Pricing for quirky section A

[giraffeski]

Please help me price this pony! She's very quirky, I don't want to ask too little as it might attract the wrong sort but I really would rather she went to a decent home
I fondly refer to her as the demon pony but I love her really.
Shes been languishing out of work and hopelessly outgrown for a year here and only just now can I bring myself to sell her.
(Plus DH is implementing a strict one in one out policy and DD needs a youngster to run alongside her eventer next season as he's getting on in years 😬)
Heres the ad, any advice would be welcome

Rhea: Scopey Grey Welsh Section A Mare
Rhea is a pretty grey Welsh A mare with bags of personality. She's quirky, clever and opinionated, and she'll suit someone who enjoys a pony with a mind of her own.
Rhea is a purebred Welsh Section A, 12hh , 8 years old. She has done all Pony Club activities, cross-country, show jumping, dressage, arena eventing, grid rallies and mounted games and lots of general rallies. She has been on beach rides and stay away camps and is fairly forward in nature. She has a scopey jump and a bold attitude, and she isn't scared of being dressed up in ridiculous costumes. She hacks out confidently alone or in company.
She is good to catch, travel, and for the dentist and farrier. In fact she is the first at the gate when coming in and follows me around the field like a dog when poo picking.

My children have hopelessly outgrown Rhea and she has now been out of work for some time therefore the asking price is reflective of this. She is much happier when in regular work and gets grumpy when she sees the other ponies 'chosen' to be ridden.
To be totally upfront, Rhea is not a pony for a beginner or someone who wants a pony to pamper and groom for hours. She can be nippy in the stable and needs a confident handler who can set clear boundaries.
Rhea does have EMS which is managed fine with diet, so she needs a knowledgeable, commited home that understands EMS care. I'm happy to pass on her feed, routine and vet details. She also gets a little hormonal which we currently manage with Regumate.
Home matters far more to me than price. Rhea needs a knowledgeable, settled home with turnout and consistency of care, not a busy livery yard.
I will need to speak to any prospective buyer to make sure it's a good match.

I should say, I know she has some issues so won't command much money which is what im not sure on price really. I sold another section A a couple of years ago and she was much easier to price as she was straightforward

Treatment costs for EMS are about to go through the roof thanks to there being a new POM-V drug licensed meaning the much cheaper human med alternative won't be able to be prescribed any more. At her age I'd be surprised if you could sell her as that's a lot of future years of care.

I would be speaking to the local pony club to see if they know of anyone looking. I wouldn't be passing her on to anyone who didn't come with references/wasn't known to someone i knew. Ponies like her can do really well in the right home but can easily end up in the wrong hands and then passed from pillar to post.

Yes my plan was to advertise on our pony club local group first as my children are both still members
i just don't know what price to ask really which is my question

She is managed through diet though only. She did have an initial course of Steglatro to bring her sugars down but thankfully has never since needed to be managed with anything other than keeping an eye on her grazing really.

Could you look to loan her instead?

She’s only 8, yet has been out of work for some time, can be grumpy, has EMS and is on (very expensive) regumate. She’s not really a child’s pony but is way too small for a teenager/adult. I can’t see that you’ll have a queue of buyers tbh … in your situation I’d be looking to loan her through your pony club rather than sell

Well I suppose I could but surely the loaners would be the same market as the buyers? It would give us more of an element of control though which may be better.

She's only been out of regular work for a year and in that time we have still kept her exercised so she's not just been stuck in the field all that time.
She's still been out to pony club rallies and out to competitions etc as we've consciously tried to keep her busy, but she's just not been the first choice due to my son growing and moving onto a bigger pony.

Also just to say that although Regumate is expensive, a bottle lasts more than 6 months for a little pony which in the scheme of things isn't really that bad.
Anyway, I'll try my luck through PC as see where that gets me. If loaning I could always offer to pay for the regumate if it puts people off.

Loaners are absolutely a different group of people in many cases. I have known plenty of people who have been looking for loans over the years who for various reasons weren't in a position to buy. And see a LOT of responses to sale ads from people saying 'would you consider a loan?'. So without commenting further on the pony itself or likely value, I wouldn't assume the loan market is the same as the sale market. There are almost always a lot more people looking to loan than there are ponies available for loan.

Agree. I'll be looking for a loan pony for my son, if he continues riding. I'll be looking for a loan, because

1. He may lose interest once he is a bit older
2. Children have a habit of shooting up and outgrowing ponies quickly
3. I just don't have the budget to spend ££££s purchasing a pony, but we live on a farm and run a livery yard, so have plenty of land, free hay/straw, and other ponies for companionship.

Which is it though OP, languishing out of work for a year, or been kept busy and out at PC etc regularly but not first choice for your son? Because it makes a big difference - I think people are replying recommending loans etc based on the former which is what your ad says whereas if she can be viewed ridden and in work, recent evidence of her at PC and shows etc behaving well, I think you're underselling her and can definitely find her a nice home at the £3k ish mark, depending on what exactly her quirks are, which isn't fully clear from your advert, is it just the nippiness and grumpiness on the ground but she's pretty good to ride for a competent child? To put it bluntly if a novice-ish child comes to try her are they going to get decked? Or it just more that they'll need experienced parental input and can't spend hours hugging and grooming her, because personally as a parent I'd be fine with the latter but obviously not the former 😂

I think you could go down the loan or lwtvb path, particularly if she needs quite a lot of work to bring her back to her best, the benefit there is the control you retain and the chance for a family to benefit from the work they put in to bring her back to work and then either have a free pony or buy at a reduced price (as you say home more important than price I'd probably personally sell to a nice family that have built a relationship with her through a loan for only a notional price), and you will have got to know them by this stage and see that they are genuine (if possible I'd loan to a local family in same or neighbouring PC so you can still see her at rallies etc). Or if you've somewhat undersold her and she could behave herself fine for a viewing and is a decent pony for an experienced family I'd advertise yes being honest but also asking for her proper market value. What I wouldn't do is go down the middle and advertise on open market at a bargain basement price, because that just attracts the dreamers, the deluded who think their little darling who has had two lessons a riding school can ride anything and worse still, the scammers and dodgy dealers who'd like nothing more than to buy a pony for £500 with full disclosure of problematic history and quirks, keep it for two weeks and give it a bath and a new name, conveniently forget the medical history and quirks, take a few videos of a brave kid managing a few circles and a picture of someone standing on its back (why always that shot) then sell for £5000 as a perfect bombproof first ridden - these people can seem super plausible and talk a good talk about just wanting a best friend for little Timmy but sadly all they want is to make a quick buck and don't give a damn about where the poor pony ends up and who gets hurt on the way 😢.

I take it you've already asked around at PC, if she's well known would no-one be interested there?