Anyone used Right Horse Right Home?

[trakehner]

I've finally made the very difficult decision to sell our family horse as daughters all too busy now with study and social lives and poor horse is fast becoming an expensive field ornament through no fault of his own.

I do not have a good track record at selling as I do get very attached!
As a result I also have 3 elderly/decrepit ponies ranging from 28 to 32 years of age 😂 and another aged 15 who is retired due to injury. All on DIY livery and will stay with me for the rest of their days due to said age and decrepitude. So you can see why I really cannot keep another "field ornament" particularly one that is perfectly capable of going on in his ridden life,hopefully for years, and who could bring someone else a lot of fun and joy.

I've been looking at the Right Horse Right Home website and wondered if anyone has any experience of it? I am committed to finding him the perfect home and I've seen a "horse wanted" ad on there that ticks a lot of my boxes and the person is local to me but I have to register and create an ad for my horse (at a cost of £24.99) before I can send the person a message! I'm happy to do so of course if it finds my boy his perfect home but would love to hear if anyone has used this site before and if it did indeed generate the right kind of buyers/interest.

I have not used the site, but we sold our pony via Facebook (I think that's the usual way to sell nowadays) to a lovely family with a child who does Pony Club on her. We're still in touch with them. I wouldn't pay for an add. I would advertise in the various Facebook groups. We had a lot of interest and sold within a few days.

Thanks @XelaM . I probably will end up going the FB route but I'm worried about getting inundated with time wasters and unsuitables - it's just so immediate with FB isn't it! I suppose in an ideal world I would like to just gently start putting feelers out for a new home locally rather than open it straight up to the masses 😂. I know I need to put my brave pants on!

If your horse is known locally from your girls doing Pony Club or Riding Club then advertising through their FB pages could be worth trying? Or the notice boards at venues where they’ve competed?

I dealt with the sale of a friends horse recently and used Facebook I knew I was going to get a lot of morons as he was very cheap with a full wardrobe as she’d had a sudden change of circumstance and he did need to go quickly but wasnt for a novice/nervous/once a month hacker.

I wrote an incredibly long advert which helped and put right at the top, that I was only responding to PMs not comments, no loans/lwvb considered and wouldn’t be answering any questions that were covered in the advert.

i do find covering everything helpful (so if it’s not a novice ride explaining why, if it needs a certain type of home, say why) then you don’t get the “what about this” brigade.

It didn’t stop one annoyingly persistent woman who couldn’t understand why a 17hh TB who’d only ever raced, hunted and team chased wouldn’t be suitable for her novice 12 year old, but I got less than if I’d done a brief/less detailed advert.

@YourWinter definitely considering that route although hoping for a mainly hacking/low level all rounder home rather than full on PC/RC as the ones round here tend to be pretty competitive and although our boy is a nice safe horse he is not in any way a push button or schoolmaster type He will put in as little effort as he thinks he can get away with and a novice would struggle to get his attention. Strong legs, clear aids and vocal encouragement required for best results 😂. He is a super hack though and very good in group clinics/lessons etc. Advertising on board of local show centre/tack shop is a good shout too.

@Lastqueenofscotland2 thank you for those tips on wording the FB advert and your experiences! I've formulated a draft and it is very long and probably quite off putting as I think I have a tendency to dwell on the negatives 😂 but at least I am very honest! I'm really not cut out for this selling business. Absolutely dreading the next stage of organising viewings...

i think long is fine as it does put off the had a month of riding lessons/cripplingly nervous enquiries!

I thought I’d respond from the point of view of a buyer who is seriously looking for a suitable horse.
I am currently paying for Right Horse Right Home (as a prospective buyer I pay £14.99 per month!) so I imagine anyone responding to you would not be time wasters.
Most of the horses on there seem to be perhaps slightly older or with quirks and being sold by very honest open owners keen for them to go to the right home.
As an inexperienced horse buyer (albeit with a good horsey support network) I have narrowly avoided an expensive mistake is FB (dealer turned out to be on dodgy dealers FB site with court judgments against them re selling horses with false representation).

I’m looking on HorseQuest and HorseMart at the moment.

If yours is 8-12 years, 15-15.3, kind, forward going and sensible, great for hacking/fun rides/ potentially hunting and ideally not a cob or bay please PM me haha !

It's against FB rules to advertise livestock, which includes horses. So you need to be very careful with your wording if you go that route.
RHRH are OK, but can be really slow passing on messages. I missed out on a horse I really liked because they took several days to pass on my message to the seller. In fact, on studying the photos I realised I recognised the chaps she was wearing and I knew her and the horse, so messaged her on FB! I'd missed out by one day.

Thanks all, just a little update. I decided to do 1 month with RHRH in the end as I just couldn't face fielding thousands of unsuitable or time wasting enquiries via FB.

If nothing else, at least it has given me a gentle introduction to the world of selling so I will feel much more mentally prepared to open it up to a wider audience in a month's time if I still haven't found the perfect home.

Despite the fact that potential buyers have to pay £14.99 a month to "apply" for horses, I've actually had 10 really good applications for my horse just in the two weeks he's been on. My advert is super honest and all the enquiries I've had have been so genuine and polite. All of them have clearly read the advert and can offer homes that would fit the bill. A few I ruled out simply because they are a bit further away than ideally I would like him to go but otherwise all the applications have met my criteria.

I have initially narrowed it down to two viewings booked in for this week, unfortunately one of which has since had to withdraw due to unforeseen circumstances. The second sounds like the absolute dream home so I'm keeping everything crossed 🤞 that it goes well and they like him as much as they think they will. I'll keep you all posted!
I've actually asked RHRH to put his listing on hold now until the end of this week because I have enough people on my short list to work through if the viewing this week doesn't come to anything. I don't have the time or mental capacity for back to back viewings (also don't think it's fair on the horse) so keeping it down to 1 or 2 choice viewings a week is what feels manageable for me.

@Niassa not quite suitable for you unfortunately. He's 17, 16.1 low level all rounder/safe forward hack but never hunted.

@roadee that did make me laugh that you recognised the chaps the seller was wearing in the photo. Great super sleuthing! Sorry you missed out on the horse though.

Thank you, I was gutted but maybe it was fate. Good luck finding the right home for your boy.

Elsa Rice at Golden Ponies will find the perfect home imo.