First horse purchase!

[Nicnak13]

Hi,
Hopefully someone can help! I am looking to buy my teenage DD her first horse & its already turning out to be a bit of a nightmare. We have viewed a few that we have found from private Ad's & they have been absolute horrors nothing like the descriptions given. I am thinking with some trepidation of now going down the dealer/producer route. Can anyone recommend a dealer/producer in the Northants area? I just want something sane & sensible.
Thank you

always bought by word of mouth.. put the word out with her instructors, riding school.. etc

Are you in pony club.. always a good source. Look at local facebook riding pages..

Sorry not in that area, but was told by a ridinginstructor friend once that the first rule of a private sale is to never believe anything they tell you! We bought from a dealer with one, she was as described and we had her on trial for 2 weeks with a money back guarantee. We still have her, she's lovely. Our other one was a private sale. She had been on loan to the riding school where we kept our horse on livery and my husband had been having lessons on her. So we already knew her quite well when she came up for sale. Have you tried your local pony club website? Suspect there will be a few coming up on there soon with people going off to university. Good luck, we looked for over a year but it's worth waiting for the right one

There is a face book page Dodgy dealers the truth shall out - you could ask on there?

Are you horsey? If Not I think you need someone really experienced to go with you....or even better do all the leg work.....I ride, but don't have a huge amount of experience in different ponies, buying and selling.....My coach/instructor did all the leg work when looking for a pony for my son - ringing up , asked all the questions, so that we only went and looked at ponies - they ticked all her boxes. I obviously paid her, but it is the best money we could have spent (we didn't spend much on a pony, she said we didn't need to, and as it turned out she was right).

She also would not look at ponies at dealers - because she said they are in the business of selling horses, and may not have the same concerns about selling the wrong pony to a child, whereas she felt a mum would have more trouble doing that......but that is personal, and some Mum's in the horsey world don't seem to have many concerns doing that either!!!

I will second that - is there an instructor or more horsey friend you can take with you?

Thanks for all the advice. We have a lesson booked for tonight so I'm going to have a word with the instructor. We are on a private yard & have a horse on loan at the moment so its a bit of a delicate situation! I guess what I mean by that is I'm a bit limited as to who I can ask.
I do ride but I would certainly ask someone in the know to come with us.
I'll keep an eye on the Pony Club website too.
I have noticed a website for VW Equestrian which is close by so I might give them a call don't suppose anyone has heard of or used them?

What are you after?

We are preferably looking for an ISH gelding between 15.1 to 16.1 aged around 8 to 10. Something with ability to take part in Pony Club at intermediate level but also that wont need riding every day...bit of a saint really!

I'll keep my ears open. I often hear of things your way. Have you tried ringing the local PC DC? Also speak to the farriers in your area, they are often the first people who hear of good horses.