What you're told you're getting--------------------------->
I have a friend who runs her own rescue program in Port Orchard and she was contacted by a woman in Issaquah who had a TB Mare she needed gone. OK, now my friend in Port Orchard rescues horses that are capable of being retrained and leased out to 4-H kids whose parents can't afford to buy a horse and she leases them out for DIRT CHEAP!!! So anyway the lady in Issaquah, Wendy, tells my friend that this mare has free jumped 4'6 and has schooled at 3foot under saddle and is professionally trained in dressage and bleh blah, bleh. So my friend who knows NOTHING about English riding, goes out there to visit and see this mare. Wendy rides her and my friend rides her and all seems OK except her brakes are really less than par, but we can fix that. So my friend calls me and asks me to go pick her up which is no problem. Well as usual my schedule gets all goofed around and it goes from me picking her up Tuesday to Friday, then back to Thursday. OK I will get her Thursday for SURE! Well my friend calls Wendy and Wendy begins to completely bitch her out and disrespect her, telling her that she wants this mare gone and shE should just call the canner and she needs to get her head on straight because she's too ignorant and OMFG!!! So I am 100% prepared for this lady to be a complete bitchface when I go there to get the mare. So My friend tells me don't forget the paperwork and back over that bitch when you have the horse LMAO!
What you ACTUALLY GET---------->
So I get there with a couple of my students and we pick up the mare and I am putting off this air of confidence because I really do not want to go rounds with this damn woman. Well it seems to work and Wendy is being very polite and nice until we load the mare. The she says to me "Oh the mare is almost too big for your trailer. Especially since it's just a QUARTER HORSE trailer." WHOA! WTF?!?!? Well the trailer belongs to the people who were with me that night and I swear I had to hold back my laughter form how bitchy and stuck-up this woman was and also how pissy she was getting because we weren't falling for her nonsense. She also tells me that she once had this mare sold for $7500, but for some reason the deal fell through *snork* (yeah F-ing right!) Whatever... She owns a 2.5 million farm in Issaquah and another huge mansion on Mercer Island, good for her, I don't care. It really loses all of it's appeal when you're just a flaming BITCH!!
Well we are getting ready to leave and I ask for the papers and Wendy tells me "Oh she doesn't come with papers and I told your friend that." OK whatever let's just go. So we get her to my place as I'm going to put 30 days on her of jumper training and I let her settle in for a day and decide to work her the next. I lunge her and free lunge her over some jumps. The mare had NEVER jumped a day in her LIFE! I could barely get her over a 2'3 JUMP!!! She has terrible conformation, her back is way too long her rump is way higher that her wither and you can tell that she was severely trained on the forehand. So I ground drive this mare and guess how far she drops her nose?? ALL THE WAY behind the vertical. Someone (Wendy) taught her the Rollkur. No wonder her brakes are sub par. So I get on her and she's OK. Nothing to write home about though *sigh*. I'll keep you all updated on how the training of this fab mare continues to go. *headdesk* she's a pretty thing though don't get me wrong cute face, but that's about it.
Moral of this story? I really should have backed over this bitch with the trailer! *j/k* (maybe) Any who... you know it's not a big deal to me how much training a horse has had just tell the damn truth! This mare is now going to take me who knows how long to get ready, because I have to full blown re-train this mare, when all I thought I was doing was just giving her a tune-up! Shady liars!! Only out for themselves... need a serious reality check! too many people get screwed over this way. People are way too anxious to rid themselves of horses that they'll to you it can jump to the moon and back. When looking take someone you trust and always trust your gut. I myself will sometimes send pics or have my farrier look at horses just for a second and different outlook and opinion. Do not get screwed, but don't worry too much either... these shady slime bags ALWAYS get what's coming to them!!! *smirk*
18 comments:
I'm looking for a training project, and its amazing the people you find when you start looking for the free to $500 horses! I saw an ad for a TB/Quarter only 5, only $200. Sounds perfect right? (I have a soft spot for sorrel appendix mares...) So I do some google searches on the phone number and ranch name... not good! I find a free webs type site, and its set up like a teenage girl's myspace page. Every time I clicked to another page I became more convinced that this horse and any other one there is mentally and emotionally fried! The "trainer" is a 19 year old girl who, base on her pictures, only rides leaning forward like a jockey, or leaning back like she's sleding, but at either extreme she pulls the bit back to at least the check bone! These pics are mixed in with pictures of other much younger riders in precarious positions, and one or two adults riding in shorts and western saddles with too short stirrups. Just screams backyard owner at its best.
Needless to say I'd rather have a 5 year old that's never been touched, than one that has learned all the wrong responses to necessary cues... It gets worse, she's got a whole sales page showing the poor beasts she's sold for less than $1,000. So how could she possibly make money off this? Here's the kicker... she has a form to fill out to surrender a horse to their ranch! That's right, give the crappy barrel rider a horse, to screw up and sell to an unsupecting family. Then at the bottom of the sale page I see the name of a horse one of my childhood friends owned. She had a unique registered name, so if it wasn't her, it was a horse with her stolen papers! $125 at 22 years old. I was heartbroken.
I get that she's young and ignorant, and neither of those things are her fault. I'm sure I rode like that too when I was 13and didn't know better. But the idea that novice horse owners might think these are good horses to buy, or that she is a good home to surrender an animal to, is just sickening.
This same thing JUST happened to me. I bought this horse, they said he had papers and would mail them, they never did. Said he was well trained, I got bucked off three times and my dad four. Now we are going to send him to a trainer and hopefully that will work out. Stupid people.....
One that's making me crazy right now is a sweet little roan filly that I SHOULD have bought at a local sale this Fall. I bid once and hubby nearly threw me down the steps. :-)
This dude bought her for $150.00. Then two days later he had her advertised for $650 claiming he needed to downsize. LIAR!
Now she's advertised again with a saddle on and a price tag of $500 because "that's what her stud fee was". BULLPUCKY! He didn't breed her, he bought her at a sale!!!!
Ticks me off. I should have ran out of hubby's reach and bought her myself.
The horse world is totally buyer beware. There are trainers (and horse people in general) it seems few and far between that are honest and have a good rep. I thankfully found one.
Isn't it funny what some people think? A quarter horse trailer. hehe. One of the girls that boards at our barn, her mother MAKES her ride the same way everyone else is riding because that is what you are SUPPOSED to do. whaaaa??? So we always mix it up and ride serpentines and do figure 8's. lol I've told the girl time and time again there is no law that you HAVE to ride the same way as everyone else. She still does though.
Well Trainer X, karma is a you know what so we can only hope she gets hers...
In the meantime the mare is far better off with you.
Yeah Amanda Nicole, I'll for sure keep you updated on how the mare's training goes. Damn that lady was such a bioooootch though!! LMAO!!! Ugh....
Oh my God! Thank you so much for the education, I didn't know horse trailers had breeds. I wonder what mine is?
My favorite term for people like that is "Over-Inflated Sense of Self Worth."
I know right?!? Like she was soooo appalled that we would put a TB in a QH trailer!! Um...it's just a Circle J 3horse slant. *snort* Soooo very dumb...
Besides ripoff report, I'm surprised no one has created a website where all the shady people of the horse industry can wind up. The so called 'trainers, 'owners', peole who have been suspended/expelled from an association, 'instructors, etc. should all go on the website of shame. So people know who know NOT TO BUY from, do buisness with and the like. Because if they do it once, they'll unfortunately do it again *bangs head on desk*. I vote we put them on their own separate island. Away from the rest of us
God I totally know how this goes. My first horse... recommended by my trainer: A 12 year old OTTB, sweet horse, but CRAZY! She asked if we wanted to compete and at the time, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to get into it, but I said sure why not. She said he was a great show horse. Yeah. Um. First show rolls around. It's a schooling show AT OUR STABLE. He is a maniac! Dumps me into a fence (*cough* I hadn't taken many lessons and this was a cross bar course lol), takes of running, and we end up 'placing' last in every class. This horse refused almost every single jump he ever went over. Our extrainer blamed it on another trainer.
It really, really SUCKS when you put your faith into a trainer and they outright lie to you. Or anyone, for that matter! We weren't 'horse savvy' at the time and we didn't know any better. She took advantage of us because she wanted the money.
Needless to say, I DID learn a ton from that horse. I hacked him by myself all the time and eventually, after lots of hours, I was actually able to jump crossbars without a saddle or reins. He was a good boy, but NOT for a first time buyer (and a timid rider at that!!)
I'm SO sick of the horse world being like that. When I sold a pony I trained up, I was straight up with the buyers. I said she needed finished so she needed a trainer. She hated the farrier, but would stand quitely for anyone but the farrier (LOL). Her leads were almost down. She jumped up to 2'3" undersaddle. And guess what? They are SUPER happy with her and love her to death. Good rep, all ready! haha. Sorry if this is like a damn novel, I just get so pissed about things like that.
I will never in my LIFE understand people. We've sold a few horses, and I swear we're to honest for our own good sometimes. We sold the blue roan pony telling the new owners that he HAD reared once, but that was it. She was leery, pony had to go, few hundred dollars knocked off his price. What's he doing now? Happily carting her 11 year old daughter through pony club and over jumps, even winning ribbons. Had an Arab mare these total novices were interested in, but she came up with a very slight limp. I could have easily slipped her to them for the $1500 we were asking, they thought she looked great, we were honest and they offered us $1000 without a vet check - done. (She was a rehab case, so the home was more important anyway, she's doing wonderfully, and the limp went away).
I just could not IMAGINE how I would feel if a new owner got hurt on a horse I sold because I lied about the reality of his/her personality. And thus, why I will probably NEVER make money off horses! >.<
No worries Trainer X. We get our share too! You are not alone.
Is this your favorite line also?
"S/He NEEEEEVER did that before."
or ...at home, ...at a show, ...on the trail, etc.- fill in the blank.
All the while, the seller or owner *knows* full well, THAT is the exact reason they sent you the horse or the horse is for sale.
Little to no 'brakes' is an easy enough fix, if you know what you are doing and why the brakes are non existant.
I have a mare of similar circumstances (jumper needing new home) and also lacking brakes. Gathering up the reins and taking a soft 'hold' of her, got a reaction of the head coming up, a hollow back and an increase in speed- all anxiety based- and she expected to get 'bumped and banged' in the face, should you ask her to jump. Refusals and ducking out had become the 'norm' for her, which was entirely why she was available. Her owner/rider wanted a horse she could compete on and win. Essentially forgiving her mistakes and crappy riding, rather than 'forcing' her to improve and better herself as a rider.
With very little time, some patience, a few cross rails and some flat work, my mare has greatly improved. She has never refused a jump and goes out of her way to please me, because she knows if I do make a mistake- it was exactly that, a mistake- and I will not do it again, for her sake. She has become VERY forgiving for me and my students. She has quickly become a 'lifer'
Trailers have breeds? Who knew? We also have a 3 horse slant. But we have hauled everything from drafts to mini's. (ex-racehorses, barrel racers, ropers, cutters, jumpers, hunters, dressage horses, ponies and a few minis) Does that make our horse tailer 'grade'?
As for PITA folks that should be backed over... There is one I know of in Montana. Another one here that should be driven over and backed over as well. Repeatedly! With a face that "Looks as if she has been chasing parked trucks!", as dear hubby said.
The horse market is truly "Buyer Beware". I think the only thing to rival it equally, as in amount of money spent and shady characters, is the used car industry.
Horses&ponies4ever-
While a website as you describe, would certainly be a good idea...
The newbies these type of people prey on- wouldn't bother to read it. Not until afterwards and plenty of $$$$ later. Instead they would be the ones posting the complaints in hopes of warning others.
CNJ said...Is this your favorite line also?
"S/He NEEEEEVER did that before."
or ...at home, ...at a show, ...on the trail, etc.- fill in the blank.
LMAO!!! That is ALWAYS a classic line!!!
Trainer X-
The absolute BEST response-
Well s/he's doing it NOW! What do you think of that?
I about fell off the fence laughing when hubby Johnie Rotten said that to a client! He had about had it up to there, hearing that worn out old line.
CNJ~ ROFLMAO!!!! OMG! I'm going to remember that one!! Hahahahaha Kudos to him!!!!
So tell me, Trainer X...
How can you avoid this?
How can you be sure that you are not being bullshitted?
Who can you trust? How can you tell?
(I'm horse-shopping)
Growing~ A couple things first... Internet age= google!! Try googling the persons name, get a vet check, YOUR VET not theirs, have your farrier come out, bring a trainer or friend. Take pics and send them to a trainer or someone you can trust. Understand your market and the current value. Have the OWNER ride the horse first. and make sure they do everything you want to see. Show up EARLY!!! so they is no chance of "drugging" a horse. Or just tell them you may stop on by... there are ways to prevent being scammed :):)
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