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Veteran
Posts: 107
| Yes, but I'm also prepared to walk away. | |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
 
| RunNitroRun - 2014-01-25 8:33 AM Rodeo Mom -- I think (not always) if you ask enough questions, and fish enough answers out of the buyer you can pretty much narrow down just on an emails whether or not the horse is for you. I'm not saying there won't be those completely dishonest sellers who can tell some good lies but usually if you ask enough you'll either get the complete story or you'll get enough inconsistencies to know something isn't quite right. I also Google the rider and horses name. In this day a lot of the time you can find information about the horse (not always) or the seller. If they haven't had the horse long I ask who they bought it from. A lot of riders put videos on Youtube of themselves and if they don't have the horse listed I can't get a pretty good sense of what the horse is like by watching other videos of horses the seller is riding. If the rider keeps yanking all their horses around a pattern (on majority of videos) that this horse isn't going to be much different. If they are flopping all over or can't run a nice pattern at all (on majority of videos) then probably their definition of finished may vary greatly from what you are looking for. If a majority of their videos and runs are decent & the rider seems well versed then that tells a lot of the story too. If they have 75 uploaded videos that are recent but don't have a single run posted of the horse for sale that also opens up the door for more questions. This isn't a fool proof approach but it has saved me a lot of time when shopping.
I do the research, google horse and rider, gather all the info I can find, unfortunately some sellers tell you want you want to hear and sometimes what sounds like a great match doesn't work out that way. We have gone with high hopes but never knowing we were buying till we tried the horse. | |
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The Resident Destroyer of Liberal Logic
 
Location: PNW | rodeomom3 - 2014-01-25 10:02 AM
RunNitroRun - 2014-01-25 8:33 AM Rodeo Mom -- I think (not always) if you ask enough questions, and fish enough answers out of the buyer you can pretty much narrow down just on an emails whether or not the horse is for you. I'm not saying there won't be those completely dishonest sellers who can tell some good lies but usually if you ask enough you'll either get the complete story or you'll get enough inconsistencies to know something isn't quite right. I also Google the rider and horses name. In this day a lot of the time you can find information about the horse (not always) or the seller. If they haven't had the horse long I ask who they bought it from. A lot of riders put videos on Youtube of themselves and if they don't have the horse listed I can't get a pretty good sense of what the horse is like by watching other videos of horses the seller is riding. If the rider keeps yanking all their horses around a pattern (on majority of videos) that this horse isn't going to be much different. If they are flopping all over or can't run a nice pattern at all (on majority of videos) then probably their definition of finished may vary greatly from what you are looking for. If a majority of their videos and runs are decent & the rider seems well versed then that tells a lot of the story too. If they have 75 uploaded videos that are recent but don't have a single run posted of the horse for sale that also opens up the door for more questions. This isn't a fool proof approach but it has saved me a lot of time when shopping.
I do the research, google horse and rider, gather all the info I can find, unfortunately some sellers tell you want you want to hear and sometimes what sounds like a great match doesn't work out that way. We have gone with high hopes but never knowing we were buying till we tried the horse.
And also, you can't figure out if you MATCH the horse over emails.
Personality and attitude is a HUGE factor for me - if not the biggest. I've bought two horses in the last two years, one I still have - one I don't.
The one I sold, was bought without ever seeing her, riding her, or meeting her. She was a doll, 100% sound! bred to the wazoo - but darn it our personalities clashed. I was pi$$ed off three minutes into every ride. We just didn't work. All the emails in the world wouldn't have told me that.
The gelding I do have, was fate. I swear it. I saw his ad on here, prayed and prayed that he wouldn't be sold by the weekend, drove 8 hours to go see him (no trailer), rode him, loved him, vetted him, bought him. A friend of mine picked him up a week later on her way home from a race. And still adore him, and every moment I spend in his saddle. I spent WAY less time researching/emailing/talking to the owner on that purchase.
Maybe it is just me and RodeoMom, but I don't think you can get a 100% accurate feel for whether or not a horse is right for you just by email and phone. | |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | svincent - 2014-01-25 10:45 AM rodeomom3 - 2014-01-25 10:02 AM RunNitroRun - 2014-01-25 8:33 AM Rodeo Mom -- I think (not always) if you ask enough questions, and fish enough answers out of the buyer you can pretty much narrow down just on an emails whether or not the horse is for you. I'm not saying there won't be those completely dishonest sellers who can tell some good lies but usually if you ask enough you'll either get the complete story or you'll get enough inconsistencies to know something isn't quite right. I also Google the rider and horses name. In this day a lot of the time you can find information about the horse (not always) or the seller. If they haven't had the horse long I ask who they bought it from. A lot of riders put videos on Youtube of themselves and if they don't have the horse listed I can't get a pretty good sense of what the horse is like by watching other videos of horses the seller is riding. If the rider keeps yanking all their horses around a pattern (on majority of videos) that this horse isn't going to be much different. If they are flopping all over or can't run a nice pattern at all (on majority of videos) then probably their definition of finished may vary greatly from what you are looking for. If a majority of their videos and runs are decent & the rider seems well versed then that tells a lot of the story too. If they have 75 uploaded videos that are recent but don't have a single run posted of the horse for sale that also opens up the door for more questions. This isn't a fool proof approach but it has saved me a lot of time when shopping. I do the research, google horse and rider, gather all the info I can find, unfortunately some sellers tell you want you want to hear and sometimes what sounds like a great match doesn't work out that way. We have gone with high hopes but never knowing we were buying till we tried the horse. And also, you can't figure out if you MATCH the horse over emails. Personality and attitude is a HUGE factor for me - if not the biggest. I've bought two horses in the last two years, one I still have - one I don't. The one I sold, was bought without ever seeing her, riding her, or meeting her. She was a doll, 100% sound! bred to the wazoo - but darn it our personalities clashed. I was pi$$ed off three minutes into every ride. We just didn't work. All the emails in the world wouldn't have told me that. The gelding I do have, was fate. I swear it. I saw his ad on here, prayed and prayed that he wouldn't be sold by the weekend, drove 8 hours to go see him (no trailer ), rode him, loved him, vetted him, bought him. A friend of mine picked him up a week later on her way home from a race. And still adore him, and every moment I spend in his saddle. I spent WAY less time researching/emailing/talking to the owner on that purchase. Maybe it is just me and RodeoMom, but I don't think you can get a 100% accurate feel for whether or not a horse is right for you just by email and phone.
I mostly buy started prospects and I can't do it without riding the horse. And it's not just personality/attitude/meeting of the minds, I need to know how a horse feels and moves under me. I have looked at horses that I wasn't sure about logically but had a good gut feeling and ended up liking and buying them. Even if they were ugly or not quite what was represented. Others sounded perfect on paper, looked super on video, but I didn't like the way they rode. When I was finished horse shopping a year ago, I rode one that I loved everything about him but he didn't clock with me for the price (ran him at 2 arenas) and the seller wouldn't come down. And then there is the vet check issue. If you're picky at all, there are lots of reasons you can research all day long and still not end up buying after looking at it in person. | |
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My Heelers are Heroes
Posts: 4685
| Depends on price and distance. If it's close to me sure I might run over and take a look. If I have to drive very far I'm probably going to go ahead and take my money and trailer. If it's a expensive horse I may make arraingments to stay afew days to ride and haul to different arenas, which also allows me time with the owner to share all the ins and outs on how to ride the horse correctly. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | svincent - 2014-01-25 10:45 AM
rodeomom3 - 2014-01-25 10:02 AM
RunNitroRun - 2014-01-25 8:33 AM Rodeo Mom -- I think (not always) if you ask enough questions, and fish enough answers out of the buyer you can pretty much narrow down just on an emails whether or not the horse is for you. I'm not saying there won't be those completely dishonest sellers who can tell some good lies but usually if you ask enough you'll either get the complete story or you'll get enough inconsistencies to know something isn't quite right. I also Google the rider and horses name. In this day a lot of the time you can find information about the horse (not always) or the seller. If they haven't had the horse long I ask who they bought it from. A lot of riders put videos on Youtube of themselves and if they don't have the horse listed I can't get a pretty good sense of what the horse is like by watching other videos of horses the seller is riding. If the rider keeps yanking all their horses around a pattern (on majority of videos) that this horse isn't going to be much different. If they are flopping all over or can't run a nice pattern at all (on majority of videos) then probably their definition of finished may vary greatly from what you are looking for. If a majority of their videos and runs are decent & the rider seems well versed then that tells a lot of the story too. If they have 75 uploaded videos that are recent but don't have a single run posted of the horse for sale that also opens up the door for more questions. This isn't a fool proof approach but it has saved me a lot of time when shopping.
I do the research, google horse and rider, gather all the info I can find, unfortunately some sellers tell you want you want to hear and sometimes what sounds like a great match doesn't work out that way. We have gone with high hopes but never knowing we were buying till we tried the horse.
And also, you can't figure out if you MATCH the horse over emails.
Personality and attitude is a HUGE factor for me - if not the biggest. I've bought two horses in the last two years, one I still have - one I don't.
The one I sold, was bought without ever seeing her, riding her, or meeting her. She was a doll, 100% sound! bred to the wazoo - but darn it our personalities clashed. I was pi$$ed off three minutes into every ride. We just didn't work. All the emails in the world wouldn't have told me that.
The gelding I do have, was fate. I swear it. I saw his ad on here, prayed and prayed that he wouldn't be sold by the weekend, drove 8 hours to go see him (no trailer ), rode him, loved him, vetted him, bought him. A friend of mine picked him up a week later on her way home from a race. And still adore him, and every moment I spend in his saddle. I spent WAY less time researching/emailing/talking to the owner on that purchase.
Maybe it is just me and RodeoMom, but I don't think you can get a 100% accurate feel for whether or not a horse is right for you just by email and phone.
I agree you can't get a 100% accurate feel but I think you can sometimes (not always) flush out horses that you know aren't going to work and narrow it down to ones that are much closer to what you may be looking for. I've run into some sellers that can certainly tell me what I want to hear but when I start asking more questions the stories start to fall apart enough for me to move the horse from the "yes lets go see and try" to the "maybe... think on it some more" piles.
No amount of research can tell you how the horse will ride with you as the jockey but if you like certain qualities (turning style, movement etc), or some qualities are deal breakers (alley issues, cribbing etc) then sometimes if you can find history (aside from what the seller tells you) you can make more informed decisions on whether or not to make a trip. For example - if you find a horse you are interested in but will not buy a cribber ever and the owner may only have wire fencing and never experienced the horse cribbing so never thought to list it as a vice - if you research you may find an old ad still listed somewhere that says the horse cribs and must wear a collar.
I've lucked out both ways in finding extra information that made me want to go try a horse I was on the fence about, and I've found information on a horse I was all set to try out and probably buy that made me cancel the trip.
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 Night Chat Leader
Posts: 13150
Location: Home....Smiling M Farms | rodeomom3 - 2014-01-25 6:02 AM Leo - 2014-01-25 3:24 AM kelly griffith - 2014-01-22 5:21 PM cash and trailer Exactly, I don't leave home unless I'm certain the horse is coming back with me.
It all depends on what I'm buying, broodmares, young horses, or a finished horse. As far as a finished horse goes, I knew the last four I've bought personally, competed against them for years, knew the owners, knew the horses as individuals. Basically said, 'hey if you ever want to sell that horse, let me know.' When the horses came up for sale, they called me. Has worked out very well for me, got 2 once in a life timers that way.
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