Watch Out For The "Wanted: Free Horse" Ads

I don't know what is going on but right now, it seems I'm seeing a lot of the free horse ads. This is where someone says they don't have the money to buy a horse but does have the money to take care of it.

Um, no. I feel like, with rare exception, that if you don't have the money to buy a horse and invest money in him/her, then what is your standard of taking care of him?

I don't have a problem is someone wants to make payments, I've sold plenty of horses on payments but it's the free horse ads that bother me.

Warning!! My former-horse buyer/seller spidey whiskers quiver when I read of these ads. Go back and reread some of my first posts about this. You never know who it is who shows up in your driveway with a horse trailer for a free or really, really cheap horse. More times than you know, that person is a front for a kill buyer or a kill buyer himself and they can talk you sweeter than honeysuckle to get your horse. Or they may run your cheap horse (meaning you are asking some money, but not much) down to get him even cheaper. Usually they start out offering half of what you've stated you wanted. That's a big clue.

So, the upshot is to not respond to these ads if you have a free horse. If you want to give him away, then post that and hopefully you won't be snowed by someone (ask questions and do some due diligence to the best of your ability at least) who takes him but it's almost a sure bet that the free horse ads are a one-way ticket to the slaughterhouse.

Be very careful with these ads and it's best to ignore them.