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 The Brave One
Posts: 20550
  
Location: snowbelt, WA | How do you bring yourself to sell a horse you bought young and raised?
We don't click, and she may even be better at something else, but for sure with someone else.
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
 
Location: Texas | you just bite the bullet and do it. This week I've seen four horses I've sold over the past year with their new owners and it's made me really happy. Two of them are with kids and one is going to the breeding shed, and my yearling filly is going to a barrel home.. Seeing them in a place where they are meant to be is awesome. I've had the sad stories too, but these make it worth it. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 902
Location: Qld Australia | Imagine what you could do with the money. Pretty new buckskin . . . bay . . . chestnut . . . whatever takes your fancy.
Try selling one you bred, showed both sire and dam and had high hopes for the foal only to have flood and then droughts four years in a row. That's what we are facing now and I have sold 10 head in the last 6 months for dirt money just so I can buy feed for the mares and stallions. Sentiment as hard as it is is a thing of the past right now.
Go looking for a new one that you enjoy. |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | I have been through this in my mind for the past year with my mare! She is my first "prospect" even though she was older than your average prospect when I got her, but I'm pretty much the person who has ridden and trained her the most. So, I'm currently investing more money into her training in the hopes we can get together.
And if that doesn't work...I'm hoping I can either be brave enough to let go of her or let go of barrel racing for the time being until I can let go of her or have an opportunity to afford and keep two horses. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | In my younger days I could sell if needed, but there has been a few that I have regrett selling and wish I could have do overs. But now as I have gotton older I dont sell, they have all become part of my family. |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| I battled this for a very long time but it came down to when I stopped having fun. I tried to run a horse I just didnt click with and eventually I lost so much confidence and stopped having fun. Dont allow that to happen to you.
Be very confident in who you sell to and that also helps ease. Remember this horse may click with someone else and could have a really bright future. In a way, its like you're doing the horse a favor. |
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The Brave One
Posts: 20550
Location: snowbelt, WA | I have been blessed with a friend selling me a VERY broke horse. I really like her, and it has eased the pain quite a bit.
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The Brave One
Posts: 20550
Location: snowbelt, WA | stayceem - 2014-03-16 11:59 PM I battled this for a very long time but it came down to when I stopped having fun. I tried to run a horse I just didnt click with and eventually I lost so much confidence and stopped having fun. Dont allow that to happen to you. Be very confident in who you sell to and that also helps ease. Remember this horse may click with someone else and could have a really bright future. In a way, its like you're doing the horse a favor.
I have stopped having fun with her. |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| We had 2 large ponies. The first one came out of an accidental, unknown until very late, cross between a shetland mare we bought and a thoroghbred stud. That baby had the worst of both of those breeds. Skittish and ornery and flighty, but she had height and was built nice.
The second one came from the first pony who we bred to a nice POA stud. We were hoping for color, but got a solid. She was quiet and nice, but an injury as a baby caused her to have a swayback.
We ended up giving them away to a family who raised and sold big ponies. They had some very nice foals from those two, but we never had much luck with them. Sometimes, when you don't have much luck, you do what you need to do to move on. |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | It's tough if you never planned to sell one. I have a 7yr old that I had going nicely on barrels and he was going to be my keeper. I had my heart set on him since the day he was born. He had an injury and will now never make a barrel horse, but will be able to do most anything else that doesn't require tight turns or hard stops. I don't need a ranch horse, I have too many younger geldings that will need that riding so I will sell him if I ever find the right home. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 784
Location: USA | If it's not fun move on..... I had to do that with my gelding last year. He needed a different type rider than I was. He took all my confidence AWAY trying to get him to work for me. Never thought in a million years I would sell him. Started riding my colt and realized what I had in him... he has given me my confidence back and I am having a blast!! The right horse makes a BIG difference..... |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | simple for me, i dont..lol
m |
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 Butter my Biscuits
Posts: 2948
Location: MI | I am doing the exact opposite of TricksterJ. I am dispersing all of our mares as IMO the horse economy isnt ever going to come back. This has been really tough for me as I hand picked and dearly loved each of these mares. Each of these mares blessed us with some excellent young stock that we could never afford to buy otherwise. They will keep us very well mounted for the rest of our riding careers. It was tough seeing these gals go, but I feel very confident that each of them got great homes where they will be appreciated. |
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 Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | I sold one I was very attached too last fall. I figured I had 2 of her foals I could let her go.... I was wrong I miss her dearly and am waiting impatiently for the time I can buy her back.
Eta: sorry that doesn't help you much. I learned my lesson.
Edited by ndiehl 2014-03-17 9:48 AM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 386
| If it's not working and you've given it a lot of time, you should sell. If you don't enjoy riding the horse, things will only get worse. I have only sold 2 horses in my lifetime. One because even though she would run barrels, you could tell she hated it & I hated riding her. She was a handful. My husband would rope off of her and she loved chasing calves & was good at it. She was a whole different horse. Sold her for a calf horse and new owner loved her and she loved her job. The other I dearly loved. He was my daughters barrel horse and she quit running. Couldn't stand to see him go to waste. Sold him to another young girl & she dearly loved him and he is spoiled beyond belief. The rest have stayed here for retirement. They range from 26 to 32. They have all been good horses and could not bear to see them go to a killer pen. Its not cheap to feed them all, but it's the least I can do for all the joyful years they have given my family. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 551
Location: NE WY | Here is how I look at it. If I have a horse that I don't click with, I find them a new home with someone they will click with. I love my horses, I love to barrel race. I can not afford to keep the ones that I don't click with and buy ones that I do click with. Of course, this is after a good honest effort to get used to each other. But, if it is getting to the point you know you don't click, pretty soon it isnt going to be any fun either.
Second, I have had a few horses that I did click with, that I won more than I ever dreamed I could, got to compete and do well at places that I only dreamed about entering. When the chance came to sell the first one for BIG money, I bawled my eyes out and finally backed out of the deal. I still have her, she is 22, she has earned her retirement with me. She has given me 4 beautiful colts (oddly enough I just put the oldest one on the market, so I know what it is like to feel like you are selling your dream) BUT, if I could do it over again, I would have kissed her below the eye like I always have, whispered I loved her and loaded her on the trailer and then cried myself to sleep for the next week. Bottom line, she is a horse, she has a limited amount of runs in her no matter how well I take care of her. She got hurt 2 year later and was retired at age 14. I have made sacrafices to keep her with me, done odd ball jobs to come up with extra feed money, etc, etc. The price tag on her would have made a substantial difference to my family and I know that now that I have kids of my own. But the money is just a distant second to the fact that the day is approaching when I will have to watch her get old, watch age take its effect on her and be the one to make the decision to say good bye to her forever, it will be me that has to be there to bury her, kiss her one last time and know without a doubt she is not off making someone else's dreams come true. I think that is waaaaayyy harder than loading her on a trailer would have been.
So needless to say, when the second pretty dang nice horse I had came around and someone asked me to put a price on him, I did, I loaded him on their trailer and I cried, but I don't regret that. Maybe some will think this makes me hard, I really am not, it was just a powerful learning experience for me. So for me at least, selling one I don't click with is not nearly as personal for me as it might be for others. Good ones are hard to come by, I don't let them go easily, but horses are expensive and most of us could probably be pretty dang rich if we didn't have a herd of them....they should at least be complete and total fun!!! Good luck!! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1062
Location: Probably On the Road to the Next Barrel Race! | no fun? sell her and move on... |
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The Brave One
Posts: 20550
Location: snowbelt, WA | Thanks everyone. It really does help to read the responses. |
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 Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | I sold a mare recently that was very hard, but I know I did what was best for her and that really helps when I start missing her. That, and I stay in contact with people that buy from me. They kind of buy me too when they buy one from me...willingly or not lol. |
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 Chasin my Dream
Posts: 13651
Location: Alberta | mruggles - 2014-03-17 8:07 AM simple for me, i dont..lol
m
hoarder 
So to the OP, you just do it, you already have the why's, just have to go with how and who (making sure horse makes it to a home that fits them) |
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Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | dream_chaser - 2014-03-19 11:39 AM mruggles - 2014-03-17 8:07 AM simple for me, i dont..lol
m hoarder
So to the OP, you just do it, you already have the why's, just have to go with how and who (making sure horse makes it to a home that fits them )
yup..guilty.............. .......lol
m |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| I have sold I think 3 horses in my life that were great horses, but just not for me. They always had one thing in common for me that pushed me over the edge and made me sell them. . . they wrecked my self confidence because no matter how hard I worked it never got any better. The last one was a really nice horse and I think about him all the time. I may not should have gotten rid of him but Im just now starting to build my self confidence back up. Sometimes we make really hard choices in life and have to live with them but it will always be ok. There will be another horse later. :) |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | hELLLOOOOOO!!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME???? |
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Chasin my Dream
Posts: 13651
Location: Alberta | mruggles - 2014-03-18 12:02 PM dream_chaser - 2014-03-19 11:39 AM mruggles - 2014-03-17 8:07 AM simple for me, i dont..lol
m hoarder
So to the OP, you just do it, you already have the why's, just have to go with how and who (making sure horse makes it to a home that fits them ) .......lol
m
love it.....me too  |
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Who Wants to Trade?
Posts: 4692
| I mostly breed babies to sell, and I know that going in.
That said, I have sold some super nice horses I loved. In those cases, I wasn't using them to their potential and they deserved more. They have gone on and been great with their new homes.
I've also sold horses I just didn't get along with...and seeing them leave on someone else's trailer was like heaven!!!! |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | I said Whoa - 2014-03-17 11:10 PM Here is how I look at it. If I have a horse that I don't click with, I find them a new home with someone they will click with. I love my horses, I love to barrel race. I can not afford to keep the ones that I don't click with and buy ones that I do click with. Of course, this is after a good honest effort to get used to each other. But, if it is getting to the point you know you don't click, pretty soon it isnt going to be any fun either.
Second, I have had a few horses that I did click with, that I won more than I ever dreamed I could, got to compete and do well at places that I only dreamed about entering. When the chance came to sell the first one for BIG money, I bawled my eyes out and finally backed out of the deal. I still have her, she is 22, she has earned her retirement with me. She has given me 4 beautiful colts (oddly enough I just put the oldest one on the market, so I know what it is like to feel like you are selling your dream) BUT, if I could do it over again, I would have kissed her below the eye like I always have, whispered I loved her and loaded her on the trailer and then cried myself to sleep for the next week. Bottom line, she is a horse, she has a limited amount of runs in her no matter how well I take care of her. She got hurt 2 year later and was retired at age 14. I have made sacrafices to keep her with me, done odd ball jobs to come up with extra feed money, etc, etc. The price tag on her would have made a substantial difference to my family and I know that now that I have kids of my own. But the money is just a distant second to the fact that the day is approaching when I will have to watch her get old, watch age take its effect on her and be the one to make the decision to say good bye to her forever, it will be me that has to be there to bury her, kiss her one last time and know without a doubt she is not off making someone else's dreams come true. I think that is waaaaayyy harder than loading her on a trailer would have been.
So needless to say, when the second pretty dang nice horse I had came around and someone asked me to put a price on him, I did, I loaded him on their trailer and I cried, but I don't regret that. Maybe some will think this makes me hard, I really am not, it was just a powerful learning experience for me. So for me at least, selling one I don't click with is not nearly as personal for me as it might be for others. Good ones are hard to come by, I don't let them go easily, but horses are expensive and most of us could probably be pretty dang rich if we didn't have a herd of them....they should at least be complete and total fun!!! Good luck!!
I have to agree with this!
I haven't ever had to sell one that I really truly loved (both of those geldings died on our place when I was younger. They wouldn't have been worth anything to anyone else, anyway.). But when I was about 15 my dad started getting offers on the gelding I was on. He wasn't anything more than a 2/3D horse, but he had a lot more potential if in the right hands to bring it out. I hadn't clicked with the horse in the three years I'd been on him, but I wasn't going to let someone else run him and think "man, I should have held on to him!".
That was a horrible, horrible decision. At the time I thought that my parents would think that I was giving up if I sold him and putting off the impression that I didn't want to run anymore. I didn't want to miss any of the upcoming races because going off to the bigger races was what I lived for. I didn't want to have that lag time of horse shopping. The gelding and I started having more and more problems together and it eventually got out of hand. He flipped over me one day in the alley and I pretty much decided that was it. I made a few more runs on another, nicer gelding that I had... but my heart was no longer in.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I will always regret NOT selling that guy. I know my case is probably an extremity, but if you're not getting along with horse I think you're just setting yourself up for more and more problems down the road. It didn't help that I was just a dumb kid at the time those decisions needed to be made.
My parents got some offers on my nicer gelding while I was in college (a few years after I had stopped running barrels) and I didn't want them to sell him. I was determined that I would run barrels in the summer while I was home from school ( I was such an idiot!). That never happened. I called the lady up a few years later (once I was out of school and still not riding anymore) and told her that I would be willing to sell him if she was still interested. They came out and looked at him and gave a lowball offer that my dad wouldn't accept. That was about a year and a half ago. The horse is now a pasture ornament due to arthritis. I never really wanted to sell him, but now I wish I would have just sucked up my pride all those times and let him go.
I have sold two mares that I never got along with (I really think I'm just not meant to be with mares! lol) and I honestly have never had any type of "what if" scenario run thru my mind.
I love my horses, but I think from here on out it's going to have be an extremely special bond before I won't part ways (knowing that the horse would be going to good home). |
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 Expert
Posts: 2276
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | If I had one that I really couldn't get with and I knew it would work for someone else I would do it. I've only sold two horses in my life....oddly enough they were both on the same day and not on purpose lol. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. Ended up one went into a bad situation and now she is gone...and I wish everyday that I would have kept her around or found someone else to take her. I know that didn't help lol sorry!!
Just make sure you know your buyer. Do research, ask for references, try and keep in contact with them. If you aren't completely comfortable with someone don't be afraid to tell them no. If it's not working it's not working and I wouldn't keep one around if they can be appreciated by someone else. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 387
| I recently just sold one, Plain and simple we did not click, I stoped haveing fun! I didnt want to haul her because I knew I wasnt going to be happy on her!
She was a very nice horse! ppl who rode her and watched me ride her really liked her, but her style and personalility did not click with me!
The lady I sold her too is in LOVE with her! she hauls her everywhere, she always texts me and sends me awsome updates! she actually texted me yesterday and sais how much she loves her and if I have any for sale in the future she would be interested!
That made me feel really good about where she went and knowing she is better off with someone who clicks with her! |
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Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | LRQHS - 2014-03-18 12:23 PM hELLLOOOOOO!!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME????
You are around!  |
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Bringing yourself to sell one