The Pains and Joys of Selling a Horse

We all intimately know the struggles involved with buying a horse and how it is simultaneously the most exciting and wondrous thing you could be doing, as well as the most exhausting and horrific experience possible. You’re searching high and wide for a horse that matches all your qualifications: height, ability, style, temperament, sex, price bracket, soundness … and you know somewhere this horse exists, but where in the wide world you’re not sure.

And let’s be honest here: Along with car salesmen, horse agents get a bad rap — and not always for unfounded reasons. When you’re dealing with thousands of dollars built on a moment of truth or dishonesty, there are a lot of people who choose the latter in order to get the deal finished. As buyers, we usually enter into the interaction with a certain amount of suspicion, either instilled in us by our peers and mentors or taught to us the hard way.

From the other side of the stick, however, it can be just as confusing. I get to meet awesome people through passing my horses along to different homes. I get to (hopefully) watch as these horses that I brought up from nothing flourish with their new person and build a strong relationship. There’s nothing better than getting a picture sent to me of a happy match; it’s a bit like being the cupid for horses and people.

However, the natural suspicion held by buyers, while understandable, is sometimes difficult for me as the seller. I get lots of questions that I know are designed to suss out my honesty, and I can only respond with the most open answers I have to gain the trust of a stranger. I’m not really a horse agent; I simply have one horse who is “the chosen one” and the rest must at some point find another home in order to sustain my pursuits with my big horse.

I understand that this is a complexity that can’t disappear, and the trust between strangers exchanging horseflesh and thousands of dollars isn’t going to be automatic. I also know that inevitably and unintentionally, I have at some point offended a buyer or made the wrong step and confirmed their theories on shady horse dealers. My goal is to be the most conscientious person that I can be and represent the horse to the best of my abilities. After all, what is the point about lying during the trial period? Your horse will go to a rider who possibly isn’t suitable, and neither party will be satisfied. Then I get no pictures of happy couples in the mail at Christmas!

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