sellers have me aggravated

[suz]

two weeks ago i found an ad for a whole herd dispersal. seven horses, minis and burros, the owners had run out of money and hay. there was one horse i was interested for my dh, a confidant beginner trail rider.
so in correspondance with the seller she tells me they are desperate, animal control has been called,etc. can i please come right away, bring my trailer and cash.
i told her dh is ill (chemo not going well and many complications) and we need to wait until he feels well enough to travel--they are a good three plus hours away from here. yesterday he felt well enough, i called her and let her know so we're all set, pack an overnight bag in case he starts to feel poorly and away we go. the seller tells me her friend is bringing a horse my way today, so if i buy from her he can get a ride to my place.
i tell her i need to see the horse ridden before i buy--i will not get on a strange horse myself, and she says he hasn't been ridden since november.
when we arrive, we see two tiny pens--one has a burro, three minis and a pregnant pony. the other pen has the horse we're interested, a very old horse and a very anxious haflinger running in circles around the other two. the horse we're interested looks bored, but they are all in good flesh, the ponies are even somewhat tubby. i tell her i thought they were skinny, and she says they are!! i can just imagine what they looked like before she ran out of hay--btw, there is a stack of nice looking hay and everyone is munching contentedly.
weird,huh?
so the teenage son of her friend (more about the friend later) is the designated rider. it's obvious he's never been on ahorse. they don't have a bridle, only an ill fitting halter with closed reins. plus a tiny purple bling-y western saddle they heave up onto the horse, who stands politely for all of this, as the haflinger lunges itself around him in ever increasingly anxious circles. she says the haflinger is super broke to ride and drive, but no one can get near her. sad.
so the mom of the teen leads him at a walk up and down the road while the kid hauls on the reins, distressing and confusing the horse.
he dismounts after five minutes, saying it's too cold,, and it was very cold, why didn't he have on cold weather clothing instead of jeans and a denim jacket? sheesh...
we handle the horse's feet, head,etc and so far he is an angel and dh likes him a lot. so we tell them we must discuss it for a few minutes and are still slightly concerned about having not seen a real demo of his under saddle skills. so they recomend a gas station which has soup down the road, we drive there to discuss the situation.
btw, he is an awesome looking horse, very flashy and very nicely put together.
we go away for fifteen minutes and decide we will take the horse with the following condition--that we hire ( at my cost) a neutral third party to ride and evaluate the horse as safe for dh.
we go back to the people's place to tell them and the husband walks out and says he doesn't want to sell the horse. he said it so quietly i didn't think i had heard correctly, so i ask him to repeat himself. again he says he doesn't want to sell and walks away back into the trailer. no sorry,i changed my mind, sorry you made the trip for nothing,no nothing.
WTH???
i was so flabbergasted i just got in the car and we drove away, after saying, ok thanks anyway like fools.
i am pretty steamed after all of this,, a full days drive with dh who has been ill, after the owner and i had a conversation about her brother when he had cancer,yada yada,yada.
she also told me her friend was very upset they were selling the horse,, he is too nice a horse to sell. i think she talked the husband out of selling him, but who knows.
my dh thinks they will readvertise when they run out of money again, and for more money. he says i should have agreed that their horses were in bad shape, instead of re-assuring her that they looked pretty ok to me.
guess it wasn't meant to be, but still-do i have the right to be ticked off?
btw, based on the seller's predicament, i've been lining up foster homes, blankets, etc for her horses since i first spoke with ehr. we even brought a blanket for the horse dh was interested in because she says he shivers all the time!!!

[Paddys Mom]

Wow - did you hear Twilight Zone music while you were there?
I sure hope if I drive out even 15 minutes to see a sale horse, that it is still for sale when I get there!!

[saultgirl]

two weeks ago i found an ad for a whole herd dispersal. seven horses, minis and burros, the owners had run out of money and hay. there was one horse i was interested for my dh, a confidant beginner trail rider.
so in correspondance with the seller she tells me they are desperate, animal control has been called,etc. can i please come right away, bring my trailer and cash.
i told her dh is ill (chemo not going well and many complications) and we need to wait until he feels well enough to travel--they are a good three plus hours away from here. yesterday he felt well enough, i called her and let her know so we're all set, pack an overnight bag in case he starts to feel poorly and away we go. the seller tells me her friend is bringing a horse my way today, so if i buy from her he can get a ride to my place.
i tell her i need to see the horse ridden before i buy--i will not get on a strange horse myself, and she says he hasn't been ridden since november.
when we arrive, we see two tiny pens--one has a burro, three minis and a pregnant pony. the other pen has the horse we're interested, a very old horse and a very anxious haflinger running in circles around the other two. the horse we're interested looks bored, but they are all in good flesh, the ponies are even somewhat tubby. i tell her i thought they were skinny, and she says they are!! i can just imagine what they looked like before she ran out of hay--btw, there is a stack of nice looking hay and everyone is munching contentedly.
weird,huh?
so the teenage son of her friend (more about the friend later) is the designated rider. it's obvious he's never been on ahorse. they don't have a bridle, only an ill fitting halter with closed reins. plus a tiny purple bling-y western saddle they heave up onto the horse, who stands politely for all of this, as the haflinger lunges itself around him in ever increasingly anxious circles. she says the haflinger is super broke to ride and drive, but no one can get near her. sad.
so the mom of the teen leads him at a walk up and down the road while the kid hauls on the reins, distressing and confusing the horse.
he dismounts after five minutes, saying it's too cold,, and it was very cold, why didn't he have on cold weather clothing instead of jeans and a denim jacket? sheesh...
we handle the horse's feet, head,etc and so far he is an angel and dh likes him a lot. so we tell them we must discuss it for a few minutes and are still slightly concerned about having not seen a real demo of his under saddle skills. so they recomend a gas station which has soup down the road, we drive there to discuss the situation.
btw, he is an awesome looking horse, very flashy and very nicely put together.
we go away for fifteen minutes and decide we will take the horse with the following condition--that we hire ( at my cost) a neutral third party to ride and evaluate the horse as safe for dh.
we go back to the people's place to tell them and the husband walks out and says he doesn't want to sell the horse. he said it so quietly i didn't think i had heard correctly, so i ask him to repeat himself. again he says he doesn't want to sell and walks away back into the trailer. no sorry,i changed my mind, sorry you made the trip for nothing,no nothing.
WTH???
i was so flabbergasted i just got in the car and we drove away, after saying, ok thanks anyway like fools.
i am pretty steamed after all of this,, a full days drive with dh who has been ill, after the owner and i had a conversation about her brother when he had cancer,yada yada,yada.
she also told me her friend was very upset they were selling the horse,, he is too nice a horse to sell. i think she talked the husband out of selling him, but who knows.
my dh thinks they will readvertise when they run out of money again, and for more money. he says i should have agreed that their horses were in bad shape, instead of re-assuring her that they looked pretty ok to me.
guess it wasn't meant to be, but still-do i have the right to be ticked off?
btw, based on the seller's predicament, i've been lining up foster homes, blankets, etc for her horses since i first spoke with ehr. we even brought a blanket for the horse dh was interested in because she says he shivers all the time!!!

Sounds to me like maybe they didn't want to put any more time into waiting for you... since she waited 2 weeks for you to come see the horse, then when you got there you wouldn't ride it, then you wanted to hire someone to come out and ride it and evaluate it... If they have a lot of horses to sell right now, maybe they are a lot more interested in the buyers who are willing to show up with a trailer and cash in hand.

[suz]

fwiw--she told me she has had no interest whatsoever in any of her horses. she lives in a very depressed area where horses and ponies are a dime a dozen. she also told me that their priority was a good home, which i think i demonstrated with pictures and vet refs.
and imo sellers should be prepared to show their horses to prospective buyers--this was specifically discussed and agreed upon a few days ago.
my friend who lives in the area and knows her also thinks she found the money for some hay and will try to sell them again in the spring. good for her, that's her choice, i think she could have told me that from the get go. we were prepared to pay her the full amount she was asking, no dickering because the price was fair and frankly, i felt bad for her.
my aggravation is that she or her dh waited until we made the considerable effort to get there and then changed his/her mind. they could have said never mind at nine am instead of one pm.

[2foals]

When buying very inexpensive horses or taking freebies, you need to realize that it isn't worth the seller's/giver's time to drag out the proceedings. In these kinds of situations, you can get a great bargain, but there is a little more risk because often it isn't possible to do the kind of evaluation you might do in another situation. I don't think you did anything wrong, I just think that the seller's reaction wasn't that unexpected. I'm not defending the seller, either, I just think that when people sell a horse below a certain price, they expect buyers to come out, take a look, and then either plunk down the cash or drive away. They aren't expecting to be embroiled in a big vet check, or having professional riders to come out to ride the horse. Again, I'm not saying you were wrong to be frustrated by this, this is just how a lot of backyard or freebie horse deals are.

[Bluey]

I too wonder if the people decided that, for the price, they didn't want to keep letting you try the horse until you made your mind, or they may have had others wanting to try him, that they hoped would just take him.

It is their horse until you pay and drive off with the horse, but I even had someone call and cry and wanted the horse back once I was home. That was before cell phones.
I let them have him back, who would not?:rolleyes:

Another time, my neighbor and I drove 5 1/2 hours, tried the horse and the lady was watching us ride him and saying she didn't know he rode that well and could do all that and then told us she decide she was keeping him after all.:eek:

Even stranger, a lady called wanting to buy the horse she sold me several months ago back and then wanted to pay considerably less than I had paid for the horse, because prices were down.
Now that is a little crazy.:confused:

Like you, I wish people would make their minds a little better and, once they have others involved, stay with it.

[certifiedgirl]

buying, selling both can be super frustrating.
I wasted pretty much a whole day and 1/2 another getting ready and waiting for a lady to come look at one I had for sale- she sounded very knowledgleable and like a good horseman and that was what was most important for me in selling my mare (I was only asking 1500 for her for goodness sake).
After I spent 1/2 of Saturday getting my barn all spiffed up (yeah, I know it needed cleaning anyway) and the horses all groomed I then spent Sunday waiting for her, she was from out of town and had several horses to see that day. She called about 1pm and said they were about 70 miles away and were on their way. Then she calls back about 4 hours later and said they decided they were too tired and needed to head home- and could I email her some more pictures!?!!! Rude, rude, rude and this person runs their own small business and should know better.
Gosh, perhaps I should call her up and order a bunch of pies (makes custom pies) and then cancel after they are done. Why didn't I think of that at the time? :)

[msrobin]

Sounds to me like maybe they didn't want to put any more time into waiting for you... since she waited 2 weeks for you to come see the horse, then when you got there you wouldn't ride it, then you wanted to hire someone to come out and ride it and evaluate it... If they have a lot of horses to sell right now, maybe they are a lot more interested in the buyers who are willing to show up with a trailer and cash in hand.

I thought the same thing. I mean why not get on the horse yourself? That is odd. However I would think that if she was that desperate they would have done what ever it took.

[Kate66]

I wonder if they were more scared that you might actually find that the horse was doped up and is actually a nutcase!

Sorry you went through that crap - that really is crap and I would have been fuming!

[gloriginger]

any chance they are "dealing" like taking in horses and reselling them? I don't know it all sounds a little off to me...

[Paddys Mom]

I thought the same thing. I mean why not get on the horse yourself? That is odd. However I would think that if she was that desperate they would have done what ever it took.

There is no way I am getting on someone's sale horse without seeing them ride it first! :eek:

[saultgirl]

There is no way I am getting on someone's sale horse without seeing them ride it first! :eek:


I woudn't, either. But they DID put someone on the horse first. And for the most part it appeard the horse was a saint, with a non-rider riding it, a crazy horse running around in a frenzy.... That would be enough for me to see to be comfortable getting on.