Since when has the definition of time wasting been this?!

[lastqueenofscotland]

Been trying horses at the moment. After trying a few narrowed it down to two so went for a second viewing of these two. Both owners knew it was between their and one other horse. Didn’t ask to do anything like take them out to a different arena, or XC or anything like that just in the school at their yard and out on short hacks (20/30 mins) in their local area.
Decided to go with one as the other was SO awful on the roads, and about a grand more expensive, I’m a pretty experienced rider- ridden world, reschooled ex racers, do a bit of reschooling/ training babies now for extra money, and think I’m pretty confident, but I really didn’t think riding this horse on any road was sensible, and with my yard being quite suburban so unfortunately there is a lot of slow but busy roads
Got in touch with the lady of the one I didn’t go less than 24 hours after I’d been to see him and really thanked her for her time but just decided to go for something a bit more confident in traffic due to my location.

Jesus Christ. She was furious, said she’d wasted ages on me seeing him, why did I bother to come and see him again etc etc.
I didn’t do anything wrong did I?! I’ve sold many a horse and don’t think I’d be remotely annoyed if someone said the same to me!

That should say ridden work, as in fast work on racehorses, not ridden world!!

I wouldn't say you wasted her time. Not sure what her horse was like beyond what you've said about roads but could it be that she's been struggling to sell and thought you were the one who would finally take him off her hands?

Its not you, some people are just complete arseholes. It probably explains why her horse is such a nightmare too. Poor horse.

Nope, you’re not a time waster. You did your research and kept her informed. Thank goodness you didn’t take her word for it and rode it on the roads. Most people wouldn’t.

Good luck with your newbie!

She was desperate to sell and thought you were the one. Potential for a further call offering him at a reduced price (fwiw, I just turned one down for the same reason. I have zero tolerance for dangerous on the roads and kicking out at cars will end in trouble, however much the owner protests they’ve never done it before etc etc. Horse still available as clearly others feel the same)

You’re making a significant investment in something, but unlike most other significant investments you can’t read reviews on the internet or get a surveyor’s report. You can only go on your own instincts and for that you need more than one viewing.

Unless she told you up front he was rubbish on the roads then she had no point to make and is being unreasonable. I pity the horse too.

She told me he could be “a bit spooky” hacking alone. I gave him the benefit of the doubt on viewing one as it was so bloody windy but it was a perfect day the 2nd viewing and he was no better and we had a lead. I think the poor thing would have a nervous breakdown on my yard.

Some people seem to think that you can make decisions without looking carefully. I had a similar comment from an estate agent, we tried to do second viewings on 3 houses and once agent refused saying max 30 mins viewing now - £500k is a lot of money! Needless to say we didn't buy that one

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I'm not in the habit of acquiring animals or spending thousands of pounds without proper consideration. Wish you all the luck in the world in selling him. you'll need it

DH is horse professional and he’s been in the game for 40 years. It seems to us that anyone who tries but doesn’t buy is labelled a timewaster but in our experience it’s more sellers than buyers who are the real time wasters.
We’ve been to try horses that are not the colour advertised e.g. chestnut horse advertised as bay “because chestnuts are harder to sell”; horse described as 16:1 when it was 15:2 for similar reason; seller turning us away at the door “because I didn’t know it was you” i.e. horse can’t do what I claim and you’ll find that out and so on.
One time we rang every 16:2 horse on offer in H&H selling pages and were only able to get an answer about two of them. All the rest never answered the phone or replied to messages.

You’ve put the horse through a fair trial OP and decided against it. That’s not time wasting.

My definition of a timewaster would be one who came to see DS2s very elegant looking 16h 3/4 TB ISH. Advert in Horsemart with about 8 photos and breeding. Also sent her about a dozen more photos and videos of dressage, SJ and xc. Came to see it, arrived an hour late, took one look and said 'oh, I thought it would be a cob. You said it's Irish, Irish horses are cobs". Nothing against cobs, all mine have been cobs, but if that's what you want it pays to look at cobs and not something totally different.

Urgh you could argue back (don't, obviously ) that she's the one who's wasted your time by claiming it's 'just a bit spooky' when clearly hacking is important to you. I've sold horses that are not good hacks in the past and I always, always make sure people understand they'll only hack in company, or can't be trusted in open spaces or whatever before they view - doesn't stop people turning up anyway and then saying no they'd prefer something that's a good hack , but I take that as part and parcel of selling. A bit like how people will turn up to view a house for sale and turn it down off the bat because they don't like the area/the outside is ugly/it's too small/insert other reason that was perfectly obvious from the advert - it's annoying but you can't really stop people doing it, the only alternative would be that people can only turn you down from a list of pre-approved-by-you reasons which would be a bit stupid and make it pointless viewing at all!

But I do think it's far more time-wasting all round for both buyer and seller, where people aren't upfront and honest about their horses (or houses!) so she'd probably be better off marketing the horse for dressage or whatever than trying to claim it will hack well when obviously it won't??

Good luck with new horse!

I wouldn’t say you wasted her time either

I encountered this a lot when we were buying DD’s pony

1 accused me of time wasting when I enquired the price and age of the pony in her ad. When she replied that she wanted £6k for an 18 year old I politely declined - she sent me ranty messages for days afterwards. I replied that perhaps she should include the important information such as age and price in her ad if she didn’t want “time wasters”

Spoke to a lovely lady for ages on the phone, assured me pony was 14h 2. At least a hand shorter when we got there - I kept seeing the ad reposted with “re-advertised due to time wasters”. Don’t lie about the size of it then. I wouldn’t have viewed it if they had been honest about the size in the first place

We viewed a couple that DD just didn’t feel she clicked with.

The one we bought eventually everything felt right from the first viewing. The seller was brilliant, took DD out for a hack, had a second viewing and DD rode in her school.

I’m not spending thousands of pounds acquiring an animal (and the huge expense and hard work that comes with one) without checking it out thoroughly

I don't think you were time wasting either. However, I'm also looking for a horse (well, pony) at the moment, and it's worth bearing in mind a lot are selling really quickly. I do think things have slowed down since May/June time, but it can still be tricky to arrange second viewings. It's possible she's turned people away since the first viewing. However, that was her choice to do so.

But I agree that she has caused it, really, by not being honest.