Buyer beware - is a warning known to all on the market for a house or a car or a horse. Even so, thousands set off for the town of Ballinasloe, Co Galway, at the weekend to experience the famous October Fair and perhaps begin the search for the promised horse or a pony.
Billed as Europe's oldest horse fair, the Ballinasloe event offers a range of side shows and stalls. A tall Ferris wheel loomed over the proceedings as well as the traditional outdoor smell - burgers and chips.
Long before the burgers though was the traffic jam. Having parked some three miles shy of the fair green, the first horse we saw was a handsome bay gelding being led down the road by his new owner.
"I always buy Irish horses," said Wayne Milder from Doncaster, in Yorkshire, "he's five year old and just backed, he's for the show ring. I paid more than I wanted to, but he's a good 'un." The horse, with the matinee looks and breeding to match, was aware he was special. Motorists trapped in traffic had plenty of time to admire him. Closer to town, a coloured mare and her foal walked along, the man with them was confident.
"They'll both be sold by evening. I'm not bringing them home."
Less jolly was the small family group. Dad was walking a small grey pony. His daughter did not look as triumphant as one might expect a new owner.
The other three children looked equally subdued. "We haven't bought him, we've sold him. He didn't work out."
An ambulance flashed by. Earlier, a man had been kicked in the chest. It is not that easy to get kicked by a horse at Ballinasloe. Space is so limited, few horses bother kicking out.
A garda walked Felix, a year-old German shepherd. His career as a police dog is just beginning. Aside from every shape, size and colour of horse and pony, the Ballinasloe Horse Fair offers a wide range of police presence.
Anyone can offer a horse to sell at Ballinasloe. There is no entry fee, no auctioneer. You sell on your own - more importantly, you buy on your own.
There is no vet on standby. No space to assess the horse's movement. A young girl battled to steady her fine dark bay gelding. He was nervous, unsettled. And not being helped by the fireworks. She had to sell her horse because, "I have too many".
She was fairly nervous herself and trying to gather her thoughts, still embarrassed after three men on asking the price decided "that's way too much, and he's no use anyhow". Welcome to the world of horse trading.
The vendors make great claims for the horses, the intending buyers attempt to diminish the price by criticising the horse. Ask the question, "what has he or she done" and 95 per cent of the vendors will reply "hunted".
One man said of his gelding: "He's grand, he makes a little noise in his throat when he's running. But it's nothing." Nothing, but no vet would pass that horse as sound.
The legendary Galway horseman Willie Leahy - owner of Dark-field, Ireland's only horse museum and equestrian centre - has been running treks through Connemara for close on 40 years. He owns about 400 horses, including sport horses, Irish Draughts and Connemara ponies. He has been buying and selling horses all his life.
"Some years I might buy 12 or 15 horses, some years I see nothing." Yesterday he purchased three geldings and a mare.
The darker side of Ballinasloe is the men and boys who ride terrified, sweating horses bare back all day long on a narrow strip of hard ground. This spectacle was disgusting.
Even more offensive was the sight of young horses, including a yearling, harnessed to sulkies, while grown men sat on the seat of these little carriages and lashed the ponies to the screaming jeers of the male onlookers.
All attempts by me to stop this were met with foul language and repeated lashes and pokes from their whips. What a beginning to World Animal Week.