Collingwood Standardbreds

Buying

• If you really want it, you buy it fast. You don’t wait for somebody else to come along, or for the seller to change their mind (or put up the price). You put down a deposit immediately, and return promptly to take the horse home.
• Cheap horses are cheap for a reason. If you can’t figure out the reason it’s cheap, that’s usually not because you cleverly found a bargain or were obscenely lucky. But there are plenty of horses who are cheap for ‘good’ reasons:
  • They look cosmetically bad: dirty, blemished, lean, rainscald, lice. These can be real diamonds in the rough, but if all their companions are in much better condition, be extra wary.
  • Owners are bad at selling, unavailable, tricky to deal with, rude or terrifying.
  • No trial facilities / tack.
  • Health or behavioural problems that could easily be managed by the right person or environment.
  • The seller has a genuine reason for needing a quick sale (be careful with these as they are easy to lie about)
  • They pace: a total dealbreaker for some, a bonus for others. I consider pacing to be the best reason for a horse being cheap
• It has to feel right. You’re trying to establish a new partnership so there has to be chemistry. I am never upset by prospective buyers who say ‘he’s everything you said he was, and he ticks my boxes, but he’s not right for me’. Equally, if I don’t have a good feeling about a horse, I won’t waste another minute on it. If that’s how you feel, the sooner you admit it the better it is for everyone.
• The horse will change when you buy it. You need to think about how it will change. Will there be more or less turnout? Work? Hard feed? Company? Knowledge and expertise? Ask yourself whether the home you are offering will improve this horse, or add extra challenges.

Selling

• Communication is everything. I need to describe the horse and its ideal home as clearly and accurately as possible. This is not always easy, in a world where ‘not a novice ride’ can mean anything from ‘occasionally shies at a leaf’ to ‘lethal’.
• If they don’t come and view within a few days, they don’t want it that badly and are probably not going to buy it.
• Buyers want to know the horse’s bad points as well as its good points, so tell them. If it’s a dealbreaker, they are not the right home.
• The money is there for the right horse, who is exactly what the buyer wants. If it’s not quite what they were looking for, isn’t there yet but could be in the future, or has significant extra ‘issues’ they hadn’t bargained for, they won’t want to pay a lot for it.
• Not every horse can be rehomed responsibly, so choose wisely!
• If they’ve been horse-hunting for over a year, it’s very unlikely they will buy my horse — or anyone’s.
• Aftercare is worth doing if you are genuinely committed to the horse’s future. Teething problems are common, and sometimes they can be very easily resolved by a conversation with the previous owner. I sold a horse once who pined for me so badly that the buyers were worried he might be ill and called the vet, who thought he was just homesick. It was heartbreaking and I wracked my brains for a solution, then remembered that he had always loved bananas. I suggested they give him a banana, and as soon as they did so he bonded with the son and lived happily ever after. Another time, I bought a lovely French Trotter who was brilliant to ride, but surprised me by entering full racehorse mode as soon as I put him in the cart. Afterwards I texted the previous owner a picture of our drive to say that we’d lived to tell the tale but he is a lot of horse in harness, and he immediately replied to say I should take the blinkers off. I ignored him initially and had another white-knuckle drive, then decided to take his advice and drove him in an open bridle. Instantly he became a different horse.