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The tack room

Discuss horse riding and ownership on our Horse forum.

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Original poster

How much to realistically ask for?

12 replies

ImDaveandsoismywife · 20/09/2011 16:02

I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to ride my boy again :(

When I bought him he was at the very limit of what I could comfortably ground-mount and he's grown another hand since then (he was sold to me as an 8yo, he turned out to be more like 4... grr...). I only had him for a year before I became pregnant and haven't ridden him since DD was 18 months, his sharers love him and have looked after him really well, they want to buy him... much as I love(d) him, he's not my boy anymore and has picked up a few bad habits from his stablemate (their other horse, who is a rescue and a bit vicious of a loon - he's lovely with them, but foul with strangers) such as snapping, kicking and nipping at people. So I don't want him anywhere near DD either.

But how much do I ask them for? He cost me £2,500 seven years ago (he's now 11ish), I have had a look on Horsemart and can't see anything comparable to get an idea of price.

He's an 11yo (ish) cob-x (? bought before passports, so that's what he's down as now, a "cob type") gelding, about 17'1, chestnut with a flaxen mane/tail, white feathers, huge feet. He looks like the result of a haflinger/clydesdale liaison (clydie face, big barrel belly, crimped haflinger mane/tail) but I have had people mistake him for a suffolk punch.

Good solid hack (doesn't like bin bags or groups of ramblers but otherwise relatively bombproof), loves x-country, was doing basic dressage with him before I got pregnant (but his sharers are all about the jumping), he has/had a lovely temperament and is(was) a big softie who likes(d) cuddles.

If I could afford it I'd gift him to them, they have looked after him really well and love him to bits, but if I ever want to get another horse (which now DD is 6 seems slightly more acheiveable), then I'd need at least a deposit and DH would freak if I just gave him away.

What would you expect to pay for him in these circumstances? Is £1000 too much to ask?

TIA :)

OP posts:

Original poster

ImDaveandsoismywife · 20/09/2011 16:03

Gah! I called them sharers all the way through that post! I mean loaners...

OP posts:

Mirage · 20/09/2011 18:48

From what I've heard,solid,bombproof cob hacks are in great demand.My friend was looking for one for months,apparently everyone wants them.I think £1000 is a bit on the low side tbh.Perhaps £1800 and you could always negotiate.

Is the tack theirs or yours? When we bought dpony,her tack was worth about half as much as she was.

lovecat · 21/09/2011 00:40

Thanks Mirage, that's what DH says, but I wasn't sure. Prices seem to vary so wildly... There's also the consideration that they've put in a lot of work on him and suffered him through his bolshy teenage years, so I want to recognise that.

All his tack was mine, but he is a rug-destroyer so I doubt any of the originals he went with have survived, and they didn't like his bridle (it was a blimmin' Stubben, I wouldn't mind) or his dressage saddle so they got their own for him.

lovecat · 21/09/2011 00:41

(have namechanged back, btw - there's a pic of him on my profile)

Mirage · 21/09/2011 08:29

Oh he's lovely.Your dd is beautiful too.Is she interested in riding at all?

marge2 · 21/09/2011 10:27

I think that getting him a really good home has got to come into the equation. As you say - they have put a lot of work into him and looked after him well. Yuo are also not going to get any comeback if he misbehaves, as they know him inside out already. I think £1000 seems very fair if they were to take him. It would give you peace of mind to know he is in a good home. If you put him on the open market for more, you would never know where he would end up. You could probably still visit him etc if you know the owners.

It depends what their budget is I suppose. Why don't you ask them to make you an offer over £1000 and see what they come up with. Might be £1001 , might be £2000. Do they know what you paid for him?

saintmerryweather · 21/09/2011 22:35

I'd say that since its your loaners who want to buy him you might knock a bit off, say £1500? You could probably get a bite more on the open market but I think he's a bit big and people would take that into consideration. Most people tend to want around 16hh esp if the horse is a bit difficult

saintmerryweather · 21/09/2011 22:37

Oh my he's gorgeous! just had a look at the pic

lovecat · 22/09/2011 07:10

He is lovely, isn't he? I wasn't looking for something that big/young at all when I set off to buy a horse but I just fell in love with him...

Thanks for the advice, I will go with the 'make me an offer' route.

DD would love to learn to ride but DH is not keen on the idea - he keeps bringing up these stories of children dying in falls and says everyone he knows who rides (a comprehensive survey of 2 women in his office) has bad backs and injuries from riding and 'it's not safe'. I'm working on that one... but if DD were to take it up, I'd want something that was 15hh max as a share for us both.

I need to get back into riding - I miss it so much - on a v. superficial level as well, I used to be so skinny and fit before I had DD and most of that was down to the beneficial effects of mucking out on a daily basis!

olderyetwider · 22/09/2011 09:42

If DD is 6 it will likely be nearly 10 years before she's able to ride something 15hh. If you do want to get DD into it (and can talk DH round by persuading him that girls with ponies are less troublesome in their teens, which I think is a fact!) then how about lessons for you both, satisfy your own desire to ride that way for a bit and get back into the swing?

Then you could think about what's the smallest you could ride, although I'm always sceptical about mother/daughter shares until children are in their early teens as the child can be over-horsed unless mother is tiny.

CMOTdibbler · 22/09/2011 09:42

He sounds totally gorgeous, and just the sort of thing that I am looking for

lovecat · 22/09/2011 22:43

Interesting, older, my niece took up riding the same time as I did (she was 5, I was 32 - we had shared lessons ) and she regularly rode 15hh horses rather than ponies (ponies are evil!). In fact she was exercising my boy for me while I was pregnant, when she was 12... never occured to me that she was overhorsed as she never took him hacking because she preferred schoolwork (weird child).

I would definitely ease back in with lessons before committing to buy again - not fit enough for anything else!

In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn't buy a horse again without living very close to where they were stabled - it's lovely to be able to ride out directly from the yard into the forest, but a pain in the bum to have to drive for the best part of half an hour to get there, especially in winter .

CMOT - if they don't want him, would you like first refusal?

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