a horse, or was not satisfied.
If you want to be in the horse business, have repeat customers, good references, then you cannot afford less than satisfied customers.
One the other end of that spectrum, since I raised horses, rather than flipped them, I also expected to be paid a fair price
That meant, a well started 3 year old, has to bring around $3,000, minimum price
If people wanted to take chances, then the local all breed sale had horses going through that ring all the time, $1,000 or less
I don't buy a well broke horse bucking someone off, testing that rider. If that were true, trainers would be out of business, as they train non pro and youth horse all the time
Sure, a green horse needs lots of consistent good riding, before they become, 'solid', and so you don't sell such a horse to a beginner
People not very experienced, over estimate their ability very often, or don't really read the ad.
There were many times that I advertised a well started 3 year old, and then had people phone and ask if the horse would be a good match for their child, or for a spouse that was a beginning rider
Sure, they could come out, have me ride that horse, who had been in a regular training program,, have that child ride the horse, and do fine, but I also knew, leave that green horse sit, not ride him correctly, and that horse who never bucked with me, balked etc, could very well do so.
Thus, I would not sell a green horse to such a client.
Only exception, was if that child or beginner rider, was putting that horse with a trainer, who would work with both the horse and that buyer, while putting more time on that horse

 

I'm subbing to this thread although I don't have much to offer in terms of advice. I had the same thing happen last year. I disclosed and showed all vices to the buyers, they made an offer, I accepted because my wallet was tied up and needed the money for my new horse. A week later I receive texts of new vices which I never experienced when I owned the horse and there were some nasty words shared on their part. I felt both heartbroken and took a lot of undeserved flak. They made it out like I lied to them, and they made it very clear that they thought this was all my fault.

In the end I think it's very difficult to sell a project horse and ask for the best for them at the same time. Unless you can find a trainer who will buy, you can expect these kinds of issues to arise. The only problem is, most trainers will not fork out a lot of money for a horse. I sold my problem horse for much less than I bought him for. Another example is that my current trainer was participating in an online bid on a very promising Saddlebred with excellent bloodlines, but she passed on him once he reached the $1000 mark. They are only interested in making as large a profit margin as possible - not a bad thing! I'm not bad talking trainers, let's be clear.

The other problem is, sellers don't want to lose money... And thus usually the horse suffers. Many owners will sell to anyone as long as the money is there.

Not pointing fingers at anyone, I mean this has happened to me in the past as well. These are just my observations on the situation.

In my case, I moved on. I disclosed all vices to the seller. I no longer had an obligation in the matter and they were incredibly rude about it. The new owner has since contacted me (a year later) and let me know the horse was doing much better. Seems she took responsibility for her own actions and she apologized, which I can respect.

 

I knew a horse I loved riding that never had a problem with an experienced rider, but had bucked with green riders. This was fully disclosed both in the add and over the phone. Buyer rode him and had the trainer ride with zero issues. 2 months later found out that the horse had bucked 2 people off, one of which broke a bone. That despite complete transparency on the sellers part and the opinion of a knowledgeable trainer

Why should the buyer have to buy back a saddle horse that had spent months being spoiled, so that you can retrain it out of the issues caused by the new owners and sell it again? I understand why a person would want to ensure the well being of a horse and your own reputation, but sometimes a seller just does not have the resources to do that.
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Why should the buyer have to buy back a saddle horse that had spent months being spoiled, so that you can retrain it out of the issues caused by the new owners and sell it again?
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Because,

1) No one in this day and age wants to take responsibility for their own actions, and

2) People in this day and age have a very strange sense of entitlement, as though they deserve everything served to them on a silver platter, no more and no less.

The horse market has tanked over recent years; everyone and their moms making $40 000 a year can afford a horse but know nothing about them. That means that there is a large influx of new riders who are ignorant and entitled.

It makes for a bad combination.

 

True, WillowNightWind. People think that horses are like cars. Get on it and drive.

 

I agree. My point is that the seller cannot always be expected to clean up after the in entitled, ignorant buyers. Which is why I've got to the point where rescuing, retraining and rehoming horses is not worth it any more.

As a side point, sometimes even the seemingly best matches just don't work no matter how promising it looks or how hard you try.
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I offered to come over there and watch and ride him. They said they'd work with him a bit more and try again. I'm just still shocked.. He never tried that stuff with me. This is the only horse I have sold. I'm not a horse flipper, trainer, etc. Just bought a project to make enough money to put towards a semester of college. I am just upset he isn't cooperating well with them. I really hope its more of a matter regarding saddle fit than it is him being a butthead.

 

When dealing with horses as in buying/selling them I think you should always be in the position to have a horse back. If someone paid $1,000 then you take the horse back for $500-600

You can assess people all you like when they are riding the animal in a trial ride, they might ride very well but it is watching the little things, like them correcting a small misbehaviour that tells how experience they really are.

A friend of mine had a nice little horse she Fox Hunted for years until he was put down. To see her ride you would class her as experienced. The only problem she had was clipping the horse, she had to have him heavily sedated, I clipped him with no problems at all. She went out and bought a replacement horse, had a bad accident with that and proceeded to go through several horses ending up with a big heavyweight show cob.

Problems quickly arose with him too. SH came to see me one day Roding the horse. Whilst we stood chatting he was moving around a lot and when I made him go back to where he had been originally been standing she couldn't understand why.

That horse came to me to sell. There was nothing wrong with him at all, he just needed reminding of his manners and I sold him for considerably more than she paid for him.

She was just very lucky with her original horse who was an easy going horse that was never really asked to do anything he didn't want to do.