What do people mean by time wasters when advertising horses?

[N0tinmylife]

I finally had to make the difficult decision to give up my loan horse after the 5th time he'd had me off in 8 months, so am now starting the hunt for another one. Every second horse seems to be "re advertised due to time wasters" As a result I am now a bit paranoid that if I go and see a horse, and don't want it, I will be branded a time waster.

Can anyone explain exactly what is meant by this term? I have heard before about people who go and see horses just to get a free ride, but I can't imagine there are many people like that, and even if there were, how would the horses owner know the difference? I am not sure why this bugs me so much, but it is making me reluctant to ring up about horses I am seeing advertised, so if anyone can clarify this I would be very grateful! Thanks.

it bugs me too, not necessarily with horses but with other things advertised and i wouldnt be as tempted to buy from them, as it gives the impression they would be hostile if there was a problem

To me it's people coming to see wholly unsuitable horses.
If I say NOT A NOVICE ride, I mean not a bloody novice ride so please don;t pitch up if you can only walk and trot!

I've sold a couple, and to me, time wasters means:
1/ people who are just out for a free ride.
2/ people who have NO IDEA what they are doing.
3/ people who have expectations beyond those which are sensible.
4/ people who don't have the money.
5/ people who have the money but don't want to spend it, using lies, insults and bad riding to get you to drop the price.
6/ people who lie. About their experience, premises, motives, abilit to look after a horse, and hope you won't use your contacts and common sense to discover their actual reputations.
Sadly there are many many people like this. Maybe they don't realise they are time wasters, maybe they do. But they are a pain in the arse. And the ones who have small children make me very sad.

I'm having this problem with 'time wasters' with selling the deamon pony.

She's clearly advertised as unbroken, and, very shy/ sharp. Was wild of the mountains when I got her.

I now question peoples motives well before I even let them see pony.

Person today rocked up after telling me they wanted to bring her on & show her with a child in toe, telling me thst actually they want a lead rein pony. For a child who's clearly too big & complete novice. Then they say she's too much because she put in a mini rear when trotted up.

What part of wild pony says lead rein novice ride?

The key thing is to be honest about what you're looking for & not go veiw anything you're not convinced sounds right.

I thought a timewaster was someone who agrees orally to buy / loan the horse (so the seller takes the advert down as they think they have found a purchaser) but then pulls out at the last minute. I personally don't know why people take the adverts down until they have a done deal.

When looking for my share I went to see a few horses that were not suitable for me, but IMO it was the owner's fault. I clearly said I was a novice rider seeking a very straightforward horse and they still insisted on me coming to see their horses which when I got there turned out to be unsuitable for novices! So they were wasting their own time IMO

I would say just get as much information by phone or email before you arrange a viewing to try and determine whether the horse is likely to be suitable. If you do that and then turn up and the horse is clearly not suitable that is hardly your fault.

Good luck.

I got called a timewaster after I paid a deposit conditional on vetting then pulled out when the horse failed the vetting (by a long way, vet said it should be retired). I was livid!

Jessylou, I know what you mean, we got messed about something awful by sellers and wasted a lot of time as well as money travelling about. We had the one at the safecobs place that was supposed to be suitable for a family and was clearly a nutter. I had a long chat with someone who had two ponies for sale. The first one was supposed to be 15yo and 14hh. Was more like 13hh and looked at least 30! The second one was lovely. We saw her ridden, then tried her in the school and she went very sweetly for all of us. She was even a nice colour! Only when we said we were interested in buying her did they tell us that someone else had put a deposit on her before going on holiday .
There was one little mare who looked neglected and had terrible feet. We decided to be sensible as she'd have cost a lot to put right and was overpriced anyway. She still haunts me though, she was a darling and a wish I had given her a home. That's the other side of horse hunting on a budget, you have to harden your heart. I could never go to the sales, I would never sleep again.

I think you should be honest about your abilities and experience when you speak to the vendor on the phone, and try and get as much information as possible out of them before arranging a visit.

If you arrange to visit, then can't make it, let the vendor know, nothing worse than getting a horse ready then no one turning up !

If you try the horse and it isn't for you then say so, don't leave them thinking you might buy it when you won't.

You have to see the horse to buy it, and so you'll see some that don't suit you for whatever reason, that's not time wasting, that's shopping !

Thanks for the responses, it seems everyone has a slightly different view of what constitutes a time waster, thankfully I don't think any of them are things I am likely to do, I always try to be upfront and honest. Now I just have to work out how to describe my ability level accurately!

I can never see why people say "no timewasters" or "to a good home only" in their adverts. I don't think any purchaser considers themself to be timewasters or a bad home so a waste of words.

However we have been on the receiving end of somebody we considered a timewaster. They came and tried a pony we were selling. We negotiated a price and they said they would be back in a week or so to pick him up. In the meantime we agreed not to show him to anybody else. That was fine as we didn't want to mess other people about if he was "sold".

However the money never turned up. Everytime we rang them they came up with a plausible excuse and promised it would be in the post the next day etc.

In the end we gave up on them and we'd wasted a month whereby people could have been looking at him before the school holiday etc and of course his advert had dropped well down the pecking order on Horsequest. It also looked as if nobody wanted him which was far from the truth.

We would not consider anybody coming to look at our ponies as timewasters even if they don't buy. That is what selling ponies is all about.

All of the things Saggy has mentioned plus the people who set a date and time to view your horse and then just don't bother to turn up, not even a text to let you know not to wait around for them...

People who waste sellers time by either repeated viewing with no intention of buying. I had a couple when I was selling my old horse, but thankfully didn't turn any prospective buyers away because of them or I would have been very annoyed!