With Stefanie Mazer
Honesty, education, and a good working relationship with trainers and professionals you can trust are keys for the best pony shopping and selling experience.
- TRUST YOUR TEAM
Both buying and selling, you need to educate yourself as best you can about the process and find a trainer or agent that you trust. A good trainer or agent will continue to educate a client throughout the process and puts the needs of the client and the match ahead of their own interests.
The entire process should be honest and transparent – and you as client need to be educated enough to understand what is going on. When a buyer or seller is uneducated, it perpetuates a culture of non-disclosure because when to uneducated buyer routine commonplaces could end a deal or instill fear in them about a transaction. Once you have selected someone to work with, listening and following the advice and experience they bring to the table is paramount.
- BE REALISTIC
Buyers and trainers need to be realistic about what exactly they can and cannot live with in a pony. Sellers need to be completely honest about the pony’s habits, behaviors, and preferences. Even the best ponies are not a good fit for every program. Be realistic about what your program does and does not have to offer and if this would be a good fit for the pony.
- WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO BUY AND SELL ALL THE TIME
There are people in the industry that keep getting repeat business after repeat business after repeat business. There is a reason for that- they only represent animals that they fully believe in and stand behind and people know them for that and respect that. Buy and sell with experience buyers and sellers- they have connections, can give you the most options, and are well practiced in bringing a telephone call to fruition of a pony sold or bought. People are trusted in volume and duration for a reason.
- THERE IS MORE THAN A RECORD
Ponies don’t get sold sitting in a barn. They get sold by being seen at horse show and with people talking about them and showing them. But, simply checking a pony’s USEF record often does not tell a potential buyer very much. Sometimes the best ponies are tasked with the hardest job- very inexperienced children – and while they are always safe and saintly, they might not be winning for their valued efforts. Working off the word of people you trust who see the pony show a lot is often a much better indicator of how suitable a pony will be for your purposes.
- IT’S NOT ABOUT GETTING A DEAL
As far as pricing goes, don’t go out looking for the deal. This is not about making money or saving money. It is about finding the right match and spending within your range. Figure out your price range and choose an appropriate and safe pony that your child can learn on. Leave your wanting to get a deal mentality to other aspects of your life. Both buyers and sellers are best served by finding the best match that would be the most successful.
- THERE IS INHERENT RISK
No matter what the intentions, these are transactions with inherent risk. Even if you have the best trainer, the most honest seller, and everyone is acting correctly in every situation, these are animals that are being bought and sold and there is inherent risk. It is always a gamble to purchase and show an animal and everyone needs to be educated about the possibility of what can go wrong with any pony prior to purchase. There should be no hard feelings if everyone is being honest and the gamble goes south.
Stefanie Mazer is the trainer at Forget Me Not Farm in Wellington, Florida. She supervises the selling and purchasing of several dozen quality ponies every year. If you are interested in contacting her about WEF Sale Pony opportunities and pricing, email Stefanie@forgetmenotfarmfl.com or telephone 561-346-4228.
