Let’s Talk about Viewings

I signed myself up for them when I took on sales as a job and that’s ok it came with the job description. It seems it’s expected I am available 24/7, public holidays, weekends and late evenings, as these are the prime times to view to fit in with peoples schedules. What shouldn’t be expected from me and seems to be currently the case is not respecting when I genuinely can’t fit you in at no notice; coming for free pony rides when you aren’t actually in a position to buy; disappearing off planet Earth never to be heard from again and absolutely thrashing the horses in the name of getting a feel.

If you have ever watched a professional try a horse you’ll notice the large majority get a quick feel on the flat, jump a handful of fences without breaking any height records and give the horse a nice experience without working them into the ground and leaving them a lathered mess. A viewing is not the time to see how high a horse can jump, push every button you think you can find and leave the horse overwhelmed and feeling a bit pressure cooked from the experience. Remember it’s also their first time meeting you.

A viewing is meant to be is an opportunity to see if you are possibly going to work as a partnership in the future, to see if you like the feel you get from the horse and then it’s up to you to decide if it’s something you would like to continue to develop heading forwards.

If you are going to be viewing a horse any time soon here’s a few tips:

• Be respectful of peoples time, show up when you say you are going to and send a text if you are going to be early, late or not come at all. We have plenty going on in our days without you turning up randomly 45 mins either side of the appointment time.
• Don’t pick the horses to pieces, we are aware of their shortcomings and we really don’t need to hear you list everything that’s short of perfect with them just to justify why you might not want to buy them or with the thought you’ll make us drop the price.
• Make sure you are actually in a position to buy. Please don’t come if you have a horse to sell first or need to sort the finances unless we have had a conversation prior.
• Be fair to the horse. Have a good enough ride you get a feel but you really don’t need to trot 72 circles, canter 50 laps of the arena and jump 200 fences to get an idea.
• Communicate. Fairly self explanatory but surprisingly not well done. We don’t care if you don’t want the horse but have the decency to flick us a quick message and say thanks but no thanks. I’d be lucky to hear back from 40% of the viewings that come through here. Usually the ones that are trickiest to work in with are the ones you never hear from again afterwards and people wonder why I’m starting to get fussy with my time!
• Be realistic about your abilities and what you are looking for. Don’t show up to try a green 6yr old and then pull it to pieces when it goes like a green one. If you are a nervous nellie don’t come and look at a quirky one, if you want a world beater don’t turn up with a 5k budget.

This is a topic I could go on about for days but I think that’s enough of a ramble to get started!