[SIZE=12pt]A family I met though a craigslist ad for furniture has been e-mailing about a horse for their 13 year old daughter. They have HAD horses before, but don't now. Their daughter (she and they both say) just wants a horse, she doesn't care what it is, as long as it's a horse. That struck me as a bit odd.. but then they change and say they want a mare, a sorrell or palomino, exceptional temperament, able to be shown...do you see where this is going...and they don't want to spend much money. [/SIZE]
Okey dokey, I send them information on a few mares that would be PERFECT for them, in price ranges of inexpensive to expensive and tell them to just tell me if they like the HORSE, then I'll give them the best possible price I can and we can see if they like it.
After many e-mails, which mainly consisted of "well, do you have what we want?", I finally just sent the the whole sales list and said "tell me what YOU like". They did and big suprise, it was the original mares I sent info about...but they are FAR too expensive and again "Do you have what we want?" Heck if I know WHAT you want....arrrgh.
So, I drop the whole thing and then out of the blue they call yesterday about 10 AM and want to come out the same day. They asked when would be best and I said late afternoon or early evening, so it would be cooler. They want to come at noon...ummm, OK. So, they finally show up at 1 pm. By this time Zac and I both are hot and he's miserable from missing his nap that he would have had time for if I'd known they would be so late.
The daughter repeatedly states she doesn't CARE which horse and won't even pet them...that's just weird, sorry. The brother shows way more interest in the horses we are looking at. I finally get them narrowed down to a pinto GELDING (while Zac is crying and asking to go inside and night-night-poor baby), at $550.00 (roughly a 1/3 of his asking price) and then offer them another super sweet gelding for a "foster horse" since I don't want a young horse going to live by himself. I also pointed out he would be GREAT for the very interested younger brother and that horses NEED a buddy to do horse stuff with so that behave for their people. They want to think about it.
They call last night and offer $400.00 for the gelding (National Show Quality by the way) I've already given them a GREAT price on and tell me they don't want to deal with caring for two horses, so the companion horse is out. To add to this they want a 30 day trial for the horse to see
"if behaves OK away from other horses". What the heck? Of course he's not going to be OK, horses are HERD animals. I was polite, but was already thinking "I KNEW these people were nuts, why didn't I just listen to my instincts?"
So I e-mailed and very nicely declined their offer and now they are calling and e-mailing saying "why won't you sell that horse to us"? I told them I didn't think he was suited to being an only horse and wished them the best of luck finding the right horse for their family. I did find out later last night that they have been making the rounds of local mini farms and have not been able to find "what they want" anywhere...not a big suprise OH!
Okey dokey, I send them information on a few mares that would be PERFECT for them, in price ranges of inexpensive to expensive and tell them to just tell me if they like the HORSE, then I'll give them the best possible price I can and we can see if they like it.
After many e-mails, which mainly consisted of "well, do you have what we want?", I finally just sent the the whole sales list and said "tell me what YOU like". They did and big suprise, it was the original mares I sent info about...but they are FAR too expensive and again "Do you have what we want?" Heck if I know WHAT you want....arrrgh.
So, I drop the whole thing and then out of the blue they call yesterday about 10 AM and want to come out the same day. They asked when would be best and I said late afternoon or early evening, so it would be cooler. They want to come at noon...ummm, OK. So, they finally show up at 1 pm. By this time Zac and I both are hot and he's miserable from missing his nap that he would have had time for if I'd known they would be so late.
The daughter repeatedly states she doesn't CARE which horse and won't even pet them...that's just weird, sorry. The brother shows way more interest in the horses we are looking at. I finally get them narrowed down to a pinto GELDING (while Zac is crying and asking to go inside and night-night-poor baby), at $550.00 (roughly a 1/3 of his asking price) and then offer them another super sweet gelding for a "foster horse" since I don't want a young horse going to live by himself. I also pointed out he would be GREAT for the very interested younger brother and that horses NEED a buddy to do horse stuff with so that behave for their people. They want to think about it.
They call last night and offer $400.00 for the gelding (National Show Quality by the way) I've already given them a GREAT price on and tell me they don't want to deal with caring for two horses, so the companion horse is out. To add to this they want a 30 day trial for the horse to see
"if behaves OK away from other horses". What the heck? Of course he's not going to be OK, horses are HERD animals. I was polite, but was already thinking "I KNEW these people were nuts, why didn't I just listen to my instincts?"
So I e-mailed and very nicely declined their offer and now they are calling and e-mailing saying "why won't you sell that horse to us"? I told them I didn't think he was suited to being an only horse and wished them the best of luck finding the right horse for their family. I did find out later last night that they have been making the rounds of local mini farms and have not been able to find "what they want" anywhere...not a big suprise OH!