Red Flag Alert

I am in the market for a new pony. More specifically, a pony between the sizes of 13H and 14.3H that is quiet, between the ages of six and fourteen, has been used in a lesson program and/or ridden by young children, has good ground manners, and has trail experience.

The last horse I bought was Poppy. I was looking for a draft cross mare under the age of 10, preferably 16H or bigger, broke w/t/c for under $1,000. My search brought me to Craigslist where upon I responded to an ad for a "nice uncomplicated 7/8 year old draft mare with lots of trail experience". After a few e-mails back and forth and one brief phone conversation I went to see "Daisy" who might as well have still had the New Holland yellow auction sticker on her but. She was crusty. She was hairy. She screamed non-stop the entire time she was being tacked up. She was not 16H, and no where NEAR broke w/t/c, nor did she seem to have a lot of trail experience. She didn't have papers. The woman said she was a halflinger/belgian cross, which I am pretty sure she is.

Long story short I got her anyways, because I had enough experience to see with training and consistency she was a diamond in the rough. Now she's b-e-a-uuuuuu-t-i-f-u-l if I do say so myself, and worth about four times what I paid for her. BUT if I had listened strictly to the ad, if I had not known what I was looking for and not seen exactly what Poppy was within the first five minutes (a barely broke, obstinate, non-hoof picking up disaster) it would have been a major problem. So that leads me to this post's topic: sale ads that bring up red flags.

Now I'm not saying the following horses are bad, or have anything wrong with them. They could be awesome horses, but their ad isn't doing them any favors.

First of all, yes, this is a horse. I checked. What we have here folks is a two year old 14.1H paint stallion. I will allow that they've cleaned him up for pictures and attempted to take good conformation shots, but sometimes there's only so much you have to work with. It isn't what this ad does say - stunning homozygous perlino paint tested genetically to be CrCr, Agouti Agouti, Black/Chestnut, Tobiano/Tobiano. He has wonderful conformation and pedigree for either breeding or show. He would make a wonderful pony stallion. - it's what it doesn't. No mention of this little guy's training. No mention of if he is registered or not. No mention of his bloodlines. No mention of his attitude, or ground manners, or ability to pick up his feet. I commend them for not being on his back, but there is still a lot a two year old should be able to do: tie, lunge, trailer, bath, good ground manners, etc. That the owners did not offer up any of this information sends up a major red flag. They're asking $1,100.

I'll let this ad do the talking. Upon mounting, he tends to back, to jig. He just likes to try to unnerve a timid rider. A firm rider, once he is going, will find him an utter joy. I have found that if given a steady job, his testing diminishes and goes away [if you make him exhausted, he may behave]. He likes having a job to do and a PARTNER, not a boss [he will eat you for breakfast if you try to tell him what to do] . Ring work bores him stupid, so he tends to resent it - preferring to head off into the fields to explore (i.e. he would make an awesome trail horse) [ah, IE he will take off with you into the wild blue yonder]. Now, he has only had basic training. We're working on getting him backing reliably, but he has had little exposure to training involving anything more complicated like moving off leg pressure. He has been in traffic, with carriages, around minis... and had no trouble. I am selling due to medical reasons [I don't want to die] necessitating that I narrow down my personal “herd.” They are asking $1,000 for this gem. The scary thing is that people are never 100% honest in ads, so if this is how they describe him to sell him, I would be terrified to find out what he is like in real life. But hey, at least they're trying to be honest.

Look! A two year old that knows rollkur! Sometimes in ads you have to let the pictures do the talking. ANY ad that claims to have ANY two year old for sale that is "broke broke broke" sends up immediate red flags for me. I don't want a two year old that is "broke broke broke." Two year olds are babies. They shouldn't even have anyone on them, let alone someone on them yanking their face in. This cutie pie is also "broke to spurs" (what the hell does that even MEAN?) and can be yours for the bargain basement price of $5,000. This looks like a sweet horse. He would have to be, I suppose. But a broke two year old often equals a broken twelve year old. Funny how they get all kinds of problems when you start bouncing on their backs before their bones have finished growing.

In this day and age, it really is "buyer beware." When buying a horse, don't follow your heart. Follow the advice of your trainer and the results of your pre-purchase exam. For those of you who have been in the market for a horse in the past, or are looking for one now, what is a red flag for you?