My daughter has been riding her cousin's pony but has out grown it. We do not have a lot of money but she's been in love with horses before she was walking. Then she got the option to ride and we knew one day we have to get her her own horse.
So with our saving on a tight budget, we got her a horse, and it's been a nightmare ever since. We put feelers out in the local area where her cousin lives but there was nothing available. With our low budget, we knew we couldn't get anything too fancy. She expected that. We came across an ad and when I text the gentleman, the horse he had for sale had been sold but advise me of another horse he had and refered me to the link.
The price was a little higher for us and I did advise him this. He then said he would drop the price from $3500 to $2700, so we said we would come down and check him out. We drove down the property (2 hours) on 3rd of December. It was just that - a property with a shed (no home).
The horse was already saddle up & ready to go. Now I will be honest, I am no horse expert, nor is my husband, so we didn't know this is actually not ideal (wish we knew). Some other horse rider (not owner but his worker) put him a small paddock and showed us how he rode. Nothing unusual, so my daughter got on and she said he felt comfortable and really good.
There were these sky jumping plane going over ahead and it didn't seem to faze him. I picked up his feet and he let me, pat him and everything, and no flinching or anything. He came across as a very good horse. My daughter rode him for a good 30 mins. So deal was done - I left a $500 deposit into his bank account and I was to contact a transporter to drop horse off for me (it was a 2 hour drive).
Horse was delivered to our cousin's property on the 5th of December. The owner wanted cash money to be paid to the transporter as it was his friend and didn't want a bank transfer. So this was done but no receipt were exchanged (but I have text messages of all this arrangement).
The horse was a bit tense, but with a long trip to the new property it's not uncommon, he needed to settle in. We got a new saddle and had it properly fitted. He was a little tense with this but overall ok.
My daughter tries to ride him and he rears up straight away. Luckily she just slid off with no injuries. She gave him a good lunge but he does it again. As days goes, on we notice he was not as easygoing as he was the day we visited,. He seemed spooked by things. We had to move him to another property. He got on the float fine, but he freaks out getting off.
My daughter has severe rope burn that it blistered badly for days. Our cousin is worried about the horse's behaviour and got a friend to see him and she said he's very nervous and refuses for her to check his feet. She advised us that it's not uncommon for people to sedate horse to come across as more calm when selling but there was no way to prove that.
The cousin goes on holidays and we feed their horse and ours and he is a different animal. He runs from you and he is not easy to catch. He is so nervous we decided to be safe and not allow my daughter on him until we got him properly assessed.
We took him to a professional trainer, and she called me yesterday (10th January) to advise he should never have been sold to a 12-year-old girl and that he was possibly sedated on the day, but once again how do you prove that?
From the ad he had, it is false advertising. From the assessment I had done, these are the false claims from the ad:
1. Seller claims horse is 7 years old - Trainer believes this is not true horse and the horse is indeed older
2. Seller claims horse is he easy to handle, shoe and tie up, etc - I know this is not true because he not easy to catch and does resists and refuse for anyone to touch his feet.
3. Seller claims he can self load float - he won't self load we have to load him and he freaked out on us twice unloading.
4. Seller claims that there are no nasty surprises - how his behaviour from the moment we checked him to now is a surprise and the fact that he is pretty much un-ride-able for a intermediate rider as per the trainer, he requires a full experienced rider to be on him.
5. Seller claims he has competed in team penning, and also Pony Club - The trainer said there is no way this horse has completed in anything and in fact, believes he actually only been broken into and is Green Broken which is very unsafe to sell to an inexperienced rider.
6. Seller claims he is cool and calm - which is very untrue; he is not calm and freaks out over the slightest noise or flinches unnecessarily.
.
7. Nothing to spend - yes, I spent money on getting him assessed, plus other costs of getting a new horse and I am so sick to my stomach over this; its very upsetting.
The trainer advised thaat I should contact the seller back, asking for a refund as he sold us a horse knowing it doesn't match the ad and it was unsafe (as mentioned, my daughter could have really been hurt). I did text him straight away (I like these things in writing - he has no email), advising the horse is not suitable and explained how he was very nervous and not the same horse. He reared my daughter off, freaked out on occasions unnecessarily. I told him, "I have taken him to a trainer to be assessed and it's advised that he not suitable for a child and he has actually only been broken into (green broke). I am requesting a full refund and am happy to cover transport back to your property."
I sent that at 5:21 pm, so he has not responded but I will give him 24 hours to reply. After that, not sure what I can do. I assume I message him again and advise him if he does not respond that I will take him to the office of fair trading?
I did some sleuthing last night. I have tracked down his business name (seems he no longer advertises this when selling his horses) and he has mixed reviews - some say he is great, others had issues.
One similar to mine made on a horse forum which he used names, etc and this seller got to the forum's owners and were forced to take the post down for defamation, saying he has taken a lawyer etc. This is why I chose not to name names.
Any help on this would be great - I don't understand buyer beware, but this whole thing is beyond that. We were sold an unsafe horse that was not suitable to our needs.
Thanks. Sorry for the long post.
So with our saving on a tight budget, we got her a horse, and it's been a nightmare ever since. We put feelers out in the local area where her cousin lives but there was nothing available. With our low budget, we knew we couldn't get anything too fancy. She expected that. We came across an ad and when I text the gentleman, the horse he had for sale had been sold but advise me of another horse he had and refered me to the link.
The price was a little higher for us and I did advise him this. He then said he would drop the price from $3500 to $2700, so we said we would come down and check him out. We drove down the property (2 hours) on 3rd of December. It was just that - a property with a shed (no home).
The horse was already saddle up & ready to go. Now I will be honest, I am no horse expert, nor is my husband, so we didn't know this is actually not ideal (wish we knew). Some other horse rider (not owner but his worker) put him a small paddock and showed us how he rode. Nothing unusual, so my daughter got on and she said he felt comfortable and really good.
There were these sky jumping plane going over ahead and it didn't seem to faze him. I picked up his feet and he let me, pat him and everything, and no flinching or anything. He came across as a very good horse. My daughter rode him for a good 30 mins. So deal was done - I left a $500 deposit into his bank account and I was to contact a transporter to drop horse off for me (it was a 2 hour drive).
Horse was delivered to our cousin's property on the 5th of December. The owner wanted cash money to be paid to the transporter as it was his friend and didn't want a bank transfer. So this was done but no receipt were exchanged (but I have text messages of all this arrangement).
The horse was a bit tense, but with a long trip to the new property it's not uncommon, he needed to settle in. We got a new saddle and had it properly fitted. He was a little tense with this but overall ok.
My daughter tries to ride him and he rears up straight away. Luckily she just slid off with no injuries. She gave him a good lunge but he does it again. As days goes, on we notice he was not as easygoing as he was the day we visited,. He seemed spooked by things. We had to move him to another property. He got on the float fine, but he freaks out getting off.
My daughter has severe rope burn that it blistered badly for days. Our cousin is worried about the horse's behaviour and got a friend to see him and she said he's very nervous and refuses for her to check his feet. She advised us that it's not uncommon for people to sedate horse to come across as more calm when selling but there was no way to prove that.
The cousin goes on holidays and we feed their horse and ours and he is a different animal. He runs from you and he is not easy to catch. He is so nervous we decided to be safe and not allow my daughter on him until we got him properly assessed.
We took him to a professional trainer, and she called me yesterday (10th January) to advise he should never have been sold to a 12-year-old girl and that he was possibly sedated on the day, but once again how do you prove that?
From the ad he had, it is false advertising. From the assessment I had done, these are the false claims from the ad:
1. Seller claims horse is 7 years old - Trainer believes this is not true horse and the horse is indeed older
2. Seller claims horse is he easy to handle, shoe and tie up, etc - I know this is not true because he not easy to catch and does resists and refuse for anyone to touch his feet.
3. Seller claims he can self load float - he won't self load we have to load him and he freaked out on us twice unloading.
4. Seller claims that there are no nasty surprises - how his behaviour from the moment we checked him to now is a surprise and the fact that he is pretty much un-ride-able for a intermediate rider as per the trainer, he requires a full experienced rider to be on him.
5. Seller claims he has competed in team penning, and also Pony Club - The trainer said there is no way this horse has completed in anything and in fact, believes he actually only been broken into and is Green Broken which is very unsafe to sell to an inexperienced rider.
6. Seller claims he is cool and calm - which is very untrue; he is not calm and freaks out over the slightest noise or flinches unnecessarily.
.
7. Nothing to spend - yes, I spent money on getting him assessed, plus other costs of getting a new horse and I am so sick to my stomach over this; its very upsetting.
The trainer advised thaat I should contact the seller back, asking for a refund as he sold us a horse knowing it doesn't match the ad and it was unsafe (as mentioned, my daughter could have really been hurt). I did text him straight away (I like these things in writing - he has no email), advising the horse is not suitable and explained how he was very nervous and not the same horse. He reared my daughter off, freaked out on occasions unnecessarily. I told him, "I have taken him to a trainer to be assessed and it's advised that he not suitable for a child and he has actually only been broken into (green broke). I am requesting a full refund and am happy to cover transport back to your property."
I sent that at 5:21 pm, so he has not responded but I will give him 24 hours to reply. After that, not sure what I can do. I assume I message him again and advise him if he does not respond that I will take him to the office of fair trading?
I did some sleuthing last night. I have tracked down his business name (seems he no longer advertises this when selling his horses) and he has mixed reviews - some say he is great, others had issues.
One similar to mine made on a horse forum which he used names, etc and this seller got to the forum's owners and were forced to take the post down for defamation, saying he has taken a lawyer etc. This is why I chose not to name names.
Any help on this would be great - I don't understand buyer beware, but this whole thing is beyond that. We were sold an unsafe horse that was not suitable to our needs.
Thanks. Sorry for the long post.