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

Demon Pony (not her real name, requested MNHQ to remove real name): Scopey Grey Welsh Section A Mare
Demon Pony 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.
Demon Pony 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 Demon Pony 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, Demon Pony 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.
Demon Pony 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. Demon Pony 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?

It’s great that you want to find a good home for her and that you are being upfront about her issues. However, if I saw “quirky” or “opinionated” in an ad I would just go on to the next ad. I think it would be more helpful to be more specific with more direct statements ie she can be nippy in the stable plus whatever else is going on eg not forward, strongly forward, won’t stand for mounting block, refuses jumps for a less confident rider etc.

It sounds as if she would make an excellent second pony for a confident child who wants a keen, whizzy pony, but wouldn't be suited to a nervous novice. In your position, I'd loan her through your pony club branch and keep close tabs on her management. We had a similarly whizzy 13:2, but fortunately, she was bought for DC1 of 4 so was passed between siblings. I'm sure PC instructors hearts sank each time she was passed down and her new small rider with legs not quite past the saddle flaps rocked up on her.

Thank you for this very helpful reply.
It's a bit of both really and I probably worded it badly.
My DD got a new horse in September last year which meant my DS was able to move up from dpony and so she hasn't been in as much work since then. She was previous to that being ridden 5 days a week and much fitter but it has been slightly more difficult to keep it up because initially she had a bit of a break over winter naturally and then we just kept her going with hacks, bringing her to the odd pony club rally and lunging. My ds was too tall for her which was why we were making the changes, he was fine on her just last year and has shot up so much, he is now 5'3 and is even starting to look too tall for his 13hh.
In the spring she got very bored and as I say nippy in the stable, she was girthy and a bit generally stroppy- I felt she was behaving badly and there was an issue and we sent her off to the vets to discover what it was.
We had her scoped for ulcers and also had a mare scan. It showed one of her ovaries was enlarged so hence the regumate was started and that made a huge difference.

Ive got videos of her jumping clear round an UA showjumping competition in June this year, I've got videos and photos of her at pony club rallies this/ last year, she's just a bit overweight and a bit bored really so she's definitely not as fit as she could be. I suppose i'm comparing her to DD's horse who is worked 6 days a week and is event fit.
I need someone who can see the potential in her but also want to be upfront because she is definitely not a first ridden even when she's in work, but she's about a million times better. And she's fine under saddle for a competent child so she would suit a competitive kid who would give her a chance and work on her over winter, but I also don't trust her on the ground not to try and take advantage initially so she needs an experienced parent to oversee the whole thing.
I would actually not have a novice child to come and view her because I don't think that would be the right fit. But I really don't think she'd deck them- she's never purposely decked my kids- my son has literally never fallen off her and I think my dd maybe came off once or twice but she falls over her own feet anyway! She's actually pretty polite once she's under saddle, she tries really hard. But still not a novice ride.

I still think loaning would be your best bet - you’d be asking any potential new owner to take on a pony that’s not straightforward, needs bringing back into proper work, and will not be insurable for more than one long term condition. To make that an attractive proposition for a buyer you’d need to drop the price to a level where you’d be attracting dodgy dealers. Whenever I see the phrase ‘home more important than price’ I usually think in that case why are you selling…. With a loan you’d have much more control over her future, and once the loaners have got to know her they may well offer to buy her anyway.

The EMS is a huge red flag. Although it's under control with diet it's going to have implications for insurance as anything related to EMS will be excluded - which could include laminitis (depending on policy)

If you sell then there's a risk that pony will be passed on quickly & history covered up.

Loan through pony club or local where you can keep an eye on them is the best option.

It's sad to see small children's ponies passed from home to home like that. After listing all the things that pony has done for your child do you not feel that you have some responsibility for them? Rather than selling for as much as you can get?

Look, I think a couple of the comments here have been a bit unfair- I've said I am happy to loan and I am- I was asking for advice on pricing for precisely that reason because I am aware that her issues mean I can't ask for much, but that if I price her low I am inviting unscrupulous dealers. But ours is a small pony club (maybe 4-6 kids under 10) so it's not a massive pool of loaners or buyers put together. Although obviously everyone knows other people and I do know other horsey people, but it might have to get opened out.

Loan with a view to buy might well be the way to go- honestly if I loan her and she suits the loaner I am willing to give her to them for free if they want her- because my youngest is much too tall for her and honestly she's a pain in the arse because she doesn't like being a field ornament. She's not being passed from home to home, we've had her for four years, I wouldn't mind having her as a retirement pony if she liked being bored but it's not good for her with her EMS for a start, she's better having lots of exercise, and she's a clever pony who thrives on work and is definitely much happier when she is being ridden regularly.
So it's not really about devolving responsibility but more about finding the right family for her. Where have I said I am going to palm her off for as much as I can get?