I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

Over many years endless horse-sales stories accumulate.  They get more and more colourful, even end up as folklore, but all have the same theme; horse sales that go bad.  There are stories about horse dealers who fit people up with over inflated prices, and unsuitable horses, dangerous horses, horses so old it’s a wonder they’re still standing, sick horses, horses that are ridden for the first time at the start of the same auction they are sold at and represented as being experienced, horses delivered and they’re not even the actual horse purchased, drugged horses that transform into fiery monsters, lame horses full of painkillers that wear off, and even horses that it transpires not that long ago, ‘killed a man’! 

And then there are the endless stories about buyers of horses who have caused sellers PTSD.  Buyers who don’t allow the new horse at least 6 months or so to truly settle into a new environment.  Often a new owner will drastically change the horse’s feed maybe even unwittingly.  They may for a reason known only to themselves change the horses’ bit from soft to something very severe then wonder why the horse isn’t responding well.  A horse may be paddocked in a huge mob when it was used to being alone, or paddocked by a main road when it’s barely seen traffic.  After only a week and maybe a display of ‘out of character and unexpected’ behaviour from the horse, the buyer panics, changes their mind, finds it all too hard and demands their money back.

This is a very difficult situation, particularly when sellers and buyers acted genuinely, with integrity and honesty, and then for reasons out of the sellers control it all turns to custard, sometimes resulting in the parties head to head in court.  Probably most often, the sellers despair and love for their horse prevails, so they refund the money and get back a horse that could be quite damaged emotionally or even physically.  And sure as eggs it’ll be returned along with all its goods and chattels, and a seriously bad reputation making it even harder to resell.

One suggestion to avoid things going bad would be that the seller take extra care matching horse and rider.  If the seller has any doubt at all, then whatever can be done to dispel this doubt must be done.  Maybe the would-be purchaser could be encouraged to try the horse more often, and in different situations, or the seller might simply say no. 

A buyer must, as when purchasing anything, do their due diligence and if this means taking an expert then check around and make sure your expert is indeed an expert.  Then if you go ahead give the horse a fair chance to decide it likes you and the new life you are offering it.  Do remember the horse was not given a choice as to where it would end up and with whom.  It takes time for any bonding to happen.

Fortunately wonderful stories prevail of horses and ponies finding fabulous homes and continuing their best possible life and future with their new owner.  But some bad situations do happen and each situation is so different from the next that one cannot generalise when it comes to finding solutions. 

It would be great if anyone can add their experiences and maybe resolutions they found to similar situations.  We can transfer comments from FB or you may comment beneath this article and people for a long time may benefit by them.

Stock image.