[nlk]

I personally hate when people throw their equine degrees out there. Nothing against the programs but I find them useless. I have encountered so many people in equine management or graduated from them and they are clueless!!! IMO this is an industry that is learned through hands on and practical experience not a text book. I am not saying person who has practical knowledge of our industry wouldn't benefit from a program but it gives others a since of entitlement to something they have no clue about.

Two examples

Just north of Findlay University there is an auction that all their horses end up at the end of the semester. Particularly the Hunt horses. The kids who trained them won't even get on them to ride. They have the guys there do it and the horses are PSYCHO!

Three years ago I had a 21 yr old guy come and apply for a summer job at my barn, he was in his third year of equine management at MSU. While interviewing him, he was asked what experience he had. He started listing all sorts of classes. He was then asked if he had experience out side of school, he said no. Then he was asked what hands on experience he had at school, which was none. Turns out this kid had NEVER touched a horse. He was in a program for a degree that never required him to even touch a horse!!!

After those experiences I am not a big fan.

And of course everyone will think I am wrong and explain why they are great programs so maybe I can start a roaring debate

[shawneeAcres]

To my mind, there is a BIG difference between asking "are you negotiable?" (which is perfectly reasonable) and "what would you consider taking?" which, coming from someone who has not yet SEEN the horse, I would consider downright RUDE.

I am sorry but I don't find that "rude" I wanted to see if she were anywhere in the price range I was considering before making a VERY LONG (5+ hour) trip with a trailer. If she wasn't willing to price her at what I would pay for a horse such as she had, no need in wasting anyones time. I have NO problem with someone asking me that, since I market horses for other people I often cannot answer it. If someone asks me that on a hrose I own, I tell them what I feel would take for the horse to the right person, and sometimes that is the price the horse is listed for!

However, the story has a happy ending (for me and my hubby anyways!). A horse that we used to own, 7 years ago, has suddenly become available, he is older now (17 years) which is fine, and the owner wants him to coem back to us which is perfect! Just found this out last night and so I don't have to deal with finding a horse from someone I do not know.

[Filly85']

To my mind, there is a BIG difference between asking "are you negotiable?" (which is perfectly reasonable) and "what would you consider taking?" which, coming from someone who has not yet SEEN the horse, I would consider downright RUDE.

Shawnee acres, I think we might just do things a little differently here in Carolina

She was asking what the price would have been for the horse. I don't see anything rude in what she said at all. I wouldn't want to go see a horse that I thought was a bit too pricey since the problem was disclosed if they wouldn't come down on the price.

[Janet]

Shawnee acres, I think we might just do things a little differently here in Carolina

She was asking what the price would have been for the horse. I don't see anything rude in what she said at all. I wouldn't want to go see a horse that I thought was a bit too pricey since the problem was disclosed if they wouldn't come down on the price.

Sincde the owner was forthcoming about the possible "problem", I would assume that the stated price already had that factored in.

If I am selling a horse that is 14h3", that "odd" height is laready factored into the asking price. I would not be happy with someone (who has not seen the horse) asking me to lower the price becuase of the odd height.

Once someone has already seen the horse, I would be more than willing to negotiate. And I am happy to say that "the price is negotaible to the right home". But no way am I going to quote a lower price when they are not actually making an offer, and I have no way of telling if they are "the right home"..

[tidy rabbit]

There's just some people in the world who attract drama to every experience in their life. I wonder if those people ever realize that it is them and not the rest of the world.


and to continue the song....

... but, I, somehow, someway, keep coming up with funky ass hits like every single day...

[Filly85']

Sincde the owner was forthcoming about the possible "problem", I would assume that the stated price already had that factored in.

If I am selling a horse that is 14h3", that "odd" height is laready factored into the asking price. I would not be happy with someone (who has not seen the horse) asking me to lower the price becuase of the odd height.

Once someone has already seen the horse, I would be more than willing to negotiate. And I am happy to say that "the price is negotaible to the right home". But no way am I going to quote a lower price when they are not actually making an offer, and I have no way of telling if they are "the right home"..

Consider that this may be you. That may not be the case for everyone.

The potential seller may not have had any intention of disclosing the information to anyone. Although I don't know the OP personally, she has shown that she is more than competent on these message boards through her posts. I'm sure she knows the right questions to ask that a novice buyer wouldn't know when looking at a potential horse to buy to get people to disclose information that they normally wouldn't disclose. Since this is probably a lower priced horse, a professional may not be the seller. It may be a backyard horse owner that is asking too much for the horse with a problem like that. You do not know that. Sometimes, you can trap the seller into a corner so that you can obtain information that other people might not would be able to get out of the seller. The seller may not know as much about the horse's problem as the OP does because she may be a backyard horse owner. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that all backyard horse people are incompetent, but I have ran into a few that left me wondering if they should even own a horse.

I don't know if this the case, but it may be.

Besides, the horse may be lame anyway if it has egg bar shoes on. You do not know that either. If the horse is an App with QH influence in the pedigree, he/she may be prone to navicular. Egg-bar shoes are definitely set off a red flag in my mind. The appy breed is not known for having good feet anyway.

Also, most of the owners are willing to negotiate even if they don't say so on the ad. The horse may have been slightly out of the OP's price range, and the OP may have wanted to make sure that the person would negotiate before she drove far away.

I don't see any problem with anything she said and think that the seller was out of line. I would have been venting too because we expect people to have a bit of southern hospitality down here and not be so uptight. Most of the people I have met from SC have been great!

[Serah]

I would much rather discuss price negotiation beforehand... I have had so many people ask me if a $50,000 horse is negotiable and I have said yes and had them come out, look at the horse, ride the horse, talk about the horse and come back and say "well our budget is $30,000" IMHO, TWENTY GRAND is not "negotiation" it's "re-pricing"

[peco]

you know i do sales and i am looking for horses for clients from time to time and the term tire kicker kind of sets me off. i assume especially when i post an ad online that i will have to respond to twice as many emails or phone calls as people will ever come to see the horse. To me saying someone is a tire kicker as a derogatory commet is stupid. It does not mean that they weren't interested just because the emailed you or called, asked questions about the horse, asked about pricing and then decided they weren't interested. To me it would be "tire kicking" to go out and try a horse or ask to have it on trial if you aren't prepared to write the check for it... that being said i have ridden plenty of horses and shown plenty of horses to people who on paper looked to be the pefect horse and it just didn't click for what ever reason and i don't believe that any was insincere ... just because one person thinks a horse is perfect doesn't mean others agree!

*sorry if that is kind of hijacking a tread but there was a lot of calling people tire kickers included that didn't sound like any thing other than people researching to see if they were in fact interested

[RockinHorse]

To my mind, there is a BIG difference between asking "are you negotiable?" (which is perfectly reasonable) and "what would you consider taking?" which, coming from someone who has not yet SEEN the horse, I would consider downright RUDE.

I must say, I agree with Janet on this one. If I am not sure that the horse is in the price range I am willing to spend and don't want to make a trip, I usually say something like "My price range is in the neighborhood of X for the right horse, would that be something you could work with?" If they say no, I won't waste the trip. If they say yes then at least I know we are playing in the same ballpark.

[magnolia73]

I think sometimes people don't want to deal with a knowledgable buyer. There are plenty of people who would buy the horse without even looking at the feet.

I rode with a woman who actually purchased a horse that FELL during the prepurchase.... done by the sellers vet (who hopefully, you know, was a vet).