| trying to sell a horse, it can be terribly difficult to know | | | | and otherwise a great animal, how do you price it? If |
| what to say to potential clients. Sellers are terrified of | | | | you price it too low, everyone wonders what is wrong |
| saying the wrong thing and scaring off a buyer before | | | | with it that you are not telling them. If you price it too |
| they even see the horse. Because of this, horse selling | | | | high, buyers compare it to horses selling at half the |
| has become a tangled web of truths and untruths. | | | | price with the same claims to fame. Strangely enough, |
| You hear it all the time: buyers bemoaning the lack of | | | | the same price can have totally opposite reactions |
| honest sellers. They go to look at a horse advertised | | | | from different buyers, one feeling it is far too little, and |
| as 16.2hh only to discover that the horse is only 15.3hh. | | | | the other feeling it is far too much. |
| They try a horse that is supposed to be well trained | | | | Buyers feel that the honest horse seller no longer |
| over fences only to discover that the horse stops at | | | | exists. The seller feels that it doesn’t matter |
| anything bigger than a cross-rail. How can any buyer | | | | what he says – no one will believe him. How can |
| trust a horse seller if this is what they encounter? | | | | these two ends meet? |
| On the other hand, how many buyers turn away as | | | | There isn’t an easy solution. Ideally a seller |
| soon as they hear that a horse is only 16hh? They | | | | should be honest about his horse, telling potential |
| refuse to look at anything advertised as less than | | | | buyers the truth about the size, type, training, |
| 16.2hh because they know that everything will in fact | | | | personality and even vices that a horse may have. |
| be around 16hh – which is just what they are | | | | Buyers should take this at face value and be willing to |
| looking for. And yet, the honest seller who has | | | | look at a horse even if it might fall slightly short of what |
| measured his horse is penalized by the buyers who | | | | they are looking for. |
| won’t even go see the horse. | | | | Far too many buyers ignore perfectly good animals |
| As you look around at message boards or horsy joke | | | | that are honestly presented by their owners only to go |
| sites you see lists of cliché statements that | | | | out and spend thousands of dollars buying a horse that |
| sellers make and what they “really” | | | | turns out to have serious issues. Add to this the |
| mean. Statements like “needs an experienced | | | | escalated prices demanded by coaches and trainers |
| rider” are taken to mean that the horse is a | | | | on the take, and neither the buyer nor the seller have a |
| maniac, or “free jumps over 4’” | | | | fair shake at things. |
| means that the horse is an escape artist and jumps | | | | Buying a horse isn’t easy, and neither is selling |
| out if his paddock. So, what can you say that will not | | | | one. With buyers complaining of not being able to find |
| be taken as exaggeration, or even as fiction? | | | | a good horse, and sellers complaining of not having a |
| It has come to the point where sellers have no idea | | | | market, somehow both ends need to meet. What can |
| what to say. On top of this there is the difficulty of | | | | we do to fix this critical fault in the system? How can |
| pricing a horse. If a horse is well trained, easy to ride | | | | we make horse buying and selling honest? |