HRF Thoughts
Roger's Clinics
by K.C. Parkins-Kyle on 03/16/24
In the Beginning
by K.C. Parkins-Kyle on 03/16/24People always ask me if I always loved horses. I've always loved animals! I came across this little story I wrote and thought it might be worth sharing. Hope it registers to the other horse lovers out there.
Understanding Commissions on Buying or Selling your Horse.
by K.C. Parkins-Kyle on 05/19/12
WHY PAY A COMMISSION?
Often times, when people want to buy or sell a horse they
want their professional’s assistance.
When they discover that the professional may want 10%-15% commission,
they re-think the process. Why spend
more money to buy a horse, or lose money when selling the horse? Let’s start with buying.
Why pay a commission when buying a horse? You know what you want, right? Well, you may
think you know what you want, but you
may not know what you are getting. The professional will make calls on your
behalf, describe your abilities or your weaknesses and field out the horses
that seem unsuitable. Or at least that
is the goal. All sellers have the goal of ‘selling’ the horse and presenting it
in a positive light. Some sellers are
more honest than others, and some are just delusional. The professional has a
network of checking on sellers that will assist them in determining the
reliability of the seller. Private
owner’s selling their horses think that their horse is nearly perfect. They won’t see the little limp that the
professional will feel. Those small
contracted heels have always been there and they don’t see that as a
problem. Or the ring of swelling around
the coronet band; “What swelling?” they would say. These, among many other things are what the
professional will notice. It may not be
a ‘deal breaker’, but it will be something to mention to the vet if the purchase
gets that far.
Also, the professional can see into the future a bit better
than most. They know that just because
the horse was a World Champion XYZ in the show ring, does not mean it will be
an enjoyable ride for you on the trail.
As a matter of fact, quite the opposite is often true. Just because the Sire was a Grand Prix XYZ
does not mean that his offspring will be.
The professional knows that a lot of things go into making a Grand Prix
horse of any kind; and breeding is only one of the factors. Fabulously famous horses are often the most
difficult to ride. Is that suitable for
the Adult Amateur who is learning to do canter/trot transitions?
The professional’s job is to find a horse that is suitable
to the stated expectations of the purchaser. If you say you want a Grand Prix horse, but
you only ride at a Beginning level, we will find a Grand Prix horse. Don’t be surprised if you aren’t riding it
very often. If you say that you want to ride that
Grand Prix horse, we will find you a totally different Grand Prix horse.
So the seller must be clear about what they want and the professional
has to sometimes tell them what that might involve. Unfortunately, price, age, physical
conditions, commitment to training and lessons, expected use, and reality,
often do not mesh. Many professionals
have tried to communicate this to multitudes of buyers and it falls on deaf
ears most of the time. It is important
that the buyer relay honestly, what
their commitment can be. Not what they want their commitment to be, but what
they can actually do. Falling in love
with the horse is easy; living with it is another deal all together! If the professional says that the horse will
need to stay in training – they mean it.
If you don’t want to have a horse that needs to stay in training, then
buy a different horse. If you buy a
well-trained horse, and don’t have the time commitment for several lessons a
week as well as training rides, he won’t remain well-trained for long. If you can only ride a couple of times a
week, say so. Then the professional can
try to find a horse that will be more suited for your lifestyle.
By paying a commission to a trusted professional, you can
save yourself thousands of dollars in heart ache, vet bills, and training
fees. Just because you had a good ride
on the horse on the day that you went to look at it, does not mean it is
suitable for you on a long term basis.
It may not have a talent for the particular discipline that you plan to
work in; it may have a lot of re-training to be done. Often the professional will push a button or
two on the horse to see how it responds to something a little less than
pleasant. This gives us a feel for what
the horse may do in its worst state. Even
professionals don’t always nail that quite right, so it is unreasonable to
assume that a novice can determine what the horse may do in an adverse
situation. When you bring that horse home, anything that’s ugly will show up
again. In his own environment, the horse
will often be a peace.
Also, some things are quite changeable about a horse, and
some things are not so easy to change.
This is what the professional will be really good at. “He’s a
little ugly now, but he will be beautiful”.
The professional can often envision the changes that good feed, work,
vet care and grooming will bring. We’ve
seen it a hundred times over again. Or
they will notice a stiffness that may be easily addressed through better
shoeing or a little veterinarian care.
With the veterinarian’s help, you may have a better horse than the one
you thought you were looking at.
When selling a horse, we often think it’s silly to pay
someone when you can sell it yourself. Some
people are really good at selling horses, and some are not so good; but either
way it can be an emotional rollercoaster.
You want a good home with a ‘nice’ person who will keep your horse
forever. It is impossible to guarantee
these, but a noble pursuit. What does
the professional do in exchange for their commission?
Generally the professionals’ job is to field calls, meet
potential buyers, present the horse, and assist in placing the ads (usually at
owner’s cost), arrange the vet check, and do the price negotiations. It doesn’t sound like much, but taking the
calls alone can be trying. Before they
even look at the horse, potential buyers want to know what their options are
for this horse. “Can we try it for a
week?”, “ Are they negotiable on the price?”.
Plus a hundred other questions, all of which a buyer ought to ask. You spend 30 minutes to an hour on the phone,
trying to be positive and honest, and then you wait to see if they want to
pursue more. People often make
appointments to come see the horse and either fail to show up or are quite
late, or quite early. Either way, you
spend 2 or more hours every time you meet a potential buyer. And on occasion the buyer has misrepresented
(usually unintentionally) their skills as a rider, making an unsuitable match
as well.
Often, the professional will concur on the timing of the vet
check with the potential buyer. Almost
every owner thinks their horse is nearly sold at this point, but that is
nowhere near the case! On any given day,
with any given veterinarian, the result can vary greatly. This portion of a sale is often a ‘deal
breaker’, leaving the buyer and purchaser heart broken. Sometimes, it goes smooth as glass, and now
you have negotiations. It is not
uncommon to have some negotiations prior to the vet check. If anything comes up in the vet check, but
it’s not bad enough to kill the sale, there will likely be more negotiating.
Negotiating is a task that some find enjoyable. But when we are talking about our horses, it
often feels personal. The professional
will be less likely to be insulted by this process. When a buyer says, “well I talked to my
friend, and they said he is only worth X”, it can be insulting. This is your horse, not your car. In the world of negotiating, it is all the
same. It is difficult not to take it
personally, even for the professional selling your horse, but they can tune it
out a little better than the owner can.
Many sales have fallen through because of hurt feelings and angry
purchasers or buyers. The professional
can, ‘play the game’, on both ends. By
discussing the consequences of not coming down on price with the owner, i.e.:
another month of board, another month of training fees, may not be worth the
$500 you are currently dickering over. And
discussing with the purchaser why the horse is priced as it is and why the
owner cannot come down that much on the price.
Often times, half of the negotiations occur before the professional even
involves the owner to help ease the stress on the seller.
More often than not, commissions charged are 10%-15%, but
there are other variations out there. In
the long run, I believe that the $500 - $2500 (+ or -) you pay in commissions
is usually earned by the professional representing you or your horse. Often the more expensive the horse, the more
complicated the sale is and the smaller the buying pool. The less expensive horse gets more people
looking, but often a lot of ‘tire kickers’.
In the whole scope of things, finding the right horse, or finding the right
home for your horse will be well worth the dollars you will spend on the
commission to a professional. It is a
“Buyer Beware” market in the horse industry; and honestly, not much better than
the Used Car Salesman, in reputation. The consequences of not having
professional help are generally way more expensive than the commission would
have been.
What Roger's Clinic are About
by K.C. Parkins-Kyle on 05/05/12
So what makes these clinics different?
Well, to begin with many folks seem to be looking for ‘de-spooking’ and/or
‘de-sensitizing’ clinics. Unfortunately these terms seem to be still pretty
popular and not what a horse needs. ‘Bombproofing’ is another way lots of
people refer to what they think their horse would prosper from.
As with all things horse, opinion is what
most of us have to offer. In my opinion, to say that somebody can either
‘de-spook’ or ‘bombproof’ a horse is simply not possible - not without breaking
some portion of a horse’s spirit. It may be a little or a lot depending on the
individual horse. Now, that doesn’t mean that a well ridden and well taught
horse can’t become nearly ‘bombproof’, or perhaps better thought of as being unflappable.
But that unflappable quality in a horse isn’t just developed in the course of a
one, two, or even a few days of a clinic. In order to come close to truly
‘de-spooking’ or ‘de-sensitizing’ then you’ll end up using almost merciless
repetition and/or flooding techniques. What you end up with is likely to be a
horse that will put up with a lot until it doesn’t. At that point the horse’s
reaction to some eventual stimulus, environment or event will be way over the
top and based on nothing but pure instinct. That’s because we’ve done nothing
to build in to that horse a reason to trust our control over their feet and, to
the horse, its life!
That’s got to be the deal we
offer our horses. If they’ll be willing to listen to us and follow our lead
then we must be consistently trustworthy and caring and concerned
with our horse’s needs. These needs, ultimately, deal in one way or another
with the animals’ sense of self-preservation.
So, what these clinics are all about is setting up situations that bother a horse’s sense of self-preservation. Just enough to allow the handler/rider to provide quality leadership that allows the horse to learn just how trustworthy that human is when it comes to always helping the horse ’survive’ the pressures and stimuli that the environment offers. When you think about it, horses really aren’t unpredictable - the environment is.
Lastly, if a horse encounters anything that causes concern, that horse knows what it can and/or may do to survive. It has itself to rely on. Once a human enters the picture in some controlling fashion (of course this control may or may not exist) the horse has
to consider if the human will be a negative, benign or positive influence on
chances of survival. It’s at this point when I’d sure rather have the horse
trust my influence because of a well-developed partnership rather than hoping
the horse was repetitively sacked out and hazed sufficiently to have dumbed the
horse down to not react instinctively to perceived danger.